Pros & Cons
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- International roaming.
- Will have faster upload speeds in future.
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- Very limited coverage.
- Slower than other high-speed networks.
Cingular's new high-speed data network, HSDPA has great potential for international travelers and content producers. But it's not living up to that promise yet. We found it had slower speeds and less coverage than the competing networks from
HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) is the next evolution of
For now, you connect to HSDPA using one of two laptop PC Cards, in one of 16 metro areas Cingular has hooked up. (See our
Cingular matches Sprint's and Verizon's prices, with a $79.99 a month unlimited-data plan that drops to $59.99 a month if it's paired with an existing voice plan that costs at least $39.99 a month.
HSDPA has three theoretical advantages over Sprint's and Verizon's competing EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) technology. It's GSM compatible, so HSDPA devices should be able to roam to Europe and the rest of the world. Right now, Cingular's HSDPA cards drop to the slower
The network also supports simultaneous voice and data transfers, which Cingular will be using in a mobile-webcam application. With EV-DO, you can't talk and surf at the same time. HSDPA can also potentially handle upload speeds of 384 Kbps, more than double the 153 Kbps of EV-DO. That should thrill content producers.
Phones that use the HSDPA and UMTS networks will start showing up in February, with downloadable music, video, and the mobile webcam service, though not with the two-way video chat seen on foreign UMTS networks. Because HSDPA chipsets haven't been available for long, some phones will support only UMTS speeds, which are typically in the 200-to-300-Kbps range. Early phones will include the Samsung zx10, Samsung zx20, LG CU320, and Nokia 6282.—
How Does HSDPA Measure Up?
Our HSDPA test results were disappointing. We tested Cingular's network over three days in December and January in Baltimore, Washington, and Boston. We test download speeds by using two "bandwidth tester" Web sites and downloading three files from an SDSL connection here in our labs; we test upload speeds by uploading a 1MB file to our labs.
On our 16 successful test runs, we got average downlink speeds of 584 Kbps, with an average latency of 321 milliseconds in hitting a basket of four Web sites. In our various tests of EV-DO networks, we've seen average speeds from 608 Kbps all the way up to 821 Kbps, with average latency in the 230-to-275-ms range. We've also seen many individual EV-DO file transfers come down at well over a megabit per second; our HSDPA transfers peaked at 955 Kbps.
Uplink speeds were also lower than expected, because right now Cingular has them capped at 128 Kbps. We got an average of 125 Kbps. That's similar to EV-DO upload speeds. Cingular told us they'll lift the cap later this year to boost speeds.
Also—this is a minor thing—you can't wear headphones connected to a laptop with an active HSDPA (or EDGE) connection, because the connection creates a buzzing sound in the headphones. That isn't the case with EV-DO.
After further analysis, we decided that Cingular's main problem is coverage, not technology. We got an average signal strength of -88 dBm; a strong signal should ideally be in the -60s, and most phones and cards lose signal between -106 and -110 dBm. Even worse, several of our test locations showed UMTS or EDGE speeds rather than the faster HSDPA system. (We marked those tests as unsuccessful and did not factor in those results.) As signal strength directly affects transfer speed, we expect Cingular's network to appear faster once it puts up more towers and improves its coverage.
Overly optimistic marketing doesn't help Cingular's position. New networks are always spotty in their first few months. But Cingular's coverage map shows a perfect blanket of signal covering the entire Baltimore-Washington area, with no holes. They should take a lesson from
For now, both Sprint and Verizon have the upper hand when it comes to high-speed data. But as the difference between our
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Final Thoughts
Cingular BroadbandConnect (HSDPA)
Not yet a competitor for EV-DO, this network may provide an excellent high-speed alternative by the end of 2006.