For people who just want a broadband Internet connection, trying to decide which wirelesss option is best  for them usually involves having to do ardous research into the alphabet soup of the broadband world.  3G/HSDPA/Iburst/WiMax etc Besides having to deal with this bewildering array of acronymns, each provider's marketing department is keen to tell you why their solution is the best, so reading their brochures is of little help. Usually they decend into technical discussions about frequencies with diagrammes showing how you will get the best broadband solution available.

Since most of the providers want to lock you into a 12 or 24 month contract choosing the wrong solution for you can be a costly exercise. Trying to get out of one of these contract is an exercise in futility. Belief me we have tried for some of our customers with no luck. No wonder people get all sweaty and nervous when buying a broadband solution!

What is 3G? What is HSDPA? What is 3G/HSDPA?

3G and HSDPA are acronymns that refer to broadband access for mobile netoworking it is based on cellular technology (think Vodacom/MTN). So what is the difference between 3G and HSDPA? These two acronyms often go together because, in essence, the are the same thing from a marketing point of view. Technically though HSDPA or the new HSUDPA is an advance on the 3G technology. i.e 3G is obsolete.

What this means is that when purchasing your 3G/HSDPA contract make sure the hardware supports the new HSDPA standard. Just ask the sales assistance they should know. The only time to consider buying 3G is when you can get the hardware cheaper like our refurbished 3G data card special and you don't expect to do a lot other than check emails and surf the web. (A lot of people use this solution for telemetry application or for applications that need to send out sms notifications).

So why do peolple keep on talking about 3G? The main reason is that the general public knows that 3G means Vodacom or MTN based broadband access, so it has become a bit of a generic term. If you get 3G/HSDPA it means that your ultimate carrier will be Vodacom or MTN.

What is iBurst?

Once again there is a marketing definition of iBurst and a technical definition. From a marketing point of view iBurst refers to either iBust the company which confusingly sells 3G/HSDPA and iBurst or just to iBurst technology i.e iBusrt based product range. (by the way they have some intersting Chrismas specials)! See how confusing that can get? When most people talk about iBurst they are talking about the iBust technolgy based soltions which are only available from iBurst.

iBurst from a technical point of view is a wirless based broadband technology. i.e it does not use the cellular network! It has its own separate infrastructure. Being wireless based it is a shared bandwidth so if you live in an area with high user to tower/router ratio your broadband experience can vary. iBurst maintaina a well balance ratio of users to routers so if usage grows in your area don't worry iBurst will put in more towers and your experience should get better!

How do I decide iBurst or 3G/HSDPA? Is comes down to 2CB!

So what are the criteria to decide between 3G/HSDPA or iBurst? This comes down to cost, coverage, bandwidth-speed,bandwidth-bundle (2c2b)! Bandwidht is another one of those confusing terms as it can refer to the speed of the connetion. i.e how much data you can access per second or to the amount of data you can download before reaching you data limit. usually the  amount of data you can download in a month. All this means is that if your speed is high you can download your limit in less time than if the speed is lower.

Coverage

In most cases the coverage issue will automatically rule out one of the options. 3G/HSDPA has really good coverage in major metropolitian areas while edge (another acronym for a technology that pre-dates 3G) is available in most of South Africa. So if you intend to use your wireless card in many different places 3g/HSDPA is probably the best for you. So how does one know if there is coverage in the areas they will use iBurst of 3G/HSDPA in? You can use the providers coverage maps to do so!

Most iBurst users tend to be businesses that share an internet connection much like ADSL or home users who do not need to connect to the internet from many different locations. i.e just from home of the office. Road warrioers like sales reps etc tend to need 3G/HSDPA solutions.

Cost

If you are lucky enough to have iBurst and 3G/HSDPA in your area and locations then one needs to consider cost. iBurst is cheaper than 3g/HSDPA. So its a no brainer to choose iBurst if you have the choice. The out of bundle cost of 3G can be quiet high!

Bandwidth - speed

3G/HSDPA has a higher theoretical speed than iBurst. iBurst theoretical highest speed is 1Mbps while HSDPA is 3.6 Mbps.  Don't get caught up in the "must have the best" mindset. If you only going to do emails and surf the web then iBurst is fine. Usually it is business or houses where more than one user shares a connection that bandwidth from a speed point of view is an issue. Or if you need to download big files quickly.

Bandwidth - data bundle

iBurst has a maximum data package of 10G while most 3G/HSDPA offering have a maximum of 5Gigs. We have some 7.5G  3G packages available and one 10G 3G/HSDPA package. The larger 3G packages are very expensive though. So it proably better to go iBurst.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you with your decision. All information relating to iBurst products, their bandwidth - speed and bandwidth - data bundles can be found here while Vodacom 3G/HSDPA product and contract information can be found here. Our sales assistance, Fred, can also help with your broadband product selction. Please don't hestitate to contact us if you have any questions 011-781 8014.