Despite recent advances, GSM data technologies continue to receive a ‘bad rap’ as being slow and costly and suffering from severe ‘availability issues’. This perception has resulted in fixed-line technologies like ADSL continuing to be viewed as the better connectivity option in most cases. Even though DSL deployment is slow by comparison, it is seen as the only option that meets the connectivity requirements of most users, namely availability and speed.

But with GSM data transfer speeds rocketing off the charts, even compared to ADSL, and availability never a problem in major centres, the landscape is dramatically changing. From 2007 onwards wireless technologies have been offering vastly superior speeds compared to DSL. And with operators rolling out newer technologies such as HSPA+ and LTE, speeds of up to 150Mbps download and 100Mbps upload will soon be possible. Future implementations go far beyond that, with LTE supporting a theoretical download speed of one Gigabit per second, completely changing the way we think about wireless communication, or communication in general.

The graph below shows how over time ADSL speeds has remained almost constant compared to GSM, and gives an indication of where future GSM standards are heading. The question is, will you continue to be led by perception or take advantage of these truly amazing advances?