Smart way to Connect on the move- EDGE

*Docomo presents 5/- per day internet with total 10mb data. Best internet schemes available.. check out more at tatadocomo.com


*As on jan 2010 Airtel GPRS EDGE INTERNET AVAILABLE FOR JUST Rs. 99/-

A great way to stay connected for econimical rates

<100mb day pass, 2Gb night pass> (Check out Airtel site)

 

*Aircel has learnt something from the ongoing neckcutting competition and a speed increase can be seen in their gprs net.

This page will let you know and understand what is Edge and how it can be a better way to be connected when you are travelling or staying in a place where you cannot reach an internet kiosk or just for general browsing, chatting and emailing from your home.
Edge stands for Enhanced Data Rates for GSM- Evolution, so you can clearly see that the word Enhanced means alot by itself. It means an enhancement in your data access and GSM shows the mobile benefits of this service.

Edge is also known as also known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC). EDGE network was first deployed by Cingular( AT & T) on its network in U.S.A.

Nowadays EDGE is used by web-surfers around the world for quick data access. However, EDGE is basically made for the 3G networks, but currently it is doing best on 2G networks of the world.

High speed data access on both devices(Mobile & PC/Laptop) are incorporable on these networks. When a mobile user makes the use of EDGE for accessing the mobile wap internet, the speed is higher than those of non-EGPRS or GPRS(Basic) networks.


Current usage of EDGE networks:
Latest usage of EDGE networks is the incorporation of mobile with PCs & Laptops for getting internet access on PC/Laptops on the move or for general browsing. These networks provide a good speed in terms of basic browsing like chatting, emailing etc. The speed can be termed as quite descent and the value of EDGE increases with its importance of mobility. As you can take your mobile with you anywhere, so the same happens with the internet access that goes with you where you go.

There are variety of mobile phones and EDGE supported 2G & 3G devices for mobile access to internet. You can use your mobile as the modem(its internal modem works as a highly sophisticated modem machine in this case) and also available are the generic GPRS modems which you can take with you.

EDGE is a smarter way of connecting to internet with a Broadband like connection. However slow, Edge has helped alot to those who were travelling or staying in an isolated place. It is able to make connection with packet switched connections (internet) so you are always online.

EDGE (according to Wikipedia.org)
EDGE can carry data speeds up to 236.8 kbit/s (with end-to-end latency of less than 150 ms) for 4 timeslots (theoretical maximum is 473.6 kbit/s for 8 timeslots) in packet mode. This means it can handle four times as much traffic as standard GPRS. EDGE meets the International Telecommunications Union's requirement for a 3G network, and has been accepted by the ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards. It also enhances the circuit data mode called HSCSD, increasing the data rate of this service. EDGE is part of ITU's 3G definition and is considered a 3G radio technology.


How to use the EDGE for PC browsing.
EDGE can be used with smart EDGE enabled mobile phones available with different Mobile brands. Currently Nokia and Sony Ericson, provide the world class EDGE phones which give the best EDGE experience.

Which Mobiles have EDGE ability.
There are thousands of mobile phones available in the market. Out of these, a descent number of mobile phones are EDGE enabled. This means that they can be used for browsing on PC and also on their inbuilt browsers. These phones have higher data transfer rates and so can be termed as a Typical Mobile Modems. You need a GPRS subscription with your connection, most of the providers provide EDGE access automatically when you subscribe to their GPRS plans. An economic/unlimited data plan is must for using this service as it is quite data consuming.


For choosing your Nokia phones with EDGE connectivity you can go to their website and check which phones have EDGE and usb features. Here is a tentative list of Nokia phones having these requirements.
Nokia mobiles with EDGE (for an updated list visit www.Nokia.com)



There are many ways of achieving faster speeds on 2G networks. And these are done by usage of smart browsers, softwares, download managers etc.

One who is trying to access internet on PC/Laptop by the use of EDGE must do these things to ensure a better speed.
1. Using a light internet browser like Google Chrome, K-meleon, Seamonkey etc.
2. Using Proxy Auto Configurations (PAC) in their browsers so that the pages can load a little bit faster.
3. Using smart downloading softwares like the Download managers and other softwares to help make downloads faster.


Now lets start our first internet connection on PC by using an EDGE mobile phone's internal modem.


1. First you must check your mobile network. Does it support an EDGE network? Call your customer care and make a query about it.
2. Subscribe for a GPRS plan(preferably unlimited plan/plan with lowest charges per KB of data transfer)(Remember, data transfer means both incoming and outgoing data packets.)
3. Check internet settings under the configurations option of your mobile phone and make the necessary settings(ex. access point, web settings etc.). For filling these settings you may need to ask your mobile operator or it maybe already present on your sim card.
4. After configuration of access points and other settings on your phone, you must know how to connect your phone to the computer.
 a)You can use USB cable for making a connection of your mobile phone with the PC on which you want to browse internet
 b)You can use bluetooth(if available both on phone and PC/Laptop) to connect the phone with PC.
 c)USB driver (a configuration protocol file) for mobile's inbuilt Modem. Mobile phone makers provide Cable drivers on their websites or they are available on the internet, so these can be downloaded from the internet.
 d)PC suite for making the connection between phone and PC. This is a software which helps user to connect to internet or do other activities like file transferring between mobile and PC, sending messages and contacts etc.
 e)Now when you have connected your phone with the PC by the help of USB or Bluetooth you need to wait untill the device drivers are loaded and your PC is configured to identify your mobile's USB and also can establish a connection with it.
 f)When your mobile drivers are loaded you will see the message, driver loaded successfully and various other configurations also been loaded on your PC. This means that now the PC is ready to make internet connection.
5. Open the PC Suite software (ex. Nokia PC Suite) and connect your phone.

Congratulations!!Now you are ready to establish internet connection.


6. In the PC suite there is the connect to internet option. Click it to connect to internet or go into Network and Sharing centre option of the PC (inside control panel) and make a dialup connection.
         To make a dialup connection, you will require either USERNAME-PASSWORD with a dialup access number which is required to make internet connection or there would be no authentification and you can just call the dial up number and get connected. For getting the Authentification details for making a dialup call your operator/Google search their dialup settings.(for ex. to make a dial up connection with IDEACellular India, the dialup number is *99# and there is no authentification).

After connecting to the internet by the above ways, you will required to make some changes in your browsing habits. You will need to run a light browser like Chrome/K-meleon etc. because browsers like Internet Exlorer or Firefox can make the speeds slower.
For downloading a song(around 5MBs) you can use the browser but preferably a download manager should be used to decrease the time and help frequent disconnetions that may happen on your service provider's part.
Downloading videos/or watching them on Youtube should be avoided as the speeds are slow on most 2G networks currently.
This mobile internet is ideal for frequent travellers, students, businessmen, as it needs less resources, mostly your mobile itself is working as the modem, the speeds are descent(based on your operator, browsers, firewall settings etc.) and now the mobile operators too are decreasing the charges on this service.


Using EDGE on for hours by help of USB or/and Bluetooth reduces the battery life. As it is just like making a phone call for hours and hours. If you are a typical internet user with atleast 5-12 hours a day of browsing. You should know the various ways of making your mobile tire.
After using the mobile for browsing for hours, you should open the back-battery cover of your phone to let the excess heat go into the air.
(Some other techniques of  helping your mobile to tire after an exhaustive net session is given here.)
For queries about using EDGE mobile for your phone contact us
mail2sc@del1.cjb.net

The site author holds no responsibilities for the techniques given in this page. EDGE internet is not Broadband connection, so will be obviously