AT&T And Ericsson Working On Embedded Mobile Broadband Modules

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I’ve never been too enamored with the whole 3G concept. Looking at the pricing–and the throttling–involved has left me cold. But the folks out at Ericsson and AT&T have some pretty big plans for the network, and these might actually be pretty nice.

What they’re working on is a kind of small wireless broadband module that will allow the user of a device to access a 3G network–which are just about everywhere these days–and from there perform uploads. The new devices come in two flavors: a small one for consumer electronics like cameras and gaming devices, and another larger one for tablets and mobile computers. Both are geared toward smaller spaces, designed to pull less battery power, and offer faster speeds than usual (5.76 Mbps uploads and 21 Mbps downloads, reportedly), which will give most any device broadband connectivity capability.

These are set to be made available later this year, possibly in time for the Christmas shopping frenzy, though just what will get the broadband nod first is quite unclear, let alone how much you’ll have to pay for these, or what kind of subscription service, if any, you’ll have to get on to get access.

While this is a fantastic idea that should make most anyone smile–broadband access would essentially make your camera capable of infinite storage as the device could constantly upload and erase its memory, and that’s just for starters–the problem is one of, once again, bandwidth. AT&T’s network, reportedly, has been having troubles with its current load. And while they now have T-Mobile’s network to back their play, the two networks currently run on different airwaves, which may be more hindrance than help.

Still though, the key point remains, perhaps pretty soon we’ll be able to get internet access for most everything, and at pretty good speeds, too, no matter where you happen to be. And that will be a great step for us all.