High speed mobile broadband?
in [UK Mac]
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From: D.M. Procida on 26 Jun 2010 13:50 Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: > >I guess they (and Chile) have skipped the whole wired communications > >step and gone straight to mobile as it's cheaper and easier to ensure > >remote areas are covered. > > Yep, big chunks of the world are like that. See the USA's shite > broadband infrastructure for another example - they got in early, and > it's so outdated now it all needs ripping out and replacing. Timing is everything. France's entry into the Internet age was significantly retarded, because of Minitel. A few years later, I don't think it mkes a difference any more, but for a while it certainly did. Daniele
From: Rowland McDonnell on 26 Jun 2010 17:55 The Older Gentleman <totallydeadmailbox(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > SteveH <italiancar(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > I guess they (and Chile) have skipped the whole wired communications > > step and gone straight to mobile as it's cheaper and easier to ensure > > remote areas are covered. > > That's basically it, yes. Like many countries skipped railways and went > straight to road vehicles. <cough> The British government was persuaded by the railway firms to help them put the long distance steam bus operators out of business back before the railway age really got going. If that hadn't happened, things might have been very different, because you can run a steam bus service on the existing roads - which were already in place (unlike the railways). Good job it happened, in a way, because railways are by far the best way of doing long-distance land transport from the point of view of speed, efficiency, and safety. Those nations which have eschewed railways are going to have to do something about it in the end, I think - flying round Europe (for example) as a normal passenger is painful these days and horribly inefficient from all sorts of points of view, but we'd not need to do it is there were a decent European high speed rail network. Africa needs something like that, and I still hold out hope for a transatlantic rail tunnel carrying supersonic maglev trains[1]. Rowland. [1] Blame Harry Harrison for putting the idea in my head. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: SteveH on 26 Jun 2010 18:03 Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > Basically, yeah. Portugal's /reasonably/ well developed, surely? > Shabby infrastructure in part due to decades of political turmoil but > aside from that? It's not like the cities are lacking decent sewers and > so on. Or is it? Well, it's come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade or so - when we first went out in '99, it was still very primative outside of the main tourist haunts - as in single track roads between major towns. Even today, outside of the main Algarve towns, people still use donkeys, little 2-stroke bikes or those funny French microcars if they're feeling flush.... but they all have 3G 'net access. -- SteveH
From: Mike Lane on 27 Jun 2010 04:15 SteveH wrote on Jun 26, 2010: > The Older Gentleman <totallydeadmailbox(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > >> Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: >> >>> So back to your original question, mobile broadband is pretty good where >>> I am, in the south west England, fast enough to be used as your only >>> service without feeling hard done by. However, is it likely to be full >>> 3G and plenty of capacity there? >> >> Yes. Chile has a very good mobile communications service. > > I always find it odd that many less 'developed' nations have pretty > amazing mobile networks. > > It's very rare I can find anywhere in Portugal without a signal - even > right out in the hills where only a handful of people live, you can get > 3G signals. > > I guess they (and Chile) have skipped the whole wired communications > step and gone straight to mobile as it's cheaper and easier to ensure > remote areas are covered. > Greece is like that too. 20 years ago telephones on the islands were very primitive or non-existant. Now everywhere is covered. -- Mike Lane UK North Yorkshire email: mike_lane at mac dot com
From: Phil Taylor on 27 Jun 2010 04:28
In article <1jkpu4a.10l2cie19awe9jN%real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid>, Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > Africa needs something like that, and I still hold out hope for a > transatlantic rail tunnel carrying supersonic maglev trains[1]. I think you may wait a long time. Would you care to travel in a 6-mile deep tunnel across the interface between two tectonic plates? I think I'd rather row! Phil Taylor |