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It is amazing how we all get used to new technologies and capabilities. Case in point: LTE. I have used an LTE smartphone since the first models became available and take for granted that I can get at least 10 megabits per second pretty much wherever I go. Just today, I called my daughter in the U.K. on FaceTime while my wife was driving; a few years ago, this would not have been possible or even a consideration. But now, watching the new “Star Wars” trailer any time-any place is as easy as actually going to the movie theatre to see the movie.
A few weeks ago, I was in the U.K. for a little over a week (combination of business and family). I rented a car and drove from London to Nottingham, North Wales and then the northeast. Before I left, I added a small roaming package to my phone to give me discounted voice minutes, texts and 300 megabytes of data. The idea was that I would have mobile data for use in emergencies and for navigation but would rely on Wi-Fi for e-mail, major Web browsing and calling home.
Why not just use data roaming? Simply because I did not want to pay the roaming charges. Remember, this is the land of $7.30 per gallon gas/petrol (for the math wonks out there, I converted from the Imperial to U.S. gallon) and I had to save my pennies for actually getting around the country.
The plan worked well, but certainly some changes in behavior are required in order to avoid burning through the 300 MB very quickly. Before leaving each hotel/friend’s house in the morning I would download all e-mails and check the route for the day. Once my route was in Google maps, I would just take a screen shot on my phone of the route and any particularly complex intersections. Then during the day, the route was there ready in photos. A couple of times I had to turn on data roaming to check something in the route and make sure I had not missed a turn, but otherwise the screen shot method worked well. Of course, this approach does not let you check traffic or delays en route.
No access to e-mail between Wi-Fi hotspots was not much of an issue, mainly because the U.K. is five hours ahead of east coast of the U.S. and eight hours ahead of the west coast. I usually arrived at my destination around mid-afternoon, just as the U.S. was starting its workday. I am not sure anyone really noticed I was not in the country.
The biggest change was resisting the urge to just check something on the Web, especially anything with video. This had to wait until evening when I could get to Wi-Fi. And the quality of the Wi-Fi also varied widely. I stayed at a pub in Durham and the Wi-Fi in the bar was very poor, but in the room the quality was good enough for a FaceTime audio call. I did turn on data roaming a few times and was surprised not to get connected to an LTE network immediately; usually, I just got offered 3G data.
So, after living with LTE all-the-time-most-places-I-go, I could adjust to life without LTE. But it would take planning and a change of routine. It can be done, but it was not fun and not really that productive. If I had stayed longer or been working the entire week, I would have bought a bigger roaming package and turned on LTE all the time. Getting home to Austin was nice – LTE everywhere without thinking about it!
Iain Gillott, the founder and president of iGR, is an acknowledged wireless and mobile industry authority and an accomplished presenter. Gillott has been involved in the wireless industry, as both a vendor and analyst, for more than 20 years. IGR was founded in 2000 as iGillottResearch in order to provide in-depth market analysis and data focused exclusively on the wireless and mobile industry. Before founding iGR, Gillott was a Group VP in IDC’s telecommunications practice, managing IDC’s worldwide research on wireless and mobile communications and Internet access, telecom brands, residential and small business telecommunications and telecom billing services. Prior to joining IDC, Gillott was in various technical roles and a proposal manager at EDS (now Hewlett-Packard), responsible for preparing new business proposals to wireless and mobile operators.
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