[rcarmo]

Re: the rural angle, and considering I'm near Alentejo and only getting 384Kbps right now, allow me to explain that 3/4G at 2.1GHz won't cut it for wide-area coverage, and that it isn't cost effective to upgrade most transmission lines in rural areas to the point where you can have multiple simultaneous users with high bitrates.

That said, my current situation is not representative - I'm in a known poor spot (it's tricky to get a decent signal due to lack of line-of-sight to a base station, and the nearest is 5 klicks away as the crow flies) and if I go uphill and bask in the sun with my iPad things improve markedly :)

Also, LTE at lower frequencies will fix most of these issues - we already have some of the best mobile broadband connectivity on the planet here in Portugal, and it's only going to get better.