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Published: 11 August 2009 14:30 GMT
I is for Indoors
With the rise of mobile data carried on 3G networks, indoor mobile coverage has become a thorny issue for operators.
A-Z of Wireless
People want to use their phones indoors for data - watching video, browsing the web, and so on - but in-building coverage for data can be patchy.
It's fundamentally a spectrum problem: 3G spectrum tends to occupy high frequency bands which are much worse at penetrating buildings than 2G (GSM) spectrum. (See S is for Spectrum).
Building out mobile networks to ensure high quality 3G coverage indoors would be an expensive business for operators.
However, there are alternatives: common or garden wi-fi has been picking up some of the indoor slack as more smartphones come with an embedded wi-fi radio (see D is for Dual mode). Using wi-fi where available can also be a faster way of consuming data on your mobile and reduces data download costs that can still be extortionate.
Indoor mobile base stations - aka femtocells - are also being looked at by mobile operators as a way of offloading 3G traffic by routing it onto a user's broadband connection - albeit ultimately a DSL line.
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Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.
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