GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) packet oriented transmission method - provides a maximum speed of 56 kbit/s, which reminds on the modem-era.

EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For GSM Evolution) – a further development of GPRS technology, which offers a speed of 220 kbit/s (higher speeds possible depending on the network). EDGE was advertised and expanded by T-Mobile and offers a considerably fast connection if UMTS is not available.

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems)

HSDPA (Highspeed Downlink Packet Access)

HSUPA (Highspeed Uplink Packet Access)

UMTS can reach a transfer rate of up to 384 kbits/s (download) and 384 kbits/s (upload). HSDPA has considerably faster speeds of 1200 kbit/s, 3600 kbits/s, and 7200 kbit/s in Downlink and up to 2000 kbit/s in Uplink. However, the higher speeds are only possible in some areas such as convention centers and selected downtown cities.

However, the next levels of HSPA are already being planned. The download speeds are going to be accelerated from 14.4 Mbit/s to 84 Mbit/s, and upload from 5.7 Mbit/s to 11.5 Mbit/s.

The bitrate is dependent on personal location and the quality of the connection. Walls, wireless (Dect, WLAN, etc) networks, large quantities of metal are the main factors. Operating system, firmware version, and other system components are important as well. There are consequences if a radio tower is used up to capacity. With higher traffic, the maximum capacity could be exceeded, and the bandwidth will be redistributed causing each user to be throttled. Maximum bandwidth is theoretically possible at 7.2 Mbit/s for downloading and 2 Mbit/s for uploading, but only when the radio towers have that bandwidth available, i.e. they support the bitrate. Currently, this applies only to a few metro areas and convention centers in Germany. The network expansion in Austria is more advanced. Exact availability should be requested from every provider.

What we experienced in our test scenarios could be read at our Test Results.

Concerning network coverage, T-Mobile is clearly in the lead. EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA are all supported and continually being expanded. EDGE has nearly the whole country covered, and UMTS is accessible in many regions [2][3]. 

On the other hand, concerning EDGE Vodafone and O2 are limiting the expansion to only areas that are out of range of UMTS. In regards of UMTS O2 has a lot of catching up to do, but with big steps they can make up leeway. [5][6]. 

E-Plus has announced to hold back HSDPA expansion and continue to work towards full coverage of EGDE, the GPRS-accelerator, until the end of 2009 (90%) [1][4].

Austria has these network providers to choose from: Drei, T-Mobile, Orange, and A1 [3][7][8][9]. 

Sources (German articles):

[1] Meldung Heise EDGE und UMTS Ausbau E-Plus [2] Netzausbau T-Mobile Deutschland [3] Netzausbau T-Mobile Österreich [4] Netzausbau e-Plus Deutschland [5] Netzausbau Vodafone Deutschland [6] UMTS Verfügbarkeit O2 Deutschland [7] Netzausbau Drei [8] Netzausbau A1 [9] Netzausbau Orange

Mobile providers offer different kinds of prices, including price per data (cost/MB), daily flat rate (with a data limit), and true flat rates. Which version is best for what person depends heavily on demand, usage, and budget.
Additional features for contract customers are sometimes a cost-attractive alternative to an additional contract. Price and performance strongly differentiate and require the knowledge of an expert: Welcome to the Price Jungle. 

A short overview of the different price models are displayed together in the following table.

1. Additional fees sometimes need to be kept in mind with regard to some of the data rates: basic fees, activation fees, SIM card cost, telephone rates.
2. Many companies offer their customers compatible connection hardware, such as USB-sticks and data cards (for example T-Mobile's Web'n'walk stick HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s bought with Xtra Pac DayFlat costs 69€), at discounted rates.
3. Those who consider adding data options to their existing phone contract, should make sure that their SIM card already supports UMTS. Otherwise he/she has bear costs incurred by a new or second SIM card.
4. A second SIM card is not such a bad idea after all, if the same contract is being used for both talking and surfing. That way one can keep one of the SIM cards in the existing phone and the other in the notebook or stick. So, one does not have to take a single SIM card from one device to the other all the time. A second SIM card is however unnecessary if the phone is being used as a modem.

[1] up to 7200 kbit/s possible with a Firmware update.
[2] Possible to use them in PCMCIA-slots by means of an adapter.

Notebooks with UMTS are offered by most manufacturers. An unworthy exception to this rule is Apple. Their notebooks are unavailable with UMTS configuration. If you are interested in UMTS you need to rely on third party solutions here. Apart from that, UMTS options are pretty much standard for business models, subnotebooks, ultraportables, and netbooks. The prices vary greatly between manufacturers and range from a few euros (for example Lenovo’s Thinkpad SL300) to over 100 euros (Dell Latitude series).

Also take a look at our purchase guide and in our comprehensive test library.

Our tests were carried out on three different networks: E-Plus, O2 and T-Mobile. The test area was greater Bonn (downtown, outside the city/business district, and the rural area). While being within city limits always grants full signal quality, in rural areas we faced depending on the location connection problems and switching between GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS.

When surveying the E-Plus network, we quickly approached the maximum bitrate of 384 kbit/s (down- and upload), which was also reached without problem by the other participants. So we decided not to provide a separate table for the individual measurements for the E-Plus network.

We recorded a speed boost in the O2 network, which allowed all devices expect of the W880i to more than double their transfer rates with up to about 1000 kbit/s in Downlink. However, the uplink-performance did not differ much from ePlus', and also reached with 380 kbit/s UMTS level without HSUPA.

The T-Mobile network proved to be even better. With a transfer rate of up to 2174 kbit/s in downlink and up to 1414 kbit/s in uplink we observed a significant speed increase.

In all networks we observed clear differences in performance depending on the time of day. Early in the morning or late in the evening we recorded the best results. During the day it was considerably (about 40-50%) worse. However, the absolutely worst time turned out to be saturday afternoons between 14.00 and 18.00 when it rains. At that time also in the T-Mobile network top speeds of only up to 500 kbit/s were possible.

The Sony Ericsson W880i (having the UMTS-Standard but no HSDPA support) was quickly being pushed to the limit of its efficiency. While it still had passable data rates if the signal was low, it could not keep up with the competitors because it does not support HSDPA (max. 392 kbit/s) under better conditions and is obviously losing ground. Here the selected network did not have an observable impact.

It took significantly longer to drive GT Max (T-Mobile Web`n`walk Card Compact), which offers a maximum rate of 1.8 Mbit in downlink, at its limits. But, 1741 kbit/s downlink speed could not be exceeded with this card. Furthermore, this was only possible in the T-Mobile network and during reasonable times and under optimal conditions. So, it got close to the maximum possible transfer rate of the specification and was easily outperformed by the following devices. There was no difference in terms of uplink speed with about 380 kbit/s in three networks. Here the hardware limit got obvious.

Saturday morning between 06.00 and 10.00 the best data rates of above 2000 kbit/s were reached. At this time, the Huawei E870 (ExpressCard) achieved with a maximum of 2174 kbit/s the best performance, followed closely by the Huawei E160 USB stick with a maximum of 2161 kbit/s. The very close victory lies less on technology and more on the random high one-time measurement, which could have equally likely been recorded for the E160. This is also proved by the very similar average values, where the E160 is even slightly better. We were not able to take full advantage of the technical possibilities in downloading (3.6 mbit/s stick and 7.2 mbit/s Express card) with either one of these. In the uplink-test the measurements did not differ that much. With the Huawei E870 card we happily reached 1414 kbit/s, and sometimes even the maximum possible bitrate. Here the stick performed clearly worse. With about 380 kbit/s it provides about the level of the GT Max solution.

Edge could only be tested in the T-Mobile network, because the EDGE signal for E-Plus or O2 was either not present or too weak in our test area. We recorded relatively constant transfer rates, with maxima of 236 kbit/s in downlink and 114 kbit/s in uplink. If these rates are available nationwide (as T-Mobile promises), than this is in fact a good fall-back network in case UMTS is not available.

Regarding GPRS we decided to not perform comprehensive measurements, but only do some measurements for comparison. Because the transfer rates are low and connection problems are frequent, this alternative appears to be only reasonable for e-mail traffic in practice. Surfing via such a connection should be definitely left to users with a lot of time.

To our surprise, we must note that despite having its own power supply, a cell phone is not the most energy efficient method to connect to a network. With a total of 17.7 W consumption, we concluded that it uses 0.8 W more than the compact GT Max option in conjunction with the Tecra A2. This results in a 9 minutes shorter runtime measured with the Battery Eater Reader's test. A reason for this is that the cell phone immediately initiates charging mode when connected by USB, even when the battery is fully charged. The most power-hungry was the Huawei E160 surf stick, which needed 19.6 W of system power and only achieved a runtime of 91 minutes. This even exceeds the wattage of the already not really energy-saving Huawei E870 Expresscard by 0.8 Watt and results in 5 minutes shorter battery life. (All measurements are listed in the table below).

To summarize, the power consumption with different UMTS hardware is pretty different. Those relying on mobile computing and data connection should consider this when choosing the hardware in order not to unnecessarily reduce the battery life. Unfortunately, we could not test the notebooks' integrated solutions in this aspect. Once test results are available, we will add the corresponding data.

Notebook

Toshiba Tecra A2
Celeron M320 1,4 Ghz
768 MB RAM
15” 4:3 XGA Display
2x USB
1x PCMCIA
Windows XP Home SP 3

UMTS Stick

Huawei E160

PCMCIA Compact

Option GT Max 

ExpressCard\34

Huawei E870

Cell phone

Sony W880i