[Serious] The Defination Of Broadband

[CodedFire]

Hi Guys,

I had a very rude gentleman in with me today complaining about our mobile broadband service. I sold it to him 3 days earlier. He told me that the service i sold him was not broadband and it was false advertising. How i explianed it was in the following way:

This modem will allow you to acheive speeds of up to 3.6 Meg/ps in your area, this depends on such as weather, the amount of people in his sector and the exact location of his house, IE if he is at the bottom of hill surronded by trees.

I offered to take the modem back under our 14 day no quibble policy, he refused this and told me he would be in touch with his soliciter as he was only getting 90kps.

I hate when people simply don't listen to what you say, i never mentioned the word broadband once as i am unsure what constitutes broadband.

Does anyone know what the technical spec for broadband is?

[penagate]

This modem will allow you to acheive speeds of up to 3.6 kilobytes in your area

3.6 kilobytes... what? Per second? That would be an appalling speed, even for dialup.

[CodedFire]

@pengate

Sorry i ment 3.6 megs, i fixed it.

[penagate]

Well 'broadband' is generally used as a rather vague marketing term to mean 'faster than dialup'. However, the term's technical definition doesn't actually relate to speed; it just means that multiple signals can be carried simultaneously.

Wikipedia has a definition, although I'm unsure how accurate it is.

[CodedFire]

The speed mentioned in this article are no where near what he was reciving. I had read this article and didn't know if it was correct. I have to admit i hate using the word broadband because i cant find anything that says Xkps is the minimum you should get to constitute broadband

[Aaron_Redmond]

I have used the O2 mobile broadband, and it's pretty speedy.

But as you were saying, it depends location and the amount of connections.

He will get nowhere by going to his solicitor, because I assume he signed a contract which states all the limitations

[CodedFire]

Yup, its Vodafone broadband BTW. If ya want a laugh look what happened to 3 on boards.ie, they took on way to many customers and there network is gone to hell in a hand basket.

See O2 and Voda have a standard GSM network as well as a 3G one. So while the majority of O2 and Voda customers use the GSM network for calls on the mobiles, 3 have only a 3G network. This means ALOT more people in each sector at any one time thus killing there broadband

[Aaron_Redmond]

I know that the Vodafone broadband dongle doesn't work on Vista or didn't a few months ago.
I was tryin to get it workin for a friend of mine, and after much googlin I finally found a disclaimer stating that it did not work under Vista.

As for 3G, laughable in every sense

[CodedFire]

It always worked for vista, the problem was the tech guys didn't no how to get it working (have you ever heard the like of it!)

As for 3G, its a brilliant service for what it does, IE mobile internet connectivity. I use one when im out and about. But it is NOT a broadband alternitive.

The reason being is the upload download speed is per sector not per user. A cell has an average of 3-4 sectors. Each sector at 3.6mps can handle about 24 users. thats 24 divided by 3.6meg. so an averge speed per user is alot lower than standerd BB

[Aaron_Redmond]

Ya set me straight there.

Do you deal with mobile phones as well?

[CodedFire]

Yes i work as an agent for vodafone retail

[Aaron_Redmond]

I was just wondering about the pricing structure for the phone's

I have a Nokia 8860 on and I want to upgrade to the N95.
For me to upgrade it will cost €495 (I'm have a Vodafone perfect fit 100 bill pay account).
But as a first time connection it would cost €45.

I find this a bit ridiculous, why the big difference? (obviously for a first time connection this is a brilliant, but as an existing customer I feel I am being ripped off)

[CodedFire]

Its simple you have committed to pay E29 per month therefore the price of the phone refelcts this. Its all about how much you commit to spend as opposed to what you do pay. This is the same for all networks.

Another factor is you are entitled to and upgrade every 12 to 18 months. If you leave it any longer you do not get a futher discount. Thats why i tell people to take them as soon as there availible.

Lastly on the subject of the N95. Vodafone buy it in at full price which from what i can see on the dockets is 649 per unit. This means we are selling it at a lose. The cheapest the phone goes for is 405, thats for customers that are commiting to pay 99 per month.

I would advise against this phone though. They have very slow software and a very bad battery life!

[learning c]

broad means wide or big and band = bandwidth and is a concept relative to the current technology, what was broadband 5 years ago isn't anymore... and what is broad band today won't be considered broadband 5 years from now. of course if you let the marketing ppl at it well thats another story.

[Aaron_Redmond]

Its simple you have committed to pay E29 per month therefore the price of the phone refelcts this. Its all about how much you commit to spend as opposed to what you do pay. This is the same for all networks.

Another factor is you are entitled to and upgrade every 12 to 18 months. If you leave it any longer you do not get a futher discount. Thats why i tell people to take them as soon as there availible.

Lastly on the subject of the N95. Vodafone buy it in at full price which from what i can see on the dockets is 649 per unit. This means we are selling it at a lose. The cheapest the phone goes for is 405, thats for customers that are commiting to pay 99 per month.

I would advise against this phone though. They have very slow software and a very bad battery life!

Thanks for the info, what smartphone would you recommend?

[wossname]

Yes i work as an agent for vodafone retail

Charity work, how admirable.

[soso3]

broad means wide or big and band = bandwidth and is a concept relative to the current technology, what was broadband 5 years ago isn't anymore... and what is broad band today won't be considered broadband 5 years from now. of course if you let the marketing ppl at it well thats another story.

The "broad" of broadband does reference wide or big bandwidth. But it's the frequence ranges, NOT the actual "broad" speed of the technology that give it the name broadband. True, the speed does get faster (broader data path) as the frequence gets larger.

[szlamany]

Broadband as a term was used to distinguish - in the old days - the fact that a dial up wired phone line did not use all of the "bandwidth" to manage a voice call. There is extra unused bandwidth on that wire that was marketed to people as usable as a connection to another location. By hyping the frequency you can separate this signal from the voice signal and use all that unused copper.

It's also a term that makes a whole lot of sense 20 years ago when the "cable TV" companies realized that they also had unused bandwidth - and could market that (especially once they started using optical cabling).

It's all about how to sell unused space on the bandwidth.

See this link for some simple term definitions

http://www.broadbandforjoe.com/broadband.html

But as was already said - since marketing has gotten involved - the term is really weak anyway.

[CodedFire]

@ Wossy: I do try, it keeps me sane you know!
@ A Redmond: I use the palm treo 750v. A bit pricey at bout 360 euro but i think its on of the best phones ive had.

@Everyone else: Thanks for the replys guys! It seems it means different things to different people.