Brits not turned on by mobile internet Less than one quarter of people with web-capable handsets actually make use of mobile internet services, it has been claimed. A survey, carried out on behalf of website Moneysupermarket, found that cost and functionality are the main barriers to usage. Around 70 per cent of the 2179 people questioned admitted they have no idea …
The mobile web has been available on most handsets for years now. It's still rubbish on them. 3/4 of people don't have nice fancy phones with big screens that make browsing the web make sense. That'll probably be why... along with the fact that latency over the mobile networks is painful!
On my side of the pond, I only bother with phone-y internet when it comes via wi-fi, which oddly offers better coverage than the 3"P"G+ providers. I'd only consider using "cell-web" if it had the speed and were priced like the commodity it is. Then again, it has only been a few months since the networks started paying lip service to unlocked kit. I pity them really, they try so hard to hold on to failed and dead business models. Heck, they're still coming to grips with touch tone. Reminds me of our "Big 3" automakers really.
If you'll excuse me, I have to go now and cry someone a river.
with surfing on a slow, expensive system that severely restricts the available web pages? (Well it does on V*dafone anyway)
I had so many problems getting webmail on my provider's network, that I just gave up. Added to the expense, that's going to get MORE expensive when the EU force mobile operators to lower charges on roaming, it's only justifiable when someone else (your emloyer/company) pays for it.
I can't do this, I can't do that, it's slower than a 56k modem and it's costing a fortune - what's the point?
...But I rarely do it over the mobile network route, the cost is too much of an unknown, plus I resent their knobbling of my N95 to disable VOIP using the wifi connection.
So I did what any self respecting techie would do, un-knobbled the phone, and now enjoy skype conversations via WiFi.
It's fantastic when away from home for keeping up with emails, sending holiday snaps, and generally getting my net fix, but all via open wifi points. If I am ever lacking wireless and need to use the internet the "no images" option of opera stops my wallet from shaking too badly. Oddly enough I manage to control such urges when roamed abroad!
For at least 2 and a bit years. The house I live in is grade 1 listed I'm not allowed a tv aerial let alone a fat pipe. So without my mobe and my dongle I'd be without the interwebs. I pay a fiver for the phone and £12.50 for the dongle. Yeah it ain't the fastest but it's all done through air waves and shit rather than wiv wires so it'll do me. Makes taking the kids to school quieter as I can stick a cartoon or film on from youtube or sommat.
I've been using my TyTNII as my *only* web access for the last 12 months now. Maybe once a week I'll use my laptop (which is now effectively my wife's) for checking a couple of sites which are too JS-intensive or just not PDA-friendly. But I have my email on my phone, use Google Reader to aggregate my news feeds, and catch up on other news sites such BBC, CNN, etc. I also use Google maps and Telmap for satnav, and even RDP from my phone back to my home server to kick off downloads, etc.
Voda used to be a PITA (their content filtering was constantly failing and blocking sites) but it seems stable now, and other than for video/audio, their £7.50/month 'unlimited' data package has proven more than enough. Plus I get a big fat H for 95% of the time, so speed is superb.
Couldn't live without it now.
I remember the dreadful silver Surfer ads which spoiled a lot of peoples expectations back in 2001. If they'd sold it as 'teletext on your phone' then we may not have been quite so disappointed. I read about the 11th September attacks on my Panasonic gd-93 when on holiday in Greece, waiting for the ferry in Kefalonika.
My Sony-Ericsson W880 serves me well as a 3G 'modem' on my laptop when out-and-about as does my htc-wizard/O2 XDA. I do pay the 7GBP O2 inclusive tariff and seem to be on facebook mobile daily - ho hum ;^)
and until those fall inline with home broadband prices, I don't see mobile Internet usage really taking off in a big way. Besides, the average cell phone's screen size of 2.2" just makes it too damned uncomfortable for all but the occasional browse. One needs at least a 3" screen before it's comfortable really.
Paris, because she's as about as mobile as it gets.
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