Telcos have used clever marketing strategies to convince the public that “mobile” means cellular networks, according to one Australian academic, who claims the issue is hampering the take-up of mobile learning.
“Australia’s telecommunications companies are stifling the economic benefits of mobile e-learning (m-learning). Dr Marcus Bowles, director of the Institute for Working Futures, says the incumbents are defending market share by confining mobile data transmissions to high-cost cellular networks.”
The article goes on to talk about “cheaper wireless technology – which can transmit up to 80 megabits of bandwidth up to 80 kilometres away”…the technology isn’t specified (but sounds suspiciously like WiMax) and the idea that this kind of technology is ready for widespread deployment is a bit premature. Bowles goes on to complain about the way the spectrum has been divided in Australia and to complain about the lack of “switching”, having a device transfer seamlessly between different wireless networks. In fact, the problems he indicates seem to be ones that the telecommunications industry is busily trying to solve rather than keep down. Still, the article gives a good outline of why mobile learning hasn’t taken off, at least in Australia…
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