In my opinion, the mobile Internet operators are not doing enough in educating consumers when it comes to mobile broadband.
Let me clarify.
There has been a lots of perception that 3G broadband can be compared to your Streamyx at home. Well that is totally wrong. First of all, the 3G technology was never built to replace fixed broadband service. It was built to allow faster Internet speed with light surfing on your mobile phone. Fixed line services such as Stremayx was built to handle heavy traffic such as video, heavy downloads and more.
To make their 3G investment more profitable, the 3G operators has extended the 3G Internet access for use on computers.
Who should use 3G mobile broadband?
- Those who use WiFi in Starbucks or Coffee Bean
- Those who require Internet access while on the move(not at home or travel frequently)
- Those who use light Internet services such as web browsing, emails, Youtube without HD, social networking, reading online..etc
- Not for heavy downloaders (such as P2P)
- Those who don’t use it for than 6-8 hours a day
- Not for gamers
In my opinion, 3G mobile broadband should be used as a secondary access to your fixed line services such as Streamyx. If you are comparing your 3G mobile broadband service to Streamyx, then you are using it for the wrong reasons since 3G will also need to cater for voice services.
That is why the telcos are limiting the usage of 3G mobile broadband to control the data traffic on the network. This is expected to continue since bandwidth/backhaul/maintenance is expensive on a 3G network.
It is time that the mobile operators put in more effort to educate consumers on this matter rather than thinking of ways to sign up more broadband users and hog up the network.
You can compare Streamyx to a technology like WiMAX since WiMAX is built for Internet.
Are you the right mobile broadband user?
