Although the packet radio companies talk about speeds ranging from 4.8 Kbps to 19.2 Kbps, users almost never see throughput that high. The networks assemble each user's data in packets containing origin and destination addresses, error checking and correction data, and other supervisory data. Therefore, 2.4 Kbps to 9.6 Kbps is the maximum instantaneous throughput users can expect. But, there's more bad news. These networks hoped to make money by forcing users to share a single radio channel.
Average throughput depends on the number of users active on a channel at any given time.
With even modest channel contention, throughput can quickly plummet to less than 1,200 bps. The day is dawning when users will be able to access cyberspace from the beach or a remote village in central Africa. More importantly, wireless technology will inspire a myriad of new applications. Because wireless computing is still in its infancy, there clearly are many present-day limitations to its use as a networking panacea. While several mobile data services already exist, many more are on the way.