AT&T's new wireless broadband a preview of good things to come.

Byline: Mike Langberg

No one needs to explain why people flock to mobile phones. It's obviously a huge benefit to carry a phone that can make and receive calls anywhere.

Wireless high-speed Internet access, I believe, will ultimately fall into the same category. Who wouldn't want a computer with a broadband connection, minus the tether of a network cable or the need to stay within the limited radius of a WiFi hot spot?

The dream of wireless broadband became a reality in the San Francisco Bay Area on July 20, when AT&T Wireless launched a service with the clunky name 3G UMTS (www.attwireless.com/umts).

As with all new wireless services, 3G UMTS is expensive and has a limited coverage area. But it's a tantalizing preview of some amazing changes just around the corner.

Here's where we are today: Mobile phones are great at voice calls, providing there's a tower within range and the system isn't overloaded. But mobile phones don't work well as modems, with Internet connection speeds that at best match wired dial-up lines.

3G UMTS zooms ahead with an official data speed of 220 to 320 kilobits per second (kbps), about five to seven times faster than wired dial-up, which has a top speed of about 50 kbps.

For $79.99 a month, AT&T Wireless sells unlimited 3G UMTS, accessed with a modem on a card that slides into the side of Windows notebook computer. The card costs $149 with a two-year contract.

The nose-bleed monthly rate confines the market for 3G UMTS to business, although heavy users will find the price a bargain compared to the steep by-the-kilobit rates wireless carriers now charge for much slower service.

I tested UMTS in a half-dozen locations around Silicon Valley, using my Compaq Presario 2500 laptop, and the results were impressive. I got good signal strength in most locations, and running several speed-test utilities produced consistent results in the 200 to 300 kbps range. In locations with weaker signal strength, I still got about 100 kbps _ at least double the best result from previous wireless data networks.

In plain English, this means 3G UMTS delivers almost as good an experience as a home or office broadband network for common tasks such as fetching e-mail and browsing Web pages.

The upload speed for 3G UMTS, the speed at which data moves from your computer to the Internet, is only 64 kbps. But users typically request far more data than they send, so the limited upload speed is only a problem if you want to transmit large files.

3G UMTS also is available on two phones sold by AT&T Wireless, the Motorola A845 and the Nokia 6651, both selling for $299 with a one-year contract. The service is only $24.99 a month, on the theory that customers won't pull down nearly as much data when confined to a mobile phone's tiny screen.

The two phones can also be connected to a computer to function as wireless modems. But customers then pay high per-kilobit rates that could easily end up costing more than the unlimited $79.99 plan.

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The coverage area for UMTS is also limited, covering the most populous parts of Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and western Alameda counties. Left out are almost all of Marin and Contra Costa counties, as well as Morgan Hill, Gilroy and the San Ramon Valley.

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One more reason to be cautious: AT&T Wireless has agreed to be acquired by Cingular Wireless. Both companies have poor reputations for customer service, and the merger _ likely to happen later this year _ could result in months of confusion.

Despite all these concerns, I'm impressed with 3G UMTS and what it represents. The way we use the Internet could change dramatically when we all have anywhere, anytime access on computers and handheld devices. You might not need an Apple iPod to carry tunes, for example, if you can get music on demand to your phone or personal digital assistant _ a type of service now in development.

Monthly rates will, of course, come down over time, and gaps in coverage will be filled.

One reason for declining prices will be intense competition. All the major national carriers are working on wireless broadband.

Cingular is pursuing its own implementation of UMTS, which will be merged with AT&T's network. Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS are backing a rival technology called EV-DO that's even faster, at 300 to 500 kbps. Nextel is testing a system in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., called FLASH-ODFM that runs at a remarkable 1.5 megabits per second, almost 10 times faster than UMTS and about equal to home cable modems.

Future upgrades to UMTS and EV-DO also could greatly boost data speed.

By the end of next year, most populated areas of the United States should be covered by two or more of these networks. I'm looking forward to living in a world where I can always get messages, news and entertainment on the go.

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(Contact Mike Langberg at mike@langberg.com or (408) 920-5084. Past columns may be read at www.langberg.com.)

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(c) 2004, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).

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