Surfing The Web On Your Mobile

By Author: Neo Nashville
Total Articles: 30
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Most new mobile phones can access the internet. However, the quality of your browsing experience is dependent on a number of factors, the most crucial of these being the connection speed that your phone is capable of. There are four main types of web connection now available to mobile phone users: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, and HDSPA.

The slowest of these is GPRS(General Packet Radio Service), which at a snail-like maximum rate of 128kbps, is rarely usable for all but the most basic of web services. The next fastest is the rarely-used EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) format, which even at the claimed maximum rate of 236kbps is too slow for most people to want to put up with.

The type of connection that really made mobile internet a viable option is the 3G (third generation) standard, which was touted as being the mobile equivalent of broadband, although in reality, the average speeds achieved through a connection of this type are more in line with the dial-up connections used by desktop computers in the 90s. However, this still represents a massive improvement over the almost unusable GPRS and EDGE standards.

Finally, ...
... there is HDSPA, a variant on the standard 3G connection that is theoretically capable of speeds of up to 14.4Mbps, although in practice, they rarely even reach the maximum stated speed of 3G connections, unless you are standing next to a transmitter in an area with no other mobile phones for miles around, in which case you might make it a little nearer the claimed average speed of 3.6Mbps, but not by much.

Another option for mobile phones that has come to light in recent years is the established standard for wireless laptops and PDAs, Wi-Fi. This protocol can offer far more reliable and speedy internet access than any of the current mobile internet standards, and is available to most smartphones, such as the Blackberry and the Nokia N97.

Although Wi-Fi is only available in certain places, and you usually have to buy something in those places to be allowed to use it, it at least has the advantage of being a reliable, fast connection, which is more than can be said about mobile internet at present.

It is important to remember that the majority of websites have been designed for use with a computer, although there are some websites that have special slimmed down versions for mobiles, such as eBay and Facebook. Most mobile phones have a screen that is really too small to be able to view standard web pages on, and lack the controls necessary for proper navigation.

Some of the newer smart-phone PDAs have tackled this problem with large touch sensitive screens and tracker balls, which at least lessen the resolution and navigation problems inherent in surfing the web on a mobile phone.

Very few mobile phones, however, are able to deal effectively with multiple windows, and some popular sites, such as Youtube, cannot be viewed on mobile phones at all.

So while the dream of having the internet on your mobile phone is here already, it is fair to say that it has some way to go before it can become a truly enjoyable, seamless experience.
Discover the latest Vodafone mobiles and services including mobile broadband that lets you connect to the Internet whenever you want.