Wirelessnorth.ca

In today’s news, UK operators T-Mobile and 3 UK have announced that they are going to share their 3G networks. The reason? to combine coverage areas and density as they roll out mobile broadband across the isles. Far ahead of Canada, the mobile broadband market is cooking in the UK.

“The arrival of HSDPA over the last 18 months, together with flat rate data plans has broken the cycle. HSDPA at last provides a user experience close to users’ expectations of broadband, and flat rate pricing gives users more confidence in their bill.”

It gets better, from the tech blog the inquirer:

Consequently, USB 3G modems for 3G are selling like hotcakes. 3 totally ran out of its 3G modem only recently. Plus data traffic over 3G is rising very rapidly. At last.

3′s product page for mobile broadband, shows 1GB plans starting at 10pounts ($20CAD) a month. Complete with a cute USB dongle. Yes they even call it a dongle. You can dress up your dongle as sexy as you like.

Meanwhile, back in the colonies, Rogers and Fido have just recently rolled out HSDPA service in select
geographies. You may recall that Fogers have thought to use this would-be game changing technology to offer innovations as compelling as: video calls to any other Rogers/Fido subscriber on up to 3 compatible handsets, AND streaming “vision” content of any number video files specially pre-selected by the Rogers marketing department. What joy.

When will real, ubiquitous and open mobile broadband come to Canada? When will Canada ever be a world leader in wireless access? Only time, and maybe the stiff boot of a spectrum auction or two to the industry, will tell.

link: Why cellular network sharing makes sense – the inquirer