1900 Dell Jobs Gone

[thebigfella]

Also when mobile companies haven't managed to take advantage of the 3rd generation technology or role out decent coverage yet, I would see them reluctant to spend the huge amount require to offer these faster services.

Huge amounts of telecom operators all over the world have already decided to skip on the 3G standard and are going to move straight to 4G - LTE. That i reckon will bring true global broadband.

The 4G - LTE standards have not even be ratified as far as I'm aware. Could be wrong but I believe the 3GPP Release 8 set of standards (supposed to be the final before ratification) are not due to March.

Also while I don't dispute that some telecoms operators will move straight to 4G - LTE or possibly Wi-Max, there has been a large amount of investment made in HSPA (3G) in the UK and Ireland alone. With the current roadmap for HSPA taking it up too speeds up to 42Mbps, with feasibility studies showing 80Mbps could be possible, its hard to see the business case or ROI for rolling out upgraded infrastructure anytime soon.

I don't think just adopting 4G - LTE will bring true global broadband. That requires the global rollout of the infrastructure required and as we have learned from 3G, mobile operators will not do this if there is no ROI. If HSPA was rolled out globally then we would still have true global broadband (depends on how you define what minimum broadband speed is, but it used to be anything above half a Mbps)? 

[blast05]

The 4G - LTE standards have not even be ratified as far as I'm aware. Could be wrong but I believe the 3GPP Release 8 set of standards (supposed to be the final before ratification) are not due to March.

Yes, soem time later this year alright but i would be fairly certain it will be LTE. The difference with LTE i expect/hope is that operators won't be burdened with huge license costs like 3G - 100 billion sterling in western Europe alone as i recall.

True also re HSDPA - Telstra in Australia have already rolled out 21 Mbps but at the end of the day i as you say, if its HSDPA at 80 or LTE at multiples of that, i don't think it makes such a difference re eventual global mobile broadband and the service and application opportunities that will be there to be exploited.