The history of mobile broadband: how it all began
To kick off our new film series on the history of mobile broadband, senior ICT industry figures look back at how the technology came about and the subsequent challenges to building momentum.
With millions of new subscribers joining the hundreds of millions of existing consumers who enjoy the benefits of high-speed and high-capacity mobile broadband every month, it is easy to see why some people find it hard to imagine a world without it.
And yet, just 20 years ago, mobile broadband was little more than a technological experiment. Håkan Djuphammar, Ericsson’s Head of System Architecture, says those who developed the technology were not thinking about how it could be used.
Ericsson was working hard at the time to meet operators’ voice requirements through large-scale GSM rollouts. In the meantime, work continued on mobile broadband – starting with initial data rates of around 1kbps – with a slowly increasing industry awareness of the potential benefits.
But to make mobile broadband really take off, the industry needed three elements that would take time to develop: networks, devices, and services/applications.
The development of 3G technology and the emergence of the internet were two big factors in helping to build mobile broadband momentum. Once some traction was established, the constant demands for faster data rates helped drive the evolution of the technology – something that continues to this day.
Aside from Djuphammar, the film, part of Ericsson’s Unplug Campaign, also includes reflections on the early days of mobile broadband from Ericsson’s Chief Technology Officer, Håkan Eriksson, Kris Rinne, Senior Vice President, Architecture and Planning at AT&T, Jan Uddenfeldt, Chief Technology Officer, Sony Ericsson; Matt Grob, Chief Technology Officer, Qualcomm; David Haight, Vice President Business Development, Emerging Devices, AT&T; Ola Ahlvarsson, Chief Executive Officer, Keynote Media; and Bengt Nordström, Chief Executive Officer, Northstream.
With millions of new subscribers joining the hundreds of millions of existing consumers who enjoy the benefits of high-speed and high-capacity mobile broadband every month, it is easy to see why some people find it hard to imagine a world without it.
And yet, just 20 years ago, mobile broadband was little more than a technological experiment. Håkan Djuphammar, Ericsson’s Head of System Architecture, says those who developed the technology were not thinking about how it could be used.
Ericsson was working hard at the time to meet operators’ voice requirements through large-scale GSM rollouts. In the meantime, work continued on mobile broadband – starting with initial data rates of around 1kbps – with a slowly increasing industry awareness of the potential benefits.
But to make mobile broadband really take off, the industry needed three elements that would take time to develop: networks, devices, and services/applications.
The development of 3G technology and the emergence of the internet were two big factors in helping to build mobile broadband momentum. Once some traction was established, the constant demands for faster data rates helped drive the evolution of the technology – something that continues to this day.
Aside from Djuphammar, the film, part of Ericsson’s Unplug Campaign, also includes reflections on the early days of mobile broadband from Ericsson’s Chief Technology Officer, Håkan Eriksson, Kris Rinne, Senior Vice President, Architecture and Planning at AT&T, Jan Uddenfeldt, Chief Technology Officer, Sony Ericsson; Matt Grob, Chief Technology Officer, Qualcomm; David Haight, Vice President Business Development, Emerging Devices, AT&T; Ola Ahlvarsson, Chief Executive Officer, Keynote Media; and Bengt Nordström, Chief Executive Officer, Northstream.
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