Ironically, Sprint's new SLA is billed as "the industry's first wireless
data service agreements for business customers." Like most SLAs,
Sprint's is filled with holes. While the agreement details addressed
data blocks, data drops and network availability, Sprint included no
promises about throughput or latency. One might assume such a commitment
was implicit in the company's pledge to provide 99.5 percent system
"availability," but there's weasel language in the press release that
leads me to conclude Sprint really means 99.5 percent reliability rather
than availability. In other words, the company can meet its SLA
commitment by delivering reliably poor throughput and latency.
While there's reason to be somewhat enthusiastic about the present, the
industry faces some critical long-term challenges beyond price and
reliability. One of my CTIA sources was Network Computing Contributing
Editor Peter Rysavy, who has written numerous feature stories for us
about cellular data networks. Through Datacomm Research, Rysavy has
recently issued a report that should make carriers take notice. Entitled
"Hard Numbers and Experts' Insights on Migration to 4G Wireless
Technology," it includes Rysavy's technical analysis of existing 3G and
emerging 4G mobile data technologies along with insights gained through
a panel of leading corporate wireless experts. According to Rysavy,
emerging 4G technology--especially MIMO-OFDM--will offer compelling
long-term advantages as the industry moves toward higher speeds. In the
shorter term, CDMA-based systems deliver excellent efficiency, but
carriers will need to develop strategies for adding MIMO-OFDM to service
offerings, particularly if Intel makes good on its promise to tightly
integrate OFDM wireless capabilities in future mobile computing
platforms.
Dave Molta is Network Computing's senior technology editor. Write to him at [email protected]
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