It’s a Friday, so Holden’s going to go off on one about mobile broadband coverage again. Or rather, the lack of it.
I was provided with further fuel earlier in the week in the form of the BBC map of 3G coverage, which had been built up over three weeks in July by nearly 45,000 individuals across the UK who had helpfully downloaded an Android app which had tracked their phone usage over that period: specifically, where they had used it (or tried to use it) and the level of coverage they had achieved. This data – all 1.7 million hours of it – was then translated into a map for the BBC by testing firm Epitiro.
Now, numerous caveats need to be applied to the map – it represents a snapshot of attempted usage at a given time; any failures to achieve connectivity may be the result of problems at the handset, rather than the network, end; there is no distinction between calls made (or attempted) in-building or outside. But the sheer scale of the data collated (and the size of area over which it was collated) means that it provides – at the very least – a useful indicator as to the relative availability (by network) of 3G coverage.
As such, it also reinforces the widely-held perception amongst consumers (and analysts) that there are still significant pockets of urban areas where 3G coverage is poor, while substantial numbers living in rural areas remain underserved in this regard. Oh, and there’s also the small matter of the major transport routes: road and rail networks (especially the latter) appear to receive particularly sparse coverage.
The point that I have been trying to make for several years is that when we subscribe to a mobile broadband service, we are paying a mobility premium: our expectation is that for paying that premium, we receive coverage when we are mobile. Only, as we all know, it doesn’t quite work like that.
We are currently moving towards (or being moved towards) a cloud-based environment wherein all processing and storage occurs remote from the handset, making ubiquitous access all the more imperative: we will need that coverage on the move to work on the vast majority of our documents, be they personal or business.
Likewise, if LTE really is to become a competitor to fixed broadband access, then those providing it need to ensure that those areas currently underserved by fixed broadband – typically, rural areas distant to an exchange – can receive a strong signal. Which, to judge from the BBC’s map, isn’t the case for many of them as regards 3G.
Ubiquitous broadband coverage is as vital for the MNOs as for the consumers: it will provide those end users with greater confidence to subscribe to data packages, whether as an alternative to fixed or simply to gain the convenience of data access on the move. It will provide the building blocks for that cloud-based ecosystem, enabling MNOs to create double-sided revenue streams as they aggregate SaaS services for consumer and enterprise markets alike.
But, unfortunately, it’s still some distance away.
Tags: 3G coverage, 3G network, BBC, Epitiro, mobile broadband
[...] critical part of the equation, as I have observed on previous occasions, is whether the networks will be able to deliver the quality of service required for this model to [...]
The first factor that you want to think about is how you are going to collect info about the business for sale. It isn’t going to make any difference if you are acquiring a solitary organization, the quantities often set the value. In buy to make a secure purchase, it is crucial that you are allowed to accessibility all of the info that you want about your business.. This can be tough when making an attempt to acquire a enterprise for sale by the proprietor. Some will attempt to simply give you the info that you ask for, even so you need to have to be capable to verify it. The only way to do this is by getting direct access to it. If the proprietor won’t allow you see the very same info that they see, it will be impossible for you to get the complete photo of the situation, which leaves you at a terrible drawback.
In a organization, payroll considered as the sum of all fiscal records of wages, salaries, bonuses and deductions for an worker. In the accounting terms, payroll refers to the quantity of payment built to staff for the companies presented by them during a particular time. The payroll services considered as an crucial element of any organisation. Payroll regarded crucial due to payroll and payroll taxes broadly have an effect on the company’s web earnings and they subjected to the regulations and rules. An effective payroll system assist in high morale of workers as they ensured of timely and properly fee of their salaries and wages. It also ensures right deductions and withholdings in a timely way. These providers rendered by a third social gathering this kind of as outsources firms. These companies retain a total set up that support an organisation to deal with payroll complexities. A number of such firms offer several providers like sending checks to perform calculations, as effectively as, managing updates. These solutions regarded as particularly beneficial for little companies. Getting in a little company, 1 want to target on his responsibilities, as well as, company processes like obtaining customers, marketing and advertising, providing services to name a number of between numerous. It gets to be really hard to take out considerable time to make certain that each and every employee will get his spend on time and the appropriate quantity. With the use of outsourced services, a single do not need to have to fear about all these problems. The outsourced services get care of all these issues. Hence, the time saved by a businessman can be used on other pertinent firm issues.