[OSM-talk] Potential mapping extravaganza in 2007?

[Simon Hewison]

Nick Black wrote:
> We just have to pray for Wi-max/cut price data calls so we can upload
> the tracks.

For mobile phone data access, GPRS is only really effective when dealing 
with bursty data, and you don't want to pay for time spent idle.

If all you are doing is batch uploading a load of gzipped data, when good 
old fashioned 9600 baud GSM data calls often work out much cheaper, 
especially if they are charged on-par with inclusive minutes in your tariff, 
these days GPRS tends to be charged at anywhere between 59p and £1 per 
megabyte. (though I can not find out if that applies to upstream, downstream 
or both directions), I always seem to have standard talk time left at the 
end of the month, you get about 57KB bi-directional per minute, which is a 
reasonable amount of gzipped tracklog. so it's kind of inclusive, but at 5p 
per minute, it's probably not quite as cheap.

Just don't expect to use GSM data or GPRS for speedy, cost-effective browsing.

Of course, it's always cheaper to use wifi if you can find an open 
non-commercial network.

-- 
Simon Hewison