[LINK] Radiation may slow Wireless Internet

[Tom Worthington]

I wrote Sat, 21 Oct 2000 05:59:38 +1000 (was: "Telcos Wasted Billions on 
Bandwidth, Media Release"):

>20 October 2000, Oxford, UK: Telecommunications carriers who invested 
>billions of dollars in next-generation high bandwidth wireless licences 
>have wasted their money... presentation at the Oxford University Computing 
>Laboratory ... http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20001020.html

In the talk I suggested medium speed GSM GPRS may be good enough for 
wireless Internet applications, if accessibility features are used to 
reduce the bandwidth needed.

However, David Gates <David.Gates@dva.gov.au> has pointed out that 
operating the GSM phones at these data rates might cause problems. See: TOO 
HOT TO HANDLE, By Barry Fox, New Scientist, 07 October 2000: 
http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/phones/toohottohandle.html

"Fears of radiation and overheating will slow new cellphones

TRANSMISSION speeds from new GPRS cellphones, due to be launched in Britain 
this year, will be held down to keep them within radiation absorption 
guidelines and to stop them overheating, New Scientist has discovered. 
Cellphone companies seem not to have learned from their massive over-hyping 
of WAP services, and risk crippling the fledgling market for GPRS by making 
hollow promises about speed..."

ps: Of course this may not apply to CDMA phones which radiate differently, 
to non-hand held phones and where data transmission is in bursts.


Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director & Past President, Australian Computer Society
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Accessiblity Summit, 15 Nov http://www.tomw.net.au/2000/bat.html