Unclear Criticisms Of Bluetooth
Over at his weblog, Bob Frankston criticizes Bluetooth as “too slow” for relaying the data from an EV-DO Bluetooth phone to a laptop. But the posting, frankly, makes me a little suspicious. Yes, Bluetooth has compatibility and setup problems, but it has 1.5Mbps of data rate, and about 750Kbps of usable throughput, which means it should be more than adequate to handle the actual 400-600Kbps throughput of an EV-DO network (And that’s just the 1990’s version of BT). But what I’m more curious about is: What was the handset model that Frankston was using? As far as I know, all Bluetooth handsets that VZW offers (on 1xRTT and EVDO) have Bluetooth DUN disabled, as we’ve complained about in the past. (There are only two EV-DO handsets at VZW so far.) But most importantly, with standard equipment in the US it’s not possible to carry out the experiment he describes Bluetooth as having failed. Frankston also switches between saying that he is using a handset and an EV-DO PCMCIA card, so does he have a card, a phone, or both? Bob, please contact me or post a comment if you care to share a few more details about the experiment. Thanks.
Filed Under: bluetooth
