Mobile Network Comparison

EE, the UK’s first network to launch 4G superfast services, has announced that they will soon be able to substantially increase the bandwidth available to their customers. They are set to flip the proverbial switch sometime this summer which will massively increase the potential internet speed. The theoretical throughput is in the region of 130 Mbps but in-field tests will probably be able to produce download speeds around 80 Mbps. This is at least a doubling of the current 4G speeds available to UK consumers.

The roll out will initially only happen in ten major cities in Great Britain. The regions to first get the speed upgrade will be Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.

Compared to typical home broadband speeds, the available bandwidth through 4G is massive. If the connections can prove to be reliable and prices drastically fall, mobile internet may soon be a viable alternative to home wired broadband before fibre optic data connections become more popular.

In fact, the 4G speeds EE are set to unleash will be amongst the fastest available anywhere in Europe. Currently Scandinavia leads the way with typical mobile broadband speeds reaching over 20 Mbps. After the change has been made and the dial spun all the way up, mobile data speeds in the UK are promised to be getting closer to those available in pioneering regions such as South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. Currently some of the fastest mobile data connections can be made us of in Japan where speeds in Tokyo can reach about 75 Mbps. Australia is set to get a 4G network capable of speeds up to 150 Mbps when Vodafone finishes testing its new infrastructure in a couple of months.

However, theoretical speeds don’t necessarily mean anything. The way mobile internet works is that the available bandwidth is often shared between several users. This number is known as a contention ratio and means that the real-world results are frequently less awe-inspiring. In the US, 4G speeds are often found to be about 10x slower than potentially possible.

Even so, the upgrade is certainly welcome. And if we do get speeds approaching 80 Mbps it will surely mean that there will be more and more exciting things we can with our mobiles. This amount of bandwidth would help unleash a new range of stunning apps for use when out and about. For example, it should be easily possible to send and receive ultra-crisp HD video in real time between users. This could provide massive benefits in all sort of applications for example in medicine when used by paramedics.

EE recently acquired a large amount more radio spectrum to use for mobile internet in the much-delayed Ofcom auction. It now owns over a third of all the mobile spectrum in the UK and aims to further increase the speed available to its users later on. In fact, the 4G service could soon be reaching speeds of up to 300 Mbps.

However, the problem with the ability to get such fast mobile connections is the price consumers have to pay. EE have already come under fire for overcharging when their 4G plans were first announced. The network had a practical monopoly and asked for a premium price when it launched its 4G service. Here at Mobile Network Comparison, we’ve also been very critical of the tight data limits EE have imposed on their super fast plans. If you can get the speeds they advertise on your phone, it’s very possible to unknowingly blow through your entire monthly allowance in a matter of minutes. More data on 4G plans ends up costing a lot more money.

Because of these high prices, take up of EE’s 4G service hasn’t been as good as expected. In fact, less than 10% of subscribers have taken on the more expensive plans. We suspect that most consumers will be more looking forward to affordable 4G plans for all before they are desperately keen for more and more speed. This is especially true as HD video calls between mobiles will require both users to be able to get high speed connections. And until unlimited mobile data plans are more commonplace, speed isn’t really the biggest issue. If you have a 3GB limit each month, that still the hard limit that affects you most regardless of whether you can use it up at 300 Mbps or 10 Mbps.

What do you think? Are you desperate to get your hands on a 80 Mbps internet connection in your pocket? What do you think you would use these speeds for? And do you think current 4G pricing is fair to customers?

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LycaMobile, the MVNO, has announced that it will expand its operations to the United States. The company already operates in several European countries as well as in Australia and it is looking to enter new markets to increase its revenues. At the moment, LycaMobile is the largest virtual mobile network in Europe when measured by revenue and brings in over $1 billion a year.

LycaMobile has now only been running for six years but already it is massively popular as a choice of virtual network. In particular, it have been aggressively marketing toward expatriates in the UK by offering cheap international calling packages. It also operates under the more budget GT Mobile brand in many markets in parallel to LycaMobile and recent figures show that it serves over 2 million calls every day. In the UK alone, there are over 5 million subscribers.

Not content with its 20 million customers in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, LycaMobile is due to launch in the US soon. The massive North American market is much less competitive than in Europe and they will be hoping they can quickly gain a large number of customers with slim margins and undercutting current prices. It’s also likely they will use the LycaMobile trademark of partnering with ethnic stores and marketing in public places such as train stations.

The chairman of LycaMobile, Subaskaran Allirajah has said that this move is indicative of the company’s international ambitions. Moving into the US will almost double the number of available customers they can now target. In comparison to existing virtual networks in the US, LycaMobile will pull off a first in that it will be the only operator that completely controls its billing and customer service provision. They will be hoping that this fuller control will allow for a better service to tempt customers over.

The company’s chief executive Milind Kangle is understandably optimistic despite the competition in North America. He said that LycaMobile aims to double its revenues by entering the US market. At first they will concentrate their marketing efforts on highly-concentrated states including California, Texas as well as New York and New Jersey on the east coast. Initially only 18 states will have a service from the MVNO.

The parent network LycaMobile will use has not been officially announced yet although industry rumours point toward T-Mobile. It’s also likely that they will try to strike a deal to be able to provide 4G services to US customers.

The launch in the US is the biggest launch yet in LycaMobile’s history and they are offering two bundles to start with. The cheapest begins at $39 per month and comes with unlimited allowances for calls, texts and data as well as inclusive international calls to fifty countries. If you’re willing to pay $49 instead, you will get free international call allowances to an additional fifteen foreign countries.

What do you make of this move? Do you think that LycaMobile will struggle in the North American market or will it quickly expand? Do their bundles sound like good value for money? And do you think their efforts abroad could hamper their services here in the UK? We want to hear your opinions!

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New mobile technology has been developed that can read your heart rate just by using a smartphone. The experimental software comes from Japanese company Fujitsu who aren’t usually known for image-processing but they are active in many aspect of computer hardware and software.

The new camera technology aims to be able to read a person’s pulse in as little as five seconds. The way it works is deceptively simple. Basically put, all that happens is that the camera is used to measure the darkness of your skin above a major blood vessel. Blood contains lots of haemoglobin as this is used to store oxygen and transport it from the lungs to your organs. The thing about haemoglobin is that it strongly absorbs green light. On areas of thin skin, this absorption can be visible from an external camera. And thus, simply by measuring the absorption spectrum and the brightness readings, a cameraphone can identify minima and maxima which correspond to blood flow and heart beats.

We’re sure the actual algorithm is pretty complex but in essence, all it boils down to is using the camera so measure tiny changes in brightness on your skin and “see” your blood flowing after each heart beat. The camera must be kept extremely still for an accurate reading and it’s not yet clear how reliable the results are. Nevertheless, we’re sure you’ll agree this is a pretty cool proof of concept technology.

The best thing about it is that the underlying algorithms are completely portable. It should be possible to release this software for any phone or indeed any other device with a half-decent camera. Because of this, it could have many applications in medicine. Most obviously, it makes heart rate monitors much more portable and more foolproof. Meaning that patients could potentially monitor themselves without any specialist equipment or training.

It could also turn out to be useful for instances where long-term monitoring of heart rate is required as it’s much easier to measure the pulse without requiring the patient to be constantly hooked up to medical equipment. Maybe this style of visual monitoring could even help identify circulatory issues?

Fujitsu’s R&D department have certainly been very busy because there are some other exciting pieces of technology being announced at the moment. One is a cool-looking augmented reality input device for computers and, our personal favourite, a techy walking stick which includes a GPS for navigation as well as keeping track of and logging your exercise. Fujitsu certainly seems to be interested in the emerging medical and health technology market. We’re definitely eager to get a chance to try this new pulse monitor on our smartphones.

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