A CHEAP in-car digital radio receiver will give motorists many of the
benefits of pricey third-generation (3G) cellphone networks, New
快猫短视频 can reveal. The news will disappoint European cellphone
companies, which are spending billions building 3G networks.
American company Command Audio, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen,
has developed a system that delivers news, traffic, weather, sports and stock
price information in a compressed audio format. An in-car receiver stores the
last eight hours鈥� worth, which you can play back whenever you want.
When 3G networks arrive, they should also be able to provide news and
information on demand, delivering data to the screens of mobiles much more
quickly than with today鈥檚 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones. But 3G
devices will be expensive to run, as cellphone companies are likely to charge
for every bit of data downloaded. And the bandwidth needed for visual data will
be wasted on drivers, who are supposed to be keeping their eyes on the road.
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CA鈥檚 content will travel in the 375 kilobits per second slot that the
European digital radio system鈥攁dopted by most countries outside the
US鈥攈as set aside for data broadcasts.
鈥淒igital broadcasters can deliver very high data rates to an unlimited number
of users,鈥� says Quentin Howard of the radio network Digital One. 鈥淭he 3G
networks will never be able simultaneously to serve the same number of consumers
as we can.鈥�