[rescue] Wireless (GPRS) connection speeds

[N.Miller]

On Tuesday, August 12, 2003, at 11:31 AM, Joshua D. Boyd wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 02:24:50PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
>
>>   Well...keep in mind, most of the crappy visible performance of a
>> modem connection is latency, not lack of bandwidth.  To wit, a 56Kbps
>> DDS (leased line) connection *feels* about three times faster than a
>> 56Kbps modem connection.
>
> I do have that in mind.  I suspect that "perceived 56k" means that they
> slow a low latency link enough so that is feels like the speed of a 
> high
> latency 56k modem.

Nope.  The connection via GPRS on Nextel's network has a maximum rate 
of 19.2.  If you buy the unlimited plan, your packets are routed 
through Nextel's servers that do on-the-fly compression that the phone 
decompresses, which results in an improvement in perceived speed.  
There's very little skin off them to do it, since all packets are 
routed from the internet to their network through encrypting gear 
anyway (SSL and WTSL?); they offer it as a value-add for people who use 
their PDA's/Laptops on GPRS *a lot*.

The Sidekick does the same sort of compression business, only the 
compression service is provided to T-Mo by the Sidekick's manufacturer, 
Danger, Inc.

=Nadine=