mobile Internet

AT&T yesterday announced that it boosted its 3G network speed. The network's typical downlink speed was increased by over 20 percent while the uplink speed was increased by 50 percent. The increase in speed was made possible by recent network upgrades including the deployment of High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) across all 3G markets by the end of June.

AT&T's 3G network is currently available in over 275 major cities in the U.S. Downlink speeds have increased to between 700 Kbps and 1.7 Mbps from 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps. Upload speeds increased

Mobile broadband operators were surprised to learn that High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) use increased a whopping 850% over the past year. A year ago there were about three million HSPA connections compared to over 32 million now. The rapid growth can be attributed to the increased demand for wireless broadband connections for notebook computers.

A graph from Juniper Research last August forecasts the trend:

According to chief research officer at Informa Telecoms and Media, Mark Newman, "Operators have found a brand new market, connecting laptops to the Internet." Newman adds that lower prices, broader coverage and easier setup have also bolstered broadband popularity.

Such enormous and rapid growth presents new challenges however. The big concern for carriers now is capacity for both mobile networks and backhaul, which is the links that attach the base stations to the

As the first step of EDGE Evolution, Nokia Seimens Networks today launched their Dual Carrier EDGE software. The software will double the speed of data connections, up to 592 Mbps, on existing EDGE-capable GSM networks. This amounts to a much faster mobile internet experience that will allow for smooth streaming video, faster uploads, etc.

The Dual Carrier EDGE solution will be available as a software upgrade starting in Q3 2008. Nokia Seimens Networks is already looking ahead to the next step in EDGE Evolution. The telecom giant plans to introduce EGPRS 2 to its network, which will increase download speeds up to 1.2 Mbps and upload speeds up to 473 Kbps. According to Nokia Seimens Networks Head of Radio Access

North Carolina based TapRoot Systems today announced the launch of its WalkingHotSpot software. The software is designed basically to turn your 3G smartphone into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.

WalkingHotSpot effectively turns any broadband enabled handset into a Wi-Fi router. You will be able to connect your notebook or any other Wi-Fi enabled device to the Internet via your phone. Many phones can already be used as modems by way of Bluetooth or a cable connection. WalkingHotSpot is much

TeaShark has just unveiled their new web browser that will compete with Opera Mini to bring the full web experience to any java enabled mobile phone. It renders pages the same way as your desktop browser. TeaShark is now in its beta phase and its beta server is based on WebKit3, which is the same engine used by Safari 3 in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.

TeaShark features tabbed browsing and it will remember your session and restore it every time you leave and come back, which makes multi-tasking easier. Color tagging is a new feature that allows you to group your bookmarks in a more practical way - one bookmark can be tagged with several colors if it

Google today proposed to the FCC an enhanced system that would allow the portion of the spectrum between analog broadcast channels to be used without interference. This so called "white space" has been left unused out of worries over interference with adjacent television channels and wireless microphones. Google proposes a new system that will "eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices."

Less than two weeks ago Bill Gates also urged communications regulators to free up white space for broadband use. Google and Microsoft are part of a coalition that has been lobbying the FCC to allow

Sprint is set to become the first U.S. carrier to to launch the OpenWeb solution from Openwave Systems Inc., which will offer an enhanced mobile Web browsing experience on virtually all Web-capable Sprint phones.

OpenWeb will provide a more PC-like experience to the millions of Sprint customers accessing the Web each month. Site renderings will be faster and more user-friendly, even if they are not optimized for mobile devices. OpenWeb is designed to adapt the standard layout of a Web site and reconstruct it to

After a few months of beta testing, the wildly popular social networking site, MySpace, is officially launching a mobile web site that will be completely advertisement funded. Previously MySpace was only available via a subscription through AT&T or MVNO Helio.

The new mobile site will allow members to use all the normal features of MySpace including viewing friends pages, reading and composing messages, viewing photos, searching for friends and posting

Demand for internet service during flights has been growing rapidly and it seems that the competition is finally beginning. In recent months several U.S. airlines including American Airlines, Continental, Virgin America, Southwest, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines have announced plans to provide internet access on some routes. The airlines will employ different strategies, in terms of delivery and pricing, as this new market develops.

American Airlines and Virgin America plan to provide Internet access via Aircell's gogo service. This system uses EV-DO Rev A to deliver broadband service at rates up to 2 Mbps while over continental North America. According to Aircell, basic pricing will be $12.95 for cross-country trips and $9.95 for

Google has launched Google Gears for mobile, which is a mobile browser extension for developing web applications for mobile devices. It is available for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and it is a fully functional port of Google Gears v0.2 that can be used to develop offline capability for your mobile web applications. With Google Gears for mobile you will be able to continue using your web apps even if you experience a sudden disruption of your Internet connection.