On 24/02/2014 5:36 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
On Sat, 22 Feb 2014 05:03:17 Andrew McGlashan wrote:
Well, if you want to keep the device long term, then that is great for all aspects except 3G/4G/4Gplus - LTE.... over time the radio frequencies have varied a lot and they will vary more again -- this is the single best reason to sort of /force/ people to replace otherwise good mobiles; why put yourself through that with a tablet?
What 3G devices have become obsolete in Australia due to this?
Any 3G device using 2100 cannot be used on the Telstra network as 3G, nor can any device with 900/2100 UMTS. Telstra only offer 850 for Next-G today, they previously offered 2100, but that is history due to the demise of the agreement between Hutchison Australia and Telstra. None of the Aldi services uses anything more than 3G, as they only offer "part of the Telstra" network. 3G is very slow compared to what is currently available in 4G and 4G Plus for those with the right devices. And yes GSM for phone is usually fine (at this time), but in time those will likely drop off and it will be 3G, 4G or 4G Plus -- read LTE in there somewhere too, which possibly comes under 4G / 4G Plus depending on your definition. The recent switch off of analog TV will result in more mobile frequencies in use and thus, the real need not to get too locked down on radio. Now, the OP wants to keep the tablet long term; there is no radio that you could reasonably say would be suitable for long term without limiting the capability down the track. Sure, if it is 4G and it lives on a common frequency that lives long term, that is a bonus. But it won't cover other, possibly much more useful frequencies that will open up to the market. Again, this leads me to believe that the best option is to have a radio quite separate from a tablet, other than, of course WiFi -- which I think 802.11n is pretty safe for a long time to come yet. So, buy the best tablet you can afford that meets your requirements (including budget), but stretch the value by not paying for a mobile radio that could easily become obsolete much closer in time than the rest of the unit. Not only that, but your tablet battery will last longer if it isn't dealing with mobile data usage on a mobile data network, no matter which frequency is used. A.