Wireless Hacks

CDPD, 1xRTT, and GPRS: Cellular Data Networks

If you can’t roll your own wireless, you might try one of these mobile phone carrier networks.

When it comes to data rates, most people are in agreement that faster is better. But current communications technology always involves a trade-off between speed, power, and range. 54 Mbps may be great if you can get it, but on a large scale, this can be difficult to maintain. The 802.11 protocols compensate for increased range by scaling back the data rate, but these devices simply aren’t designed to serve hundreds of people scattered over many miles.

There are times when any data to the Internet is better than none at all, no matter how slow it might be. For example, you might need to log in to a remote machine or send a quick email while traveling, when Wi-Fi or even wired network access just isn’t available. Or maybe you want to have an alternate communications channel into a wireless node in a remote place (say, on a mountaintop or deep in the woods) where telephone lines aren’t even available. For these situations, you might consider exploiting the biggest advantage of the commercial mobile data networks: their ubiquity.

Mobile networks maybe be slow and relatively expensive, but you can’t beat their coverage compared to current Wi-Fi networks. They can give you an IP address just about anywhere, but be warned that most mobile data services are not cheap. Most charge by the byte, and all charge for airtime while you are using it.

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