Intermittent and Planned Connectivity

The 3GSM Congress was the opportunity to do how mobile practitioners deal with mobility and connectivity. I witness some “Look I cannot talk to you, I am roaming…” and “Why are you calling me with a +41 number? It is going to cost me a fortune!”. Some 3GSM World connectivity blogged stories include Stuart Mudie’s Living la vida loca:

Well, firstly, I now know that typing on a phone is a real pain for anything other than the shortest of messages. [...] By the way, in case you’re wondering, I’m writing this post on my laptop. I have a neighbour with an unsecured wi-fi connection that I can sometimes catch if the atmospheric conditions are right.

and Russel Beattie’s Dial up… Wow, it still works:

[...] my “3 star” hotel in Barcelona is devoid of broadband, so after a few days of being disconnected, I was forced to root around my Y! laptop and find a corporate dialer, called the helpdesk back in Sunnyvale and asked for a password. [...] There is some intermittant WiFi at the 3GSM conference, but it’s not like I’m going to get a lot done in that chaos

Our vision of seamless integration and ubiquitous connectivity poorly supports real-world’s intermittent connectivity. The convergence via vertical and diagonal handovers of the telecom networks and wireless IP networks will only solve some connectivity problems and might create others. Connectivity is the trigger for data and voice communication. However the devices and applications used must deal with other constraints including bandwidth, coverage (autonomy of connection), latency, and last but not least the cost. Future successful mobile applications will need to plan connectivity by integrating these constraints in a subtle way (e.g. warning if gaming in a high latency area, synchronizing data only when entering a “free” wireless area). An excellent example of “planned connectivity” in the mobile industry was implemented by Shozu. Taken from Mobile Jones’ review of Shozu:

Data charges while roaming are brutal. I recently tried to upload some photos through Flickr and received an SMS from Shozu informing me that my transfer had been suspended, because I was roaming off my home network. Instructions for an override were provided or the option to do nothing, and the application would complete the transfer on my behalf when I was no longer roaming. Next, I received an SMS informing me that the transfer had been completed as I was no longer roaming. Now, that’s a pretty considerate thing to do, especially the part about managing this situation for me. True simplicity.

We manage intermittent connectivity on a regular basis. Like this out-of-office replay received this morning:

I will be traveling through March 3rd, however will be checking email during that time. If you have an urgent request, please contact xxx

Or, an idea I wrote down on my hand, because it was more convenient at that moment (while in a tramway):

Connecting has become implicit while now disconnecting has to be explicit.

Other inspiring planning of intermittent and planned connectivity come from some third world countries, like DakNet that provides mobile access points using motorbikes and buses to give Internet access to remote regions. They collect emails and provide information like a mail man would do. They call it cached WiFi intelligence.

This post is part of this week’s carnival of the mobilists XVI (sweet sixteen) hosted by gotomobile.