802.11 vs. 3G – Please Tell Us Why?
It’s tough to figure out where to start picking apart this article. It’s from 802.11 Planet and claims to be comparing 802.11 vs. 3G wireless services. The first thing I’d ask is why would you want to do such a thing? The two systems are completely different and designed and used for completely different purposes. Clearly, there may be a point in the future where it’s worth looking at the convergence of the two – but right now, there’s simply no point. Even worse, the article doesn’t even really talk about 3G, but the 2.5G GPRS system. Let’s face it, while there are a few incredibly minor exceptions, GPRS is for mobile devices with limited uses. WiFi (802.11) is for laptops. GPRS lets you connect from (mostly) anywhere to do limited things. WiFi lets you connect from specific points to have full internet access for your machine. The two systems are completely different. In the future, as more real 3G systems come online and as WiFi figures out ways to boost its range, it may be worth comparing. But, these articles don’t compare those future stages. They compare what’s happening now – and that’s useless.
