Posts by Brian Meehan

If you think 5G is overhyped, wait till you meet 5.5G

5G is for the carriers, not you. The increased speed and bandwidth, and reduced latency, is intended to provide enough of a quality and quantity to provide both mobile and fixed service. Carriers have run out of people to sell phones to, so they want to provide home/business access. This means, at least for home access, video.

The reason you may not be seeing those breath-taking speeds is because carriers haven't deployed enough bandwidth. Mostly, even when you get 5G, it's on a very limited spectrum, or even spectrum that is shared with 4G. You may be connecting to 5G, but the download is still 4G. or worse still that limited bandwidth may be shared with 4G through DSS. Until carriers dedicate all/most of their spectrum to 5G, you won't be seeing it. The exception is fixed internet. Vz and T-mob in the states are using that very high frequency bandwidth to provide home access, and are selling quite a bit of it.

5.5 will probably have some features that will be maybe a bit more spectrum efficient, save on battery life, etc, but the average consumer probably won't notice.

In a pure, stand-alone 5G network, 200mhz is not only possible, but everyday. How does this help you? not at all, it helps the carrier stuff more customers on the same bandwidth. More coin in the piggy-bank.

IT advice fuelled by beer is the best IT advice of all, right?

I had something similar happen

I was working support at a beloved-but-no-longer-existing long distance carrier back in the mid '90s, and was sent to Raleigh to sort out an issue with missing alarms in the Network Management Center. All the communications out to the regional networks (running x.25) came into the basement of the building and were cabled up to the third floor. The systems would work OK at night, but connections to the regions would drop once the workday started.

I noticed that the errors on the lines had a pattern to them, and they coincided with the shift changes. Yep, the cabling ran up thru the elevator shafts, which had the motors in the basement. The electrical/magnetic field caused by those motors was inducing so much noise on the line that the communications was impossible.

The local customers, of course, laughed at me. I said OK, that's what the problem is, fix it or don't.

About three months later, one of the local techs got a prize for replacing the cabling with something that was shielded.

Elevating cost-cutting to a whole new level with million-dollar bar bills

more elevator magic

I had a similar experience with elevators.

Back in the day, MCI was trying to expand their business from long-distance into local markets.

The networks, and therefore the network management centers, legally had to be separate, so the local Network management center was set up in the same building, but with a different physical setup than the LD side. Data (alarms, Performance data, etc) was collected from around the country via x.25 circuits, into the basement, and then consolidated and sent upstairs (via unshielded, untwisted pair cables) to the element managers servers and workstations in the local service NOC.

I was sent to North Carolina to find out why the connectivity was lost for long periods of the day. The NOC was totally blind to the network for hours at a time.

I noticed that the problems started at shift change. The elevators were inducing noise on the lines between the basement and the third floor, causing the connectivity to break, and backing up the data at various networks around the country. It would take several hours for the lines to clear,

Both HPs allegedly axed people just for being old, California court told

Re: Wage slaves

I am not sure that's true,,,younger workers are constantly having kids, which is expensive in itself, but those kids get sick, go to the doctor, break bones, etc, i think, on average, a younger workers family of 4 is more expensive than an older worker of one.

Another commentator said it, most HR workers are under 35, they are making the decisions based on,, well, whatever it is, it isn't actually the needs of the company, it is the needs of the HR department.

AT&T to mothball 2G network by 2017

>By comparison, only around 12 per cent of the carrier's monthly subscription customers (as opposed to prepaid customers) still use 2G handsets, making the spectrum AT&T has set aside for that service a growing liability.<

This is a bit of untruth. What you mean to say is that 12% of subscribers use phones that are limited to 2G. But even 3G and 4G phones are 2G capable.

Even 3G or 4G phones still make voice calls over 2G. Phones support multiple bands and multiple technologies. A 4G phone falls back to 3G in areas that have no 4G coverage, and to 2G when there is no 3G.

However, they ALL USE 2G for making voice calls. The carriers have billions invested in the 2G switches and infrastructure, and will HAVE TO USE THAT until 4G and VoLTE becomes ubiquitous. They are not going to remove any 2G equipment for some years, and even then only reduce capacity, not eliminate it. And with AT&T so far behind VzW in the LTE deployment, they will be supporting 2G for some time. Beyond 2017, I should think.

And another correction, T-mobile in the U.S. has committed to deploying LTE, although they haven't started yet.

Techies evac'd as raging wildfire menaces $100m Colorado data centre

Both Verizon and Verizon Wireless had buildings evacuated.

Mobile telcos bleed $13.9bn as IM apps chomp on SMS

Yeah, and another thing...

Being a "pipe" is what the carriers fear most. They have to be able to differentiate between each other. They don't want to lose control of the customer. This is what almost happened to AT&T. They almost became Apple's network.

Sprint is in danger of becoming a "pipe", with all the MVNO's and wholesalers on their network.

If carriers move to the "Pipe" model, then there will be less investment and a lower level of service. Carriers won't keep up service levels if no one can see the difference.

And another thing, SMS is not "free" to the carriers. There is a large infrastructure involved with the SMS service, and it has to be cared for just like every other service. SMS is almost 'free" from the perspective of frequency use, as it piggybacks on other traffic, but it is not "free" by any means.

Drunken employee pops cap in server

any word on what Operating system?

I presume it must have been some version of windows?

3D car dashboard displayed

3d WHY?

And what exactly is the purpose of having a second 3d view (the first 3d view, of course is the one you get by looking out the f-ing window!)?

What possible functionality does this provide? And at what cost?

PS3 prices slashed by Sony SonyStyle

$150 off

In the U.S., Sonyrewards.com is offering $150 off a PS3 if you sign up for their credit card. That's an 80G model for $249.

Mazda takes RX-8 for a spin on 'hydrogen highway'

Watts or horsies?

I am a little confused by this statement:

Mazda said the RX-8's rotary engine delivers 80kW of power (109bhp) when running on hydrogen, or 154kW (220bhp) when running on petrol.

Why are we talking about electricity here? It runs off the standard engine/trans setup here doesn't it? I mean that the engine doesn't act as a generator to power electric motors, or does it? Why the Watts measurements? please clarify

Artemis Fowl scribe to pen sixth Hitchhiker's novel

froopy

I have been a fan of HHG2TG for years, and my 9-year old is currently burning thru the fowl books.

I am looking forward to turning him on to the Hitch Hikers trilogy's six (or more) books.

Ten of the Best... Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

jabra

I have the jabra 3030. Sound quality is excellent, though it could use a bit more volume (that could be the phone I was listening to the music from, though).

One other great feature that wasn't mentioned in the review. It supports two Bluetooth devices concurrently. Listen to music on one device, and if a call comes in on the other, it interrupts your listening to take the call. Excellent feature.