XGP service provided by WILLCOM was launched. Despite of the restricted service area, I found my experience of using it pleasant as my regular life was carried out almost within the area.

Ten years have past since I started mobile computing. The need of mobile computing wasn’t recognized from the very beginning in my case. The situation has been very different back then that not all companies were furnished with internet environment. Whenever I changed my working desk, I remembered I remember having had trouble to secure the internet connection. Also back at ADSL age, despite that the big companies were able to guarantee their connections via exclusively leased line, NTT’s ISDN circuit (Modem was expensive and I had experience in using the service after a Sapporo venture launched a cheap model of modem to the market.) or dial-up service via analogue modem connected to fixed line has been the only two choices for the majority.  

Under such a circumstance, PHS operators started to provide 32Kbps PHS data service in April 1997.

I immediately switched to the new service. Of course the speed would be too slow to use nowadays, but I was indeed benefited from the service, as connection to not only PC but also PDA was guaranteed no matter how I changed my working desk.

Since then, data communication via PHS has adopted various advanced technologies and practical speed was upgraded from 32Kbps to 800Kbps at the current stage.

I have been using 3G data card, which claims the utmost specification speed at 7Mbps, although the practical result has turned out that the utmost speed was 2.3Mbps, the average speed was around 1Mbps, while the lowest transmission rate was detected to be only around 200 to 300Kbps. The result was far laid back to the specification speed in any case. Considering this fact, although it is theoretically quite impossible for the current PHS itself to provide a practical transmission rate of over 1Mbps, I still feel it hard to give up the flat-rate PHS service, which is providing internet connection at a stable rate of several hundreds Mbps.

Now with the arrival of broadband era, high-speed optical fiber service is not only accessible in offices but also at home environment. I introduced CATV internet 12 years ago, and replaced it with optical fiber connection ten years ago and is enjoying a high-speed internet connection at several tens Mbps.

Now, it comes the mobile broadband age. Mentioned at the beginning of the article, XGP is just made for the age.

The utmost transmission speed that I have experience myself was 9.9Mbps for downlink and 8.9 Mbps for uplink, and the average rate was successfully maintained at 6Mbps to 8Mbps. This has made no comparison with the specification speed of 20Mbps, although this could be partially attributed to my PC, which is having a less updated CPU of single core Centrino.  In the end, to connect a PC with XGP service is just like gear up a sports car, in both of which, one could surely feel the speed.

Besides, uplink rate has reached unbelievable velocity for a mobile service. This will definitely enable the upload of online storage, and contributing content to YouTube via mobile is also realized. I am convinced that XGP surely will be valuable and indispensable internet connection in the Cloud Computing era. I feel like to try the internet distribution of live broadcasting from my video camera connected to this service sometime soon.

The biggest challenge lies with service coverage at this moment.

Despite that the current XGP service is only provided within downtown Tokyo, I understand that area expansion is under progress. I visited Hiroshima to join a reunion of old friends in a weekend recently. Knowing from PHS Fan Site that there have been about ten test base stations of XGP installed in Hiroshima, I tried my XGP device there. Speed was recorded from several spots, and the result has been around 6～9Mbps for downlink 4～7Mbps for uplink. From the fact, I suppose the coverage process is advancing smoothly and the downtown Hiroshima is almost covered with the network.

The world’s first A-bomb was dropped there 64 years ago. The misery wiped out 140,000 of the city’s 350,000 population. A complicated emotion was inspired as the result of XGP speed test in front of the A-bomb Dome, which commemorates this misery, showed downlink at 7.271Mbps, with uplink at 5.263Mbps. It is indeed a waste of resource not to provide XGP commercial service in such a special place like Hiroshima municipality.

I heard that XGP base station could be easily deployed by adding extra transmission equipment on the original PHS base stations. I certainly have no idea how many of the existing 160,000 PHS base stations have to be transformed into XGP ones, but quick area expansion should be possible, should it?

One more request
That is, XGP terminal shall be provided in verified models. The only choice now is PC card, although I hope to see the launch of USB type and Express Card type. Most mini-PCs and Net-books, which are becoming more and more popular these days, simple do not fit PC card.

Moreover, I hope to see the release of W-SIM typed XGP terminal based on WILLCOM original standard as soon as possible. If that happens, ZERO-3 series of smartphone will have a chance to evolve drastically.

I am looking forward to the arrival of such a day.