What is the fastest speeds that you can connect to the internet with
with a laptop while on the road? Who provides the fastest service and
what is planned for broadband mobile internet access in the near
future

moneyquest-ga:

Thank you for your question, I hope that this answer meets your needs.


Mobile internet access using a laptop in the UK is available through
two main technologies, cellular and 802.11.

For cellular technology, the current "state of the art" is General
Packet Radio Service (GPRS), provided by the mobile phone companies
and featuring upload speeds of up to 40 kbps and download speeds of up
to 56 kbps using a GPRS-capable mobile phone and data cable for your
laptop, or a GPRS radio card for the laptop's PCMCIA slot. In
comparison, the older Circuit-Switched Data services, such as Orange's
Highspeed CSD service, can go up to 28 kbps in each direction. GPRS
service is available in most areas of the UK, with the lead service
providers being Orange, O2, T-Mobile, and Vodafone.

The second technology, 802.11a/b/g (three separate standards), is
manifest in the form of Wireless Hotspots that have sprouted up across
the UK. Using 802.11, maximum transmission speeds of 11 Mbps (for
802.11b) up to 54 Mbps (for 802.11a and 802.11g) are possible, but as
many Wireless Hotspots are connected to the Internet through a 1.5
Mbps T-1 line, your actual performance will be up to 1.5 Mbps. Service
is available in many major cities and large towns in the UK from
service providers such as BT OpenZone, Megabeam, and Internet
Exchange. However, in comparison to the availability of GPRS service,
Wireless Hotspots are rare, and can be difficult to find. When you do
find one, though, your connection speed will be much faster than a
GPRS connection.

The future for the mobile cellular operators is UMTS, a "3G" or third
generation data service that will allow speeds up to 384 kbps in ideal
outdoor conditions. However, few mobile operators have committed to
building out a 3G network, primarily due to the large capital
requirement and the lower-than-expected usage rates for the existing
GPRS (and 1xRTT for CDMA operators in N. America and Asia) data
services.

For the Wi-Fi hotspot operators, they are still in the midst of
deploying 802.11b access points as quickly as their capital will
allow. In the foreseeable future, they will upgrade their 11 Mbps
802.11b access points to 54 Mbps 802.11g access points. However, given
the low usage levels of the existing services, it may very well become
a similar situation to the UMTS one facing the mobile operators, where
there just isn't enough usage of the current infrastructure to justify
building or upgrading to a new one.


Additional Links:
-----------------

Orange Mobile Data service description:

http://www.orange.co.uk/business/small/mobileemail/gprs.html


O2 Mobile Web service description:

http://www.o2.co.uk/productsservices/mobileweb/accessinternet/0,,142,00.html


GPRShelp website, a great resource for information about mobile data
in the UK:

http://www.gprshelp.co.uk/index.html


UMTS World, for info about UMTS:

http://www.umtsworld.com/default.htm


ZDNet map of Wi-Fi Hotspots in the UK:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/wifi-hotspots/


BT Openzone:

http://www.btopenzone.com/Openzone/index.jsp


Megabeam hotspot locations (now owned by Swisscom):

http://www.swisscom-eurospot.com/2415/2559/2560/2808.asp?txtSearch=United+Kingdom&viewpoint=


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Search Strategy:

GPRS uk data
://www.google.com/search?q=gprs+uk+data

uk wi-fi hotspots
://www.google.com/search?q=uk+wi-fi+hotspots


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Again, I hope that this meets your needs. Please do not hesitate to
ask for clarification if any part of this answer is unclear.

Regards,

aht-ga

Good answer and fast too! Well done.