Optional 3G/UMTS module

[Askarus]

In the UK there's only one provider offering truly unlimited 3G data plans,

There isn't one in Germany I know.

Else I'd sign the contract at once.

Most I've heard of was a limited offer for 15 GB.

Highest you can get from any provider is 5GB.

Unlimited 3.9G is awesome.

 

[elw3]

Here you can just buy 1gb for 2€ or so without a plan at all...

I missused the aldi plan for torrent over a year, 30gb per day, they throttled me yet i was able to bypass it. for another few months >.< 

Now i just stay at the modem like throttle to save money, 4€ for my whole network needs is not bad .

How much does this unlimited thing cost there in UK? 

 

[Askarus]

Now i just stay at the modem like throttle to save money, 4€ for my whole network needs is not bad .

What's the speed?

 

[Fzero]

£15.90 a month is the cheapest, I think.

The plans here called 'The One Plan' or the 'Ultimate Internet Plan'.

These are SIM only, and you can use all the data you want, truly no cap, and I recently had no home broadband so abused it with all my stuff connected to it over wifi

http://store.three.co.uk/SIM_Only/Voice_Pay_Monthly

I pay around £30 a month for my plan, which gives me more minutes and text, but that was because I bought into a 2 year contract when I got my phone.

I should add, that to get their 3.9G connection, you do need a compatible device. My phone the HTC One is.

They call it their 'Ultrafast' network, and most the new phones are Ultrafast ready, like the HTCOne, the S4 etc...

http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/05/28/our-ultrafast-3-9g-network/

...Plus, 4G is soon coming for us on the Three, so people like me who pay [~£30] for our phone plans will get 4G for no additional charge, and I believe it will too be truly unlimited. That is good

 

[Askarus]

£15.90 a month is the cheapest, I think. The plans here called 'The One Plan' or the 'Ultimate Internet Plan'. These are SIM only, and you can use all the data you want, truly no cap, and I recently had no home broadband so abused it with all my stuff connected to it over wifi http://store.three.c...ice_Pay_Monthly I pay around £30 a month for my plan, which gives me more minutes and text, but that was because I bought into a 2 year contract when I got my phone.

That would be the ultimate dream to come true.

I should add, that to get their 3.9G connection, you do need a compatible device. My phone the HTC One is. They call it their 'Ultrafast' network, and most the new phones are Ultrafast ready, like the HTCOne, the S4 etc...

That brings up the question: What's the Pyra 3G module capable of?

My Nokia E90 communicator has 3.75G HSDPA speed.

Does the Pyra module reach 7,2 Mbit/s?

Or is capable of more?

 

[elw3]

askarus prepare for laughter:

Spoiler

remeber i can have a real network for inserting 2€ when i really need to have but that is only valid a day.  

 

[TrashyMG]

^ that looks like the internet speed of my Dad's Rural DSL Internet provider.

 

[Askarus]

askarus prepare for laughter:

Spoiler

Spoiler

remeber i can have a real network for inserting 2€ when i really need to have but that is only valid a day.  

So the standard 2G speed.

It' sucks too know there's a country where you can get fast and unlimited mobile data - and it's not the country you life in.

 

[WizardStan]

IIRC according to WizardStan, using it as a phone would need some minor hardware considerations in addition to just 3G data. Apparently small enough to seriously consider.

All the modules I looked at either had a USB composite device (so it looked like a TTY modem and a sound card in one) or used i2s which is a 3 line digital audio standard that the OMAP5 "speaks". I didn't find a single module that didn't do either of these (mostly the i2s standard) but it's possible gta04 has and that it's a lot cheaper than the ones I was looking at. Based on my research there's no reason that it shouldn't support phone calling but we should wait for official confirmation.

 

[Rivaan]

I may be in the minority with this, but I would be willing to pay that much extra for added 4G/LTE. I have only used 4G a little, on my brother's phone, but its download speed blew my 3G speed out of the water.

And what is the use of that high speed when most of the plans have a Data limit? Its not that you can use it as a torrent box, with 4g my data limit would be hit in a minute.    

I don't plan on using it as a torrent box. My uses would involve: being on the train and working on documents in Google Drive and other cloud services, with maybe some music streaming in the background; using the GPS to navigate to a destination; watching the odd YouTube video now and then, to show my friends; surfing some news websites and Facebook/LinkedIn when bored; looking up some help on Stack Overflow or something, when programming; and downloading roms (not ISOs) or software/updates. If there's Wi-Fi available to me, I would use that; in all other instances, I would rely on the 4G.

My family is currently on a shared "4GEE" plan from EE. This means that for £37.50 a month, I have 20Gb of "double speed" 4G (apparently twice the speed of normal 4G) data, with unlimited calls and texts. As well as this, my mum, brother, and dad also have the unlimited calls and texts, but share the 20Gb of data with me. Their contracts are £12 a month each, and also double speed 4G. My dad barely uses mobile internet, my mum doesn't. My brother does, but mostly uses Wi-Fi, unless he's not at home or college. New data-only sims card can be added to the shared plan for £5 a month, and if I get one of those, I won't be using my phone's internet anymore, but instead the Pyra's, with the majority of the monthly 20Gb available for my use.

It may seem like a waste that most of my family doesn't use 4G even though we have it. But switching over to this shared plan has actually halved our combined monthly contract bills, and those that do want access to 4G (my brother and I) have it. I don't think I'll be reaching my data cap any time soon, based on past usage patterns.

Disclaimer: I would like to clarify to all that I don't know much about how hardware works or would be implemented. So when I say I'd want 4G, I don't actually know how much of a burden that may put on the developers, in order to implement it. I make these requests based on my personal plans to use the Pyra. So if I ever make a request that sounds unreasonable, either for the developers or other users, please understand that it comes from a place of ignorance and that I'd completely understand if something that may seem simple to me would actually be completely impractical. If I ever do make one of these requests, I'd appreciate being "schooled" in why it may not work, or other factors to consider.

 

[WizardStan]

My uses would involve: being on the train and working on documents in Google Drive and other cloud services, with maybe some music streaming in the background; using the GPS to navigate to a destination; watching the odd YouTube video now and then, to show my friends; surfing some news websites and Facebook/LinkedIn when bored; looking up some help on Stack Overflow or something, when programming; and downloading roms (not ISOs) or software/updates.

I do all of these thing at home on 3G with no problem, even occasionally tethering my Pandora so I can get full web experiences and not crappy mobile versions that don't work so well on my outdated Android browser. A few of them (cloud document editing and gps navigation) work perfectly with just 2G speeds, which is what I get when I visit the US: 2G should even be enough for music streaming although I have't tested that.Even something as ridiculously heavy as facebook loads up in seconds on 3G and it is the standard of how to do HTML5 wrong.

 

[hns]

£15.90 a month is the cheapest, I think. The plans here called 'The One Plan' or the 'Ultimate Internet Plan'. These are SIM only, and you can use all the data you want, truly no cap, and I recently had no home broadband so abused it with all my stuff connected to it over wifi http://store.three.c...ice_Pay_Monthly I pay around £30 a month for my plan, which gives me more minutes and text, but that was because I bought into a 2 year contract when I got my phone.

That would be the ultimate dream to come true.

I should add, that to get their 3.9G connection, you do need a compatible device. My phone the HTC One is. They call it their 'Ultrafast' network, and most the new phones are Ultrafast ready, like the HTCOne, the S4 etc...

That brings up the question: What's the Pyra 3G module capable of?

My Nokia E90 communicator has 3.75G HSDPA speed.

Does the Pyra module reach 7,2 Mbit/s?

Or is capable of more?

Here are the specs for the chosen PHS8 (PLS8 for the future):

http://m2m.gemalto.com/tl_files/cinterion/downloads/datasheets/gemalto_datasheet_PHS8_web.pdf

http://m2m.gemalto.com/tl_files/cinterion/downloads/datasheets/gemalto_datasheet_PLS8_web.pdf

There are slightly different variants for the Americas, EU/Africa/Asia and Japan/Korea so we will have to pick some of all potential options (because that is difficult for production planning and stock management).

And yes, we will buy the "voice" license (it is more a patent issue than a technical) to have voice calls through headset or bluetooth. It is not planned to have a phone earpiece (placing the Pyra to your ear).

 

[edgex004]

£15.90 a month is the cheapest, I think. The plans here called 'The One Plan' or the 'Ultimate Internet Plan'. These are SIM only, and you can use all the data you want, truly no cap, and I recently had no home broadband so abused it with all my stuff connected to it over wifi http://store.three.c...ice_Pay_Monthly I pay around £30 a month for my plan, which gives me more minutes and text, but that was because I bought into a 2 year contract when I got my phone.

That would be the ultimate dream to come true.

I should add, that to get their 3.9G connection, you do need a compatible device. My phone the HTC One is. They call it their 'Ultrafast' network, and most the new phones are Ultrafast ready, like the HTCOne, the S4 etc...

That brings up the question: What's the Pyra 3G module capable of?


My Nokia E90 communicator has 3.75G HSDPA speed.


Does the Pyra module reach 7,2 Mbit/s?


Or is capable of more?

Here are the specs for the chosen PHS8 (PLS8 for the future):


http://m2m.gemalto.com/tl_files/cinterion/downloads/datasheets/gemalto_datasheet_PHS8_web.pdf


http://m2m.gemalto.com/tl_files/cinterion/downloads/datasheets/gemalto_datasheet_PLS8_web.pdf


There are slightly different variants for the Americas, EU/Africa/Asia and Japan/Korea so we will have to pick some of all potential options (because that is difficult for production planning and stock management).


And yes, we will buy the "voice" license (it is more a patent issue than a technical) to have voice calls through headset or bluetooth. It is not planned to have a phone earpiece (placing the Pyra to your ear).

This makes me very excited. I was about to start a new contract, but if the pyra works with a pebble/headset combo, I'm ditching the phone altogether and moving to a prepaid plan using pyra as my only source of connectivity.

 

[Fzero]

So that spec sheet shows GSM...

Does this mean we will be able to make phone calls when there is no 3G signal still?

Sounds great anyway, using a headset would suit me fine.

If we can use it as a phone, even when no 3G service... that's perfect

 

[Askarus]

Thanks a lot for the data sheets.

Seems like the LTE module is a lot faster at HSDPA as well.

For me I also wouldn't mind to pay extra for the 4G module.

But 3G also is fine.

 

[Natsu]

And yes, we will buy the "voice" license (it is more a patent issue than a technical) to have voice calls through headset or bluetooth. It is not planned to have a phone earpiece (placing the Pyra to your ear).

As said in another thread,is it possible to have holes match as close as possible for a speaker and mic at the base, so you won'tneed a headset? If not a earpiece at the base, of course.

 

[elw3]

Spoiler

please dont. 

also for reverence, could be worse for us Germans, we could be in usa for example: http://gizmodo.com/the-price-of-500mb-of-mobile-data-across-the-world-1442047579

 

[Grench]

And yes, we will buy the "voice" license (it is more a patent issue than a technical) to have voice calls through headset or bluetooth. It is not planned to have a phone earpiece (placing the Pyra to your ear).

As said in another thread,is it possible to have holes match as close as possible for a speaker and mic at the base, so you won't
need a headset? If not a earpiece at the base, of course.

I think that the use and capabilities expectation of a mobile wireless solution should be:

1.  Data

2.  Voice using a Bluetooth headset

3.  Voice using the Pyra as a speakerphone (using the mic and speakers)

4.  Voice using headphones with push-talk mic.

#4 adds a question - to wire the headphone jack as normal standard or as Apple, and whether to put a switch on it to allow the ground/mic lines to be switched so that we could use either.

Nobody should expect to be able to side/taco talk ala the Ngage method.

 

[WizardStan]

Here are the specs for the chosen PHS8 (PLS8 for the future):

Perfect. This is one of the ones I was looking at as well and advised ED to look at. The PLS8-US would work perfectly for me. PHS8 doesn't provide the band I need unfortunately but I believe they're pin compatble so shouldn't be a problem. If I need to pay a little extra for a custom run (and I'm sure others would be interested for the LTE bands as well) then I would.

 

[Granitehead]

adds a question - to wire the headphone jack as normal [correction by me] standard or as Apple

That's not a question.