Opera browsers to "turbo boost" mobile broadband

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 12 Feb 2009 at 11:22

Opera claims its new Turbo service will boost the speed of browsing on your laptop or mobile device by as much as 80%.

The Turbo feature will be built into Opera's desktop software, as well as its Mobile and Devices browsers.

It's essentially using the same technique used in Opera's Mini browser, where web pages are pre-compressed on Opera's servers before being delivered to the user.

Opera claims the software is ideal for people on mobile internet connections with limited bandwidth. "For consumers who use time-limited or data-transmission-based payment plans, Opera Turbo will provide better browsing at a lower cost," Opera's white paper on Turbo claims.

While Opera Mini's compression undoubtedly accelerates web browsing, it does come at a cost: images are often horribly compressed and it doesn't cope well with AJAX or Flash-heavy sites, such as Facebook.

Many mobile broadband providers already compress web pages on their own servers before sending them to users, but an Opera spokesman told PC Pro that "there won't be any double compression".

The Turbo-equipped browsers will only be made available to laptop and handset manufacturers to pre-install on their devices, and not for general download.

Manufacturers could could see Turbo as a cheap way to cut ever-increasing data consumption.