A comparison of wi-fi and wimax with case studies - Florida State ...

mobility. On the other hand, WiMax has the biggest coverage, highest data rate and also support
mobility. [69][78]
The applications of 3G partially overlap with Wi-Fi and WiMax. 3G is a mobile phone
technology, so its main stage is in the cell-phone market; internet access is only an additional
benefit. 3G’s signal will fade out fast when there are too many people in the nearby area tring to
access the Internet at the same time. 3G’s interface is mainly onthrough the cell-phone.
Considering the operation convenience, it is tolerable for checking or sending e-mail, time tables,
or MMS. However for high throughput applications, 3G appears to be not as good as the other
two standards. The cell-phone’s inborn limitation, keyboard and screen size, makes it unsuitable
for internet access. Moreover, 3G’s data rate and bandwidth are not fast enough for internet use.
2.4. Cases
Japan is a successful case for 3G development and mobile Internet access and there are
some unique reasons for this. Japanese 3G service was started in late 2001 called FOMA
(Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) by NTT DoCoMo. FOMA is the brand name of NTT
DoCoMo’s 3G service. As the network coverage rate became higher and higher, most Japanese
started to get used to checking and sending e-mail as well as getting daily information by phones.
This phenomenon especially happens during rush hours in mass transit systems. Teenagers also
like to share secrets, pictures and gossip by e-mail and MMS. Therefore, FOMA has become part
of life and Multimedia service is the major applications of 3G. The most popular service in Japan
now is called i-mode, it was in 2G and then upgrade to 3G. [69][76] – [78]
The 3G service in Korea is called JUNE. It is pushed by SKT (South Korea Telecom) in
November 2002 and based on CDMA2000 1X EV-DO. Similar to Japan, it is also focused on
multimedia service. In August 2003, just 8 month later, the users already increased to one million.
JUNE has a music channel, video channel, MMS service and NOUL (Korean Idol). It is the first
service which realizes the commercial video phone-call. [69]
In Taiwan, 3G cell-phones have become the main stream and the system also has upgraded
completely. However, because of Wi-Fi and WiMax, telecommunication industries are still
seeking where the business and balance point are. It is a true struggle in the communication
market. Varieties of websites and software fit users’ different demands on the Internet. But with
cell-phones, internet service is only provided by telecommunication industries and is very
limited and not universal. In addition, because the cell-phones’ specifications are not unified,
such as in the revolution of screen resolution and numbers of buttons, it is more difficult to
design web pages as well as to promote the service. In Japan, the cell-phones are more unified,
so it is easier to popularize mobile Internet access service. [69][76] – [78]
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