Upwardly Mobile: What I learnt in Barcelona

While working at this year's 3GSM tradeshow, Jo Best got a lesson in what every business traveller knows - getting online via wi-fi or 3G leaves much to be desired. So what's the answer?

When the mobile industry gets together, it does it in Barcelona at the annual 3GSM shindig.

Like everyone with an interest in mobile, I was out there last week to hear what the next big thing would be from the assorted great minds gathered there. But this year, 3GSM provided a practical lesson on mobility.

Around 55,000 people went to 3GSM, apparently. And most of them were trying to get on the wi-fi network - causing wireless access to go up and down like a kangaroo on a hot plate.

Or so other delegates told me. I bypassed the frustration of itinerant internet access by opting to use my HSDPA datacard. It might have been a bit slow at times but it was always there and always working. At times, I loved it more than a nice cup of tea. And that's a lot of love.

For all the vendors' talk of being 'total communications providers' and offering 'mobile broadband', I'd always considered it cobblers til now. 'Trust us', they said, 'it's mobile broadband and not 3G we're selling - and you'll soon be using it instead of those old school networks for all your internet needs'.

One week in Barcelona on a nice sturdy HSDPA network almost had me believing that one day I'll use cellular networks where I once used the traditional fixed kind for data transmissions.

Almost.

What's holding me back? In a word: price. The datacard in question is not mine. It belongs to Vodafone and I'm just trying it out on loan. If it was mine, or my employer's, then I suspect I would be struggling with unreliable wi-fi along with everyone else: roaming is, after all, seriously expensive for voice and unimaginably so for data.

The price of using a datacard in the UK is similarly prohibitive. Until that little nugget gets sorted out, I suspect those wannabe 'total comms' types will remain run-of-the mill mobile types.

While using hotel wi-fi might be a pain in the proverbial you-know-what, imagine if roaming on 3G was your default - try explaining that one to accounts when you file your expenses. Mobile broadband in these circumstances just isn't going to work. (Incidentally, you can support our 'Fair Wi-fi' campaign - calling for more reasonable pricing for net access in hotels - here.)

And what if the world were WiMax? While the long range wireless broadband tech has got more than its fair share of detractors, last week Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin warned that WiMax posed a threat to the mobile industry - so it must be doing something right.

The business traveller's dream is a technology with the ubiquity of cellular and the soul of wi-fi. Whether that dream will be realised is anyone's guess but even if all the advent of WiMax networks does is push mobile operators to sharpen up their broadband-style offerings, we're all laughing.