Latency on mobile networks (Android)

Question

I am planning to give mobile phone development a shot and was thinking about making some simple multiplayer games. I know latency over local wifi is probably fine but what are the issues with latency over GPRS/3G?

I've searched and the best I've seen is someone saying it was 'high', without presenting any concrete numbers. I suppose latency fluctuations are important as well - does anyone have any info on this?

Answer 1

From my laptop with a UMTS/HSDPA card to my web server I get a ping time of 100ms (both are in Germany).

Answer 2

I've seen the same 802.11 link with the same hot-spot jump from ~80ms to 3000ms and back. Assume latency suck and write the program to deal with it.