Research: The realities of wireless working

Tags:
WiMax,
Wi-Fi,
3G,
HSDPA

Rhetorik ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 24 Aug 2007 16:52 BST

Current and future use of mobile carrier technologies
We first set out to investigate the degree of implementation of the differing network technologies throughout the UK, as well as future plans for upgrades.

Use of mobile carrier technologies
When questioned on current deployment of mobile network technologies, many companies reported multiple technologies in use.

There was a degree of uncertainty among the surveyed organisations over the range of technology applied, with more than a quarter unable to answer this question. However, based on the input from those able to respond, it is encouraging to note that implementation of the higher bandwidth technologies is clearly already significant.

For around two-thirds of enterprises researched, 2G GSM technology is still in use, although in many cases this may be used together with higher-speed networks within the enterprise. Migrating beyond 2G, GPRS (2.5G) is now widely deployed, in line with the large number of mobile devices now compatible with this technology. A similar two-thirds of the research base reported the use of GPRS.

EDGE enhancements to GPRS were used by around a third of these organisations, and over half are currently up to true 3G speeds through the use of UMTS. Perhaps surprisingly, 15 percent of our respondent base claims to have already deployed 3.5G technology, with HDPA capability.