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Wireless Networking Portables The Internet Hardware IT

3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card 219

Posted by timothy from the posted-from-a-found-wifi-spot dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Found this on a European site. It's a PCMCIA card that connects you to the internet over a 3G network. With a download rate of 384kb/sec, it's close to broadband speed, and it works wherever there's network coverage. If you're tired of searching for a WiFi hotspot when you need one, this could be the answer."
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3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card More

3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card

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  • Ehh....why is this on /.? (Score:5, Informative)

    by halo1982 ( 679554 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:21PM (#10314190) Homepage Journal
    How is this anything special?
    Sprint has a variety of aircards [sprintpcs.com] operating on their 1xRTT network at up to 144Kbps. Verizon has an aircard for their 1xEVDO BroadbandAccess [verizonwireless.com] network with download speeds of up to 2MBps (also 1xRTT compatible) and another aircard for their 1xRTT NationalAccess network [verizonwireless.com]. AT&T Wireless also has an EDGE aircard at up to 384Kbps [attwireless.com] (they may have a WCDMA one too...not sure) and all of our GSM carriers have GPRS cards. Anyway any carrier with GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/1xRTT/EV-DO or any other wireless data network offers aircards (American or not) and you can pick up unlocked ones up on eBay at decent prices. So why is this front page news?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Already in the UK (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FalconZero ( 607567 ) * <FalconZero&Gmail,com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:22PM (#10314195)
    This kind of thing has been in the UK for quite a while now. I've used both the VodaPhone 3G [vodafone.co.uk] and the Orange 3G datacard [orange.co.uk] for employees. I personally prefer the Orange one for the benefit of the superiour network, but the Vodaphone one has a real no-brainer user interface, so I spend less time with employees ringing me up with that one. The one I'm REALLY waiting for is a 3G datacard that incorporates an 802.11b tranciever with seemless switchover when our employees enter one of our WiFi zones.

    • Further Irritation (Score:3, Interesting)

      by FalconZero ( 607567 ) *
      The only thing that DOES irritate me with these is when employees go to places like China w/ laptops, and complain that its really slow, I consider explaining 3G vs GPRS/GSM, but is about as productive as explaining why we cant use bluetooth to make free calls.
    • Well depending on your app you can achieve fairly good transitions by giving a higher value to the interface on the cellular card and a lower value to the WiFi card. This way any new communication will use the lower cost connection if it is available but you won't lose a connection mid stream.

  • Why always somewhere else? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:22PM (#10314196) Homepage Journal
    So the question is: Why is the US the last place that gets many of these technological advances in networking and wireless data access? When I was over in NZ a couple of weeks ago, there were little tiny cell phones from Japan that were unbelievable in their capabilities. Stuff that typically takes years to show up here in the States are being used by Japanese school kids as a matter of everyday life. A card such as this that connects to a 3G network and auto switches to GPRS where available! (yes, I did read the article) would be huge here in the US particularly given the diverse geography throughout the US as one travels from one place to another.

    Now if I could only get this either built into my Apple portables or get a 12in Powerbook or an as yet unreleased subnotebook with a PCMCIA slot....because the implementation and use of this particular card seems a little cluttered. You have to reboot with the card present in the PCMCIA slot which could be a Windows issue with networking I suppose. "You must restart your computer for the changes to take effect" type crap that I have to deal with whenever I use Windows systems.

    • Re:Why always somewhere else? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:42PM (#10314383)
      There are several reasons.

      Japan is about the size of a postage stamp, so "upgrading" the network takes a long weekend.

      The US is quite large, and "covering" the bulk of the US with a new technology is a vast and expensive undertaking.

      Also, we live in a political society that loves to write useless legislation that does nothing but complicate small matters and slow down new and cool undertakings.

      • Actually it is the lack of legislation that is holding back the US cell phone network. In Europe frequencies are generally only given out/sold to companies which are using interoperable standards. Also, the US for some strange reason likes to assign different frequencies to widely adapted standards. This increases the cost of developing for the US market (and therefore protects domestic manufacturers).

    • Re:Why always somewhere else? (Score:4, Informative)

      by cmowire ( 254489 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:42PM (#10314385) Homepage
      Ummm... Verizon has a EV-DO card that can get in the megabit range. And it downgrades to lower grades of CDMA if you are out of EV-DO range. So there *is* a card just like that already out here.

      Also remember that the phones available are targeted at individual markets. It's not like there's some brand new extra-cool battery technology that they've got in Europe, it may just be that the average American consumer wants different features than a Japanese or European consumer. It's either that Americans want different features, better battery life, less cost, etc.

      I mean, really. Does the lack of state-of-the-art Japanese toilets with sophisticated controls in America mean that we're behind or something? No, it just means that we prefer a simpler way to take a crap!

      • Re:Why always somewhere else? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by spectral ( 158121 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @09:07PM (#10314973)
        No, it means that Americans are blind to the fact that they're being raped on connection charges, and their phones suck.

        I bought a Japanese phone, it has a real address book (not just a phone book), built in email, web browser that would show pictures, games, and many other goodies.. plus it just looked sexy as hell.

        That was two years ago. The phone was being phased out for a newer model.. I got it for $46 USD. My plan was $16 USD/month (I did have a student discount, so take this number w/ a grain of salt), and just paid as I went. No dealing with minutes or crap like that. Texting over there is insanely cheap, and it's the way people usually communicate on the things. Only if necessary do you call someone. Sorry. Emailing, since it was pointless to use C-Mail, Sky-Mail, whatever.. Every phone over there had its own email address, and the other texting networks weren't compatible with each other.

        I just bought a phone here in the US (Verizon, unfortunately). No email, just SMS (though thankfully it works between providers). My web browser doesn't display pictures. My address book won't even store birthdays. I used to carry my Japanese phone around with me too, because it just did what I wanted, in a quick and easy fashion. I couldn't make calls on it, but I could take quick voice memos, and it stored my addresses. I often reach in to my pocket still and look for it, and am disappointed when I find my $150 verizon phone that can't do any of it.

        So, perhaps I'm atypical. But I think it's just because the "Average American Consumer" doesn't demand features in their products that makes it so I have to deal with not being able to find a good phone over here.

        (Yes, I know I could go tmobile and spend $700 to get a decent phone or something, but the coverage around here sucks.)
        • Well I wouldn't say we get raped, for $39/month I get 1,000 anytime national minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile with anyone on my providers network, and unlimited nights and weekends. Even with a 2.5 hour support call I only used about 3/4 of my anytime minutes last month. I have email, SMS, web browser with full HTML support, MIDP JAVA, Voice Dial, etc. There are slightly better phones available right now (3D support,MIDP 2.0, and Blue Tooth) but this one was free. Oh yeah and if you have a GSM provider j

    • Re:Why always somewhere else? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by agristin ( 750854 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:42PM (#10314387) Journal
      because networks take infrastructure...

      to cover japan in a 3 G network we'll say it takes X cell stations and it will cover all N Million Japanese.

      to cover the US (unscientifically a zillion times the size) it would take Zillion x X cellstations and it will cover all N Million Americans.

      Upgrading the Japanese network requires retrofitting X cellstations, while upgrading the US network requires zillion x X cellstations.

      Very few networks actually cover the entire united states, because of the related problem of:

      polulation density.

      Japan is packed with people, and overall there are more people per square mile-

      the US when averaged out, is not very dense. Sure there are some dense areas, and that is where the tests and pilot programs and prototypes are tried out...

      but this impacts cost. So if you could deploy a network and it would be used pretty thoroughly all the way through with users paying for it, you would have a good network economic efficiency (in terms of dollar earned per dollar spent on infrastructure).

      The US with it's low density tends towards poor network economic efficiency (except on the coasts) while Japan has high density and tends towards good network economic efficiency.

      This higher efficiency in turn makes it easier to make enough profit which make it worthwhile to upgrade the network to offer more services to sell to your clients.

      -E

      BTW... The 15" PB has PCMCIA.
      • I was gonna post something to the effect of what you just said, so I guess this is just a Mod Parent Up post...

        Something else related is that to develop wireless infrastructure in a country that hasn't got either wireless or a wired infrastructure, it is many times faster and cheaper to deploy a wireless one. As a result, there may be a time in the new future when barely developed nations will have superior wireless data connectivity than the US has at the time.

      • Re:Why always somewhere else? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by megaversal ( 229407 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:37PM (#10314800)
        I never really understand this argument. I'm not saying you're wrong, but here... every cell phone provider has dead zones everywhere. I have Sprint, and between all of my friends, we cover every major provider... yet no matter where we go, we always find our signal being dropped everywhere. Step inside a building? Lose signal. Elevator? If you haven't already lost your signal, you're about to lose it.

        When I was in Japan last month, I found that none of these problems existed. On train rides in between cities, people were still using their cell phones as if they were standing next to a tower. I had many chances to interact with people who had the latest and greatest phones and they were watching TV on the phone, underground.. where my cell phone wouldn't even get signal.

        If it's a population density thing, why do I still have this problem in a city like Los Angeles, yet they're fine travelling in between cities where often we get 0 coverage.

        The only downside to their wireless system that I found was that whereas we get tons of cell phone minutes to talk, they get about 30 minutes... but their messaging system is really cheap. So where we spend most of our time with our cell phones to our ears, they're busy typing.
        • So where we spend most of our time with our cell phones to our ears, they're busy typing.
          I can just see all the US Soccer Moms typing as they go down the road in their giant SUV's, running over motorcycles with wild abandon. Oh the humanity!
      • I'm so sick and tired of this bullshit excuse. I live in a country with a population that has a population density one tenth of that of the US and a market almost one fifthteenth smaller than the US and we've had 3G in the form of WCDMA in our state capitals for over a year now.

        For places that don't have 3G coverage yet we *gasp* roam using GSM.

        Also, you can only fit so many users on a base station and in a CDMA based system the cells only get smaller as more and more users jump onto them. So if you have
        • As for the network efficiency argument, stick the freaking towers in the middle of New York and LA. Theres 30 million users. 1/10th of the US market in 2 cities. Sure it doesn't solve the problem of "why can't I get 3G in the middle of the Arizona desert!" but theres no excuse for major cities not to be eqipped with the latest in cell phone technology.

          And guess what? In some major cities in the US you can get EV-DO wireless broadband that kicks the shit out of your WCMDA and in most cities you can get 1x
      • If population density is the driving factor, then why isn't this available in:

        Houston
        NYC
        Boston
        Philly
        etc...

        I'm tired of the "population density" argument. I live in Dallas and I can barely keep a regular cellular phone call going, much less, get broadband other than WiFi at Starbucks.

        Just an observation.
        • Houston's average population density is much lower than that in Dallas. MUCH LOWER. The city is spread out all over hell. It takes the better part of a day to drive through, even without traffic. Of course, I've never made it through without traffic...because Houston without traffic just doesn't make any sense.

          So if population density is the driving factor, Houston will get it last.
      • Australia is as large as the continental US with a popolation 15 times smaller. Yet all the mobile phone networks cover the entire country.

        This is due to legislation that stated if you want to build a mobile network in Australia you must cover the entire country.
        • I don't know about your definition of "entire country" , but it obviously doesn't mesh with mine. I can drive from Mount Isa to Townsville (approx 900km) and have about 500km of that trip with *no* signal, GSM or CDMA.

          There's plenty of self-aggrandizing ads that proudly proclaim "Now covering 97% of the population!!". They don't mention the many hundreds-of-kilometer gaps in coverage where people frequent (eg major highways), but where nobody lives. So, all you people that bitch about how your cellphone dr

      • because networks take infrastructure...

        It does - and as long as there is no clear decision on what that infrastructure should be, the US will have lousy coverage.

        Sparsely populated countries like Finland and Sweden have exellent coverage because they - like the rest of Europe - have standardized on GSM. This hase several consequences that are all to the benefit of the users:

        • There is a huge market and several manufacturers of GSM base-station equipment.
        • There is nowhere near as much service provider
      • the US when averaged out, is not very dense. Sure there are some dense areas, and that is where the tests and pilot programs and prototypes are tried out...

        And where law is made here in DC.

    • Well, this wireless PCMCIA broadband tech is already here [slashdot.org].
    • America was set up from the beginning to maximize investor profit, at the expense of the quality of life of the average person living in America. Well, just look at the early history of America--a great place to be a wealthy businessman--plenty of slaves and indentured servants and exploitable Indian hunting grounds; and with a Constitution set up to guarantee maximum investor profits--at the expense of the quality of life of said slaves, indentured servants and Indians.

      And that SAME Constitution is around
      • You should shut up about the US. People in the US have it much better than people living in third world countries.

      • Re:maximize profit, not maximize quality of life (Score:4, Informative)

        by anothy ( 83176 ) on Wednesday September 22, 2004 @06:12AM (#10317118) Homepage
        you're wrong on a number of fronts. the American Revolution was as much a revolt against the domination of British corporations as it was against the British government. the event that made reconciliation between the colonies and the British government impossible - the Boston Tea Party - wasn't an attack on British government or its assets, but on the East India Company [wikipedia.org]. it was that company that then pressured the British government into punishing the colonists (not to say that the government wouldn't have anyway, but EIC certainly influenced the nature of those measures). after the revolution, the resulting American government was exceedingly wary of corporate power. corporations were heavily restricted and regulated, and violation of one's corporate charter would result in that corporation simply being disbanded (a real corporate death penalty!).

        then came the Civil War, and reconstruction. the Civil War was, in a very real way, a fight over the idea that what's good for business is good for the country. in many southern states, the state had in many ways taken the place of the corporations you (and i) dislike so much, with the accompanying abuse of power - only more so, with government approval and arms. the Federal government was fighting a war to be able to regulate that power, for the good of its citizens.

        the Federal government (in the form of "the North") won the civil war, but - sadly - lost the reconstruction. they were indeed now more able to regulate the states, but lost control (or, more probably, gave away control) of corporations. the landmark decision came in the form of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad [google.com]. an almost off-hand assertion by a single Supreme Court Justice was used repeatedly over the next several years as the grounds for elevating corporations to the status of "natural persons". this began the almost totally unchecked growth of corporate power in America, and secured, at least to the present day and for the near future, the place of the Corporation as a fixture of American life, politics, law...

        the dissolution of the state as a pseudo-corporation with immense power arguably influenced the types of mega-corporations seen immediately afterwards, in particular the railroad companies. take a look at social security numbers, for example. the first three digits indicate the state of birth. but did you know there was a specific three-digit head reserved for railroad employees? nothing like that existed before the civil war, nor (thankfully) does it today.

        that's because, after the huge spike in corporate power at the end of reconstruction, the government has been struggling to reign in those corporations again. while corporate power is still well beyond anything seen pre-reconstruction, it's well less than the reconstruction peak. i, at least, would like to see it further limited, but it is a difficult fight, and contains many legitimately difficult questions that need answering about how to fairly - and in many cases, safely - do that.

        you make the mistake (among others) of equating very rich individuals to corporations. it is, of course, true that the early American government allowed slavery, and that this was meant for maximizing profits of landed (white male) aristocracy. both slavery and indentured servitude, mind you, were inherited directly from the British. regardless, the power of any of these individuals pales in comparison to the power of, say, the railroad and oil companies of post-reconstruction America, and even a large collection of such powerful individuals had more direct accountability than a pre- or post-reconstruction corporation. it is simply not a useful comparison.

        even post-reconstruction, corporate power in America, while certainly not any less in degree, has a very different character than that p

    • You can either get the Mac OS X driver for this card direct from Vodafone in Germany, here [vodafone.de].

      Or, Nova Media [novamedia.de] have a package that adds support not just for this card, but a range of other 3G cards as well as 3G and 2G phones. I'm not overly sure why, as Mac OS X comes with builtin support for 2G connections via a long list of phones already (as well as AddressBook and Calendar iSync support). And there are a number of free dial-up scripts out there to support some of the newer phones until Apple fill the gap
    • The wireless telcos are totally clueless about the potential size of the market for these devices, because they keep assuming they can charge rip-off prices per bit/packet/message just like they do with text messaging services, and they're unwilling to risk reducing their revenue from texting by changing the economics. The right price is something competitive with DSL / Cable Modems, e.g. $30-60 flat rate per month for all the bits you can eat, trading off convenient access for a bit more money.

      Supposing

    • All the wealth you/we enjoy in North America comes from a huge amount of resources and increadibly low population density..

      Because of this low population density selling in bulk never really caught on and things like transportation and yes technologies which require population density are increadibly expensive and lackluster.

      Getting around in Asia is really cheap and watching 2 old women sell food to 60 people an hour at about 1/200th of their daily wage really makes your head spin...

      One wonders if i
    • Basically because the USA is afraid of the European inspired GSM network.

      In NZ (where I live) it was always funny watching the CDMA, DAMPS and APMS provider - Telecom NZ - play catch-up in the technology, features and capabilities to the GSM provider - Vodafone.

      It also helps that we can use phones that are literally from Asian countries. (At least, GSM ones.) You can go to Hong Kong and buy a GSM phone, and come here and put a Vodafone NZ SIM card in it and it will work. Keeps the competition up! (

  • Summary for US readers (Score:5, Funny)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:22PM (#10314207) Homepage Journal
    The Mobile Connect, as the full name suggests, is a 3G data card [...] connect to the Internet over Vodafone?s growing 3G network. The card also supports GPRS [...] You?ll also find a user guide, a driver CD and the all important SIM card.

    So, for us norteamericanos, the summary of this story is simple: Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

    (But I guess we can still slobber. And they say Slashdot is too US-Centric!)

  • Available in Australia (Score:3, Informative)

    by roly ( 576035 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:23PM (#10314217)
    In Australia, this service is already available from 3 [three.com.au]. It's expensive, and the coverage isn't great (roams onto GPRS when no coverage), but it's available at the 384kbps speeds. In .au, that's more than the upstream of most Cable Modems and DSL lines!
    • Unsurprisingly, we have that in the US too. It's called AT&T Wireless, and they offer EDGE nationally.

      Sprint and Verizon offers 1xRTT nationally, and Verizon offers 1xEV-DO in certian markets.
    • It's also available in limited areas at 1Mbps (and I mean real 1Mbps) via http://www.iburst.com.au/ [iburst.com.au].

      I was involved in the trial in Sydney at the start of the year, and it rocked... That said, their expansion is really slow, and I'm back in Melbourne, so it's out of the question now...

    • Irritatingly 3 in the UK hasn't bothered to roll out any data services. Instead they're looking at the cheap calls market (you can put many more people on 3GSM cells than on old GSM cells, but you need a lot of customers for that to make things cheap for you). So Vodafone and Orange come along to grab the business market... I suspect 3 will not do well here as a result of that.

  • Yes indeed... (Score:2, Funny)

    by hamisht ( 197412 )
    If you're tired of searching for a WiFi hotspot when you need one, this could be the answer.

    Only if the questions is: "Why can't I find any 3G coverage around here?"

  • I've been using my Sanyo VM-4500 phone with a USB cable to my powerbook to connect to Sprint's "Vision" service. Future Dial [futuredial.com] has been offering this for awhile.
  • The card works thanks to the growing 3G (third generation) network that's common in the UK (where Vodaphone itself is). In the United States, Verizon [cnn.com] has just started offering 3G coverage in three geograpic areas, including tech-savvy Silicon Valley.

    I have no idea if Verizon's network will be compatible with Vodaphone's card. My guess is not.
    • Nope. Completely different protocol stacks, slightly different modulation format.

      Europe uses GSM and now UMTS, and there's no option to use something better, because GSM/UMTS is The Law.

      America lets you use whatever the heck you want to. So Verizon uses CDMA.

      Although, Vodaphone owns a chunk of Verizon Wireless. I'm glad it has the Verizon name and not the Vodaphone name. My friends would get tired of me referring to my "Bone-A-Phone" all of the time.
      • Europe uses GSM and now UMTS, and there's no option to use something better, because GSM/UMTS is The Law.

        Oh fuck. I better tell all these providers [cdg.org] that GSM/UMTS is the law. Especially Portugal.

        Or how about Sweden launching rural 3G in Sweden and Norway using 450MHz CDMA [wirelessweek.com]. Shit. I better ring them too. That was close!
      • Firstly it's an operator defined standard, based on what the operators decided was best, not an arbitrary legal one. Secondly CDMA is no better than GSM except under certain population concentrations, they are no different unless the conditions are right for CDMA, which is unusual (and GSM has always had clear advantages in other ways anyway, battery life, SIM cards etc etc and international agreement has even more advantages). CDMA2000 is a different standard from 2G CDMA, as is WCDMA (UMTS) (to add to tha
  • The original poster should have added ...in Japan [nttdocomo.co.jp].

    And then gone back in time about a year or so...

  • Already available in Australia (Score:4, Informative)

    by dan_barrett ( 259964 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:28PM (#10314260)
    Hutchinson's/Orange already sell this in Australia under the "3" brand (their 3g network).

    Apparently it works well as long as you don't mind the AUS$10 per MB download charge and are in the reevant coverage areas.

    Details are here. [three.com.au]

    • Sprint sells a CompactFlash card / PCMCIA card for US use. The costs are pretty high, I don't think nearly $10/MB high but still high enough that even when I was stuck on a modem, I wouldn't consider it.

      Ironically, on the cost front, I bought a T1 line and am splitting its cost and bandwidth with three businesses. :)
    • Actually Hutchison no longer have anything to do with Orange. Orange is now a brand of France Telecom.

      In the UK 3 don't offer Data on 3G yet but Orange and Vodafone do.

  • data plan == arm & leg (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sPaKr ( 116314 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:29PM (#10314268)
    There are a ton of these pcmcia wireless cards floating around. Now if they had a unlimited data plan that didnt break the bank that would be NEWS!

  • This is NOT new (Score:5, Informative)

    by crapnutassneck ( 243159 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:32PM (#10314290) Homepage
    We have had "cellular data cards" in the US since about 97. It started on the TDMA side with CDPD at 19.2kbps (9.6kbps usable) mainly from ATT over the TDMA network. They then went to GPRS (30kbps in real life) and now EDGE (120kbps in real life) and in select markets UMTS (actually a WCDMA technology that is hitting 800kbps on unsaturated networks). Previous to this they were doing the circuit switched thing over AMPS (some of this still exists for telemetric devices).

    Concurrently the CDMA carriers started with CS/CDMA (going off hook and dialing a modem at 14kbps over the CDMA network), then went to 1xRTT at 50kbps in real life, then to 1xEvDO and eventually to 1xEVDV in some markets (saw evDO tested and was about 720kbps in a mobile environment). The reason we don't have ubiquitis coverage with said devices is the pure and simple fault of the FCC for breaking up spectrum the way they did initially. This is NOTHING NEW. I was installing and deploying CDPD to telnet into servers/routers in 98-99 (before I went to work deploying this stuff for one of the carriers). It is available at dialup/bri speeds everywhere you get CDMA or GSM voice today and at dsl speeds in many major markets.
    • CS/CDMA is not dialing a modem at 14kbps. It is sending data instead of voice over individual "slot" and then using a modem on the cellular->POTS transition, which is the same way that GPS data worked before GPRS came out. Running a modem over digital speach compression is a very Bad Thing.

      I'm not sure if you'd call the FCC breaking up spectrum a bad idea. Sure, it's lead to some standards clash, but it also means that there's more of an incentive to roll out new technology. Remember, CDMA is from Q
    • I'm glad someone posted this, after reading all the "why don't we have this in the US?" posts I was starting to wonder if I was going mad and there wasn't really a PCMCIA Verizon EvDO card in my laptop right now.

      Interestingly the software for the thing displays the Vodaphone logo pretty prominantly.
  • ... but Americans are surprised at this technology? This technology is nothing new [three.com.au] in Australia, even though the take-up is not as expected, due to exorbitant pricing structures.

  • Finally, damn stalkers (Score:3, Funny)

    by Man in Spandex ( 775950 ) <prsn DOT kev AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:33PM (#10314301)
    If you're tired of searching for a WiFi hotspot when you need one, this could be the answer."


    I can finally be rest assured to have less bandwith-seeking nerds entering my wireless hotspot but, IANAL.
  • if it weren't so damn expensive. 1GBP =~ 1.8USD. yikes.

  • They charge like wounded bulls... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Goonie ( 8651 ) * <robert.merkel@be ... g ['ra.' in gap]> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:36PM (#10314333) Homepage
    They have this in a number of countries with post Stone-age cellular networks (that means most western nations except you, USA), but it's not at all cheap. In Australia, you get about 500 megabytes download a month for about 70 USD. Over that limit, though it's 2.80 USD per megabyte!

    I don't think you'd be downloading warez and pr0n at that price... :)

  • 384kbps (Score:2, Informative)

    by highway ( 261500 )
    I've been using a novatel [novatelwireless.com] card to get 384kbps for 2 years now. Sprint is even offering a 2mbps service in select areas. My toshiba cellphone through a usb cable averages about 300kbps.

    I'm working with sprint global right now to provide a dedicated secure link to police cars in City of Atwater [atwater.org]. The service is called Sprint DataLink. That link will be 384kbps. Soon it will be upgraded to over 2mbit.
  • I have an Orange Novatel Merlin card plugged in right now, and it's pretty good. I every wrote a HOWTO [umtstrial.co.uk] in case people were having trouble getting connected, but it just looks like ttyS1 to me. Saves all that faffing around installing drivers for Windows.
  • Would be nice if your laptop used ethernet if available then Wifi if available
    and if not then used G3 and if not used GPRS.
    Automatically.
  • AT&T has their supposedly 3G version out now here in the states.

    Reality: You get an "effective speed" that feels just like dialup from a hotel room.

    Itself, it isn't bad when you need the link in the middle of nowhere.

    In town, its usually much faster to pop up Net Stumbler and drive into the first suburban neighborhood you see. It generally takes less than 5 minutes to find an ssid called "LINKSYS".

  • Just getting a data plan on your wireless service isn't enough, in cases like this. With AT&T, at least, if you use this sort of device, you will be charged an additional $0.001 per kilobyte. This doesn't sound like a lot, but $1.00/MB is outrageous for laptop Internet browsing.

    In case I didn't get my point across: Even if you buy the $25.00/month plan, you will be charged $0.001/KB download fees by AT&T, at least as of last week when I last checked.

  • Nextel Broadband (Score:2, Interesting)

    by brgomeistr ( 165406 )

    Nextel Broandband [nextelbroadband.com] has been doing a trial of its 750Kbps - 1.5Mbps [nextelbroadband.com] service in the Raleigh/Durham area [nextelbroadband.com] for months now.

    They have both a wireless PC Card and Wireless AP for your home (both of which are $50 for now, though who knows what the price of a nationwide rollout would be).

    A coworker has been demoing the service for my office for a few months and has nothing but good things to say...DSL-like speeds with little latency, and no interupted service that he has noticed. It is definately more expe
  • when I can use my sprint cell phone with a data cable and pay only $15 a month for 2.5G vision internet service?
    • I don't see much interest as well for such a card. However, a CF form-factor card would be much more interesting.

      Who cares to carry the phone and a cable when he already carry a laptop...

  • Free -- albeit slower -- alternative! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Oliver Aaltonen ( 606410 ) <aaltonenNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:37PM (#10314799) Homepage
    For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com [howardforums.com] for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here [aaltonen.us] and here [aaltonen.us].

  • unlimited plan at Malaysia (Score:3, Informative)

    by doubtless ( 267357 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @08:39PM (#10314817) Homepage
    There's already an unlimited wireless "broadband" over cellular network right here in Malaysia, granted they are using EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) instead of 3G. The data rate is about triple that of GPRS. It goes for RM99, which works out to be around US$26 per month.

    thier FAQ [digi.com.my] is here.

    Remember, there are more to Malaysia than just good quality pirated discs.
  • I have a PCMCIA that connects via a Wireless CellBased technology (like cellphone/3G but a different technology) that gets me 1Mbps down [iburst.com.au].

    Why on earth would I want your 3G at marginally better than one third that speed?
  • I used to have a Verizon phone (don't remember the make and model) which had 3G net connectivity and a USB port so it could be connected to a computer and used as a "modem" for 3G access to the internet. Therefore, I really do not see why this is all that special.

  • This is way over priced (Score:3, Informative)

    by max born ( 739948 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @09:59PM (#10315297)
    I build access points and donate bandwidth for the sflan project [sflan.org] with the hope of bringing low to zero cost Internet access for everyone in San Francisco. One of our problems is the ridiculously low FCC imposed power restrictions on our trancievers while phone companies who paid millions to buy their part of the spectrum are allowed to use thousands of times the power we are.

    I don't want to come off as a pessimist but my concern is that the furture of wireless be look more like the control-and-toll method of owning the spectrum and charging what you like for, spending nothing on R&D yet billions on marketing to create a lockdown system of over priced mediocre service.
  • "Connection via 3G will give you up to 384Kbits/sec download speed - uploads are limited to 64Kbits/sec"

    Even ignoring the tiny upload speed, is 0.3Mbps 3G? Even in the US, where "broadband" means "500+Kbps", that would seem small for 3G. We're promised EV-DO and EDGE mobile connections starting around the States by the beginning of 2005, and those start at 384Kbps, and promise up to 1.5Mbps. Of course, Europeans don't relate to "can you hear me now?", so maybe they're just really getting 0.3Mbps they're pr

  • Any of the cards mentioned have support in the linux kernel ? Do they appear as a modem to the PC, or something totally non-standard ?

    Thanks,
    -- Pat
  • Shameless plug : Swisscom launched a GSM-UMTS-WLAN card which can virtually roam between the different network and seamlessly connect to the fastest one (webpage [swisscom-mobile.ch]).

    However, this is somewhat expensive ...

  • My employers [vodafone.co.uk] sell a 3G data card. It's compatible with PC, Mac [theregister.co.uk] and, so I'm told, Linux [peck.org.uk].

    It's a [franticly remembers details] a USB bridge device, so there's no reason why it shouldn't be compatible with anything.

    Details here [vodafone.co.uk] - manager's guide here [vodafone.co.uk]

    I've used it - it works very well. It seamlessly moves from 3G to 2.5G without a loss of connection and the server side compression really makes things fly. Works fine with VPNs etc.

    T

  • This is Old (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mikelikus ( 212556 )
    This is old news for Europeans.
    This is old news for Americans.
    This is old news for Asians.
    This is old news for Africans.
    This is old news for Everyone.

    But it makes Slashdot's front page...
  • Data access via fast cellular networks has always seemed like a better route than wifi to me.. Anyone more versed in cell networks care to debunk this?

    With the very short range of WiFi, it's great for using my laptop around the house, but for ubiquitous access it has big limitations. Then, add on the pay-per model that many places have, and it is a big pain in the butt. If I could subscribe once to all hotspots it would be okay. But, as it is now, I go from a coffee shop - to the airport - fly to a

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