Mobile broadband faces challenges

There has been a huge take-up of mobile broadband since O2, Vodafone and Three brought mobile broadband to the market last year. Using a small plug-ing modem, customers' can now get mobile broadband rates on their laptops and PCs. O2 has sold 45,000 such modems and there were 127,000 mobile broadband customers at the end of 2007 – 14 per cent of the total broadband market, the fastest growing sector in broadband. A new broadband ‘stick' is the latest product. As the hardware shrinks, it will eventually be incorporated into mobile phones; they already can be used as modems, but data transfer is more expensive than via modem packages, and the speed is poorer. In time, this can change, on the initiative of the mobile industry.

3G, or third generation mobile internet connectivity can reach speeds of 1.6 and 3.2 megabits per second (Mbps). But the network is not as robust or ubiquitous as customers are led to believe. Rural areas are prone to broadband ‘blackspots' and are typically slower than urban and suburban areas. Some densely populated urban areas can experience slow speeds because of obstructions to mobile masts such as tall or deep buildings, or a high number of co-located people trying to access the internet.

To provide 3G, not only must mobile operators upgrade their networks with new software, they must backhaul new technologies to each mobile phone antenna across the country. This is not always done and therefore, a 3G signal is not always available. In such instances, the so-called ‘broadband' can slow to 10 or 20kbps; sending email at such speeds will be ‘painfullly slow' according to one analyst.

A dearth of investment in Ireland's communication network this decade has also contributed to broadband problems. Were the communications infrastructure upgraded to optic fibres instead of copper lines, broadband speeds upward of 10Mbps would be widely available. But Ireland's main communications network is built on an infrastructure not always suited to broadband, in some cases not compatible at all. By and large, mobile networks use microwave to send information – they bring greater capacity than some copper lines, but there is a limit to microwave capacities, and the service it is also dependent on other factors such as the weather, obstruction by buildings or topographical features.

Industry insiders say that Eircom is testing a combination of optic fibres with copper lines in Dublin and that if successful, higher mobile broadband speeds will be available.