More Wireless Mobility... This Time In Germany
Seems like there have been a lot of stories the last few days about broadband wireless mobility. The latest, from TheRegister, is that Airdata (a wireless ISP) has installed a base station on a Berlin hotel for their "PortableDSL" using IP Wireless' UMTS TDD technology. Unlike WiFi, the fact that this base station is installed in a Hotel does not mean that the signal is limited to the Hotel -- though, the article doesn't say anything about range. The Stuttgart networks of Airdata has coverage to a maximum radius of 8Km in free air. Airdata's speeds are up to 1024Kbps downstream for a flat-rate price as low as 20 Euros. (Funny that speeds are always "up to" but prices are always "as low as.") TheRegister somewhat confuses the technology issues, by writing "PortableDSL can easily compete with UMTS" when it actually IS UMTS, just the TDD (Time Division Duplex) variant. They are likely intending to compare the data-designed TDD variant against the voice-centric FDD (Frequency Division) variant which is used by Vodafone for data in Germany. Although from the product name "PortableDSL" it seems obvious Airdata plans to compete FDD and with DSL, too.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
