Digital Media Buzz > Tethering Dependent on Widespread 4G Adoption

Tethering Dependent on Widespread 4G Adoption

By Clint Osterholtz

At the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009, Apple announced the release of iPhone 3.0 and, with it, the ability to tether your iPhone. Although many tech-savvy people were already familiar with the technology, it was a key moment to familiarize many more about it. For the unfamiliar, it seems like an untapped dream technology for the unconnected; simply take your cell phone’s signal and turn it into a wireless hotspot so you can access the Internet anywhere you need. In fact, it sounds like a downright Wi-Fi killer.

A typical Wi-Fi network supports data rates of up to 600 Mbps in its latest iteration, 802.11n. Cell networks, currently rolling out 4G with a projected 100 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps range, appear poised to compete and even beat Wi-Fi into an early grave. Tested on the ground, though, Wi-Fi networks tend to yield a real-world rate of a quarter of their maximum, around 125 Mbps. The New York Times recently reported that cellular networks unfortunately tend to do worse. Thanks to heavy iPhone use in New York City and San Francisco, which are projected to carry up to 2 million iPhone carriers between them, users find that dropped calls, delayed texts and nonexistent data transfer are commonplace, equating to 1 Mbps or less.

Tethering’s success assumes that users can access a 4G network. AT&T, for example, has its iPhone users utilizing a 3G network that is at a maximum data rate of 14.4 Mbps, which tends to be available only in large urban areas in the U.S. “At these speeds, browsing the Web is fairly responsive and fast,” says Paul Klingman III, an IT professional specializing in media. “But only the lowest- quality video will be feasible to watch — not even approaching television quality.” That, and AT&T has also stated that it does not have tethering available for the iPhone in the U.S. When exactly remains to be seen.

On the other hand, Wi-Fi is faster but unfortunately does not have widespread availability, at least in public spaces. It is fairly common to read about yet another municipal project providing free Wi-Fi to a community folding, losing funding or failing to get off the ground altogether. The most successful endeavors have been undertaken by businesses, offered as incentives to bring in customers.

At this point it is pretty clear that there is a bottleneck in terms of future viability for both technologies. Wi-Fi clearly has current capacity, but it does not enjoy widespread availability. Due to its relatively short range (802.11n is projected to cap out at 182 meters from the base), it is not portable like tethering would be. Tethering, while it is solely dependent on a cell signal, is constrained by how slowly the networks can be upgraded. Some areas are still running a comparably glacial 2.5G network that maxes out at 236Kbps, or just 0.2Mbps. To achieve a decent browsing speed for streaming media, U.S. cell networks would need to be almost universally 4G. That is not even projected for 2013, where 71percent of the market is projected to be a blend of 3G and 4G.

What does this mean for the future? Based on Wi-Fi’s relative death in public spaces and lack of portability, tethering will become more widespread, even if it does mean slower speeds. Wi-Fi is still optimal for setting up a wireless home network and beautifully downloads data with ease. On the road, however, tethering is clearly a superior option because it piggybacks onto your existing cell plan for no extra charge. That means Internet access without buying a latte.

“I suspect we’ll see more stripped-down-to-the-essentials mobile websites in the near future,” says Zack Carlisle, an application consultant for an engineering software company. “In my experience, streaming audio and video is futile even on current 3G networks.” Although it is easy to assume that visitors are tapped into DSL when designing a site, there are many users who are underserved by their providers. As tethering becomes available, it will fill a gap in public Internet access, but frustration will set in if customers cannot access their favorite websites. It is as much on cell phone carriers to upgrade their networks as it is on content providers to ensure that their sites are sleek, quick loading and provide pertinent content in multiple media formats.