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Maybe they have been replaced by USB dongles. But the command set is the same:

https://www.developershome.com...
https://www.sierrawireless.com...
https://www.sparkfun.com/datas...

The modem is a Sierra Wireless AirPrime Q Series Module

Airlink Ravens are cellular modems with Ethernet jacks. You can attach any kind of antenna you want to it - mount it on the roof if you like. Run the signal you get through a cellular amplifier and that's about as good as you can ask for in the cellular world.

is compatible with Linux. I use it with my laptop. It doesn't require any special software. Just use kppp, and adjust the settings per the Sprint documentation or the on-phone tech. It was a PAIN in the ass trying to get the -597 to work, and both Best Buy AND Sprint earlier claimed the 597 was compatible, but, IIRC, Sierra did not make that claim.

http://www.myrateplan.com/cool_phones/2283/sprint/sierra_598_usb_modem/

http://www.sierrawireless.com/product/USB598.aspx

i use this because, tho i *could* piggyback on Feeva in the Union Square area, i think i'd rather have reasonably reliable AND mobile access. Besides, there *might* be more personal privacy/security going via mobile wireless through a cell carrier than a lesser-protected wi-fi signal. Now, of course, if anyone near me is scanning RF or my laptop emissions specifically, then, yeh, i know almost all bets are off...

The branding "Aircard" is close enough to "Airport" some readers may assume it refers to Apple equipment instead of stuff manufactured by Sierra Wireless.

The 2 big datavendors Sierra Wireless and Novatel have some nice data products that you can use VoIP on the go.

Novatel has the Ovation, a product from a San Diego company, will have support most high speed including Wifi/WiMAX. Very interesting product, but Novatel doesnt support quad band GPRS, little problem.
http://www.novatelwireless.com/products/ovation/in dex.html

Sierra Wireless has a great PC card coming out, support quad band, 850 and 900, so better coverage in the USA. Including the new HSPDA upgrade from UMTS. Cingular (and ATT Wireless) limited launched UMTS, but they are upgrading and expanding UMTS to HSPDA now.
http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/ac8 x0.asp

I'm prob going to pick a Sierra Wireless PC card, after using UMTS on my limited channel phone (tethered), its amazing. WiMAX will be nice when it finally gets here, but UMTS is already launched, and vendors already software upgraded their UMTS to HSPDA.

I just wish i could get a single HSPDA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/WiFi G card.

After initializing the card for the first time (using windows, it needs to update the firmware, etc.), the card works like a regular com-port/modem. Beware of wvdial though, i had to patch it to make it work reliably with the AirCard. Also see http://centerclick.org/aircard555/

I recently dumped the aircard and replaced it with a GSM phone Nokia 6820. Which not only has a fold-out QWERTY keyboard, both a commercial and a free ssh client, and bluetooth, but also an IR port which emulates a modem when put next to the IR port on a laptop. Then just dial *99# and you're in business, even when traveling abroad. (The AirCard doesn't support data calls outside of the US.)

I think it's a better deal than the dedicated wireless cards, unless you're planning on using it constantly. It appears that the speed on the 6820 (with AT&T / Cingular service) via IR is better than the AirCard too.

Turbo codes have been used in consumer electronics for some time now. In my service area it's called 1X and if you have a new-ish CDMA phone you already have a turbo code'n consumer electronic appliance. Turbo codes are only used for data (because of the processing delay), and I don't know anyone who connects their phone to their computer (or pays the extortionary prices) to get the theoretical 144kbs. Oh, there's a pcmcia card as well.

Sierra Wireless just released a new phone today. The Vancouver Sun did a story this morning, which said "the first model will work with wireless networks using the GSM and GPRS standard used throughout Europe and on some North American networks, including Rogers AT&T Wireless and Microcell's Fido in Canada."

Unfortunately, it runs Windows Mobile software, but the layout of the keyboard is very cool.

There's even a FAQ for IT people///

Verizon and others are offering the Sierra pcmcia card... I have one. It has a jack for a standard handsfree or headset. In my opinion, the phone is a novelty - it can't answer unless the PDA or laptop is powered up and ready (read:burning battery). Here, 1X service pretty much sucks speed-wise - web browsing is painful.. email is bad too... VPN during rush hour is next to useless.

I have used it for telnet and it seems okay. In a pinch, it's handy, but I can't justify the expense.

I'd rather have a 1X data capable phone and a blackberry.

YMMV

On the Verizon Express Network Terms and Conditions page, it states:

Charges for each Express Network data session that connects begin when you press or click the "SEND" or "Connect" button and have selected the "Express Network (1XRTT)" option at the user interface. Charges end when you press or click the "END" or "Disconnect" button.

OK, now imagine you are using the Sierra Aircard 550 PCMCIA card. Does just turning on the laptop start the session (and billing)?

I wonder if the PC card or interface software can be smart enough to recognize that it only needs to be connected to the network when you are sending or receiving data. The actual data utilization of most Web browsing at 114 kbps is probably only 10-20% of actual time spent by the surfer.

Of course, it you are watching video pr0n, your results may be higher.

How about two?

Merlin C201

AirCard 550/555

It's been a while (about a year) since I last investigated this, so I may be off-base, but I think this is still reasonably current:

Most of the cellphone companies, especially the PCS ones, claim to be able to deliver digital data connections. Almost none of them can, and if they can, the performance is painfully slow. These folks just don't understand the value of opening up their bit stream. (Dream On: Really, I just want a good IP pipe, and I'll decide myself whether to use it for web, mail, telephony, or whatever. This assumes that the phone companies are interested in building an open IP architecture, sadly, they're not...)

So far as I know, there are no wireless ISP services that offer both road coverage and non-painful speeds.

Probably the best option today from a coverage standpoint and a real data solution is one of the CDPD-based services like OmniSky or GoAmerica. You can also start at the sites of the equipment providers like Sierra Wireless or Novatel Wireless. This approach still leaves a lot to be desired, but is likely the best reasonably-priced option available now.

Alternatively, you could try to live in the 802.11b world, hoping to find access points. Some cities have better documentation of this than others - Austin has a very incomplete list at Austinwireless.Net, mostly because RoadRunner is heavy-handedly disconnecting people they find out are running 802.11b APs. This is not a great option, but actually getting better as 802.11b takes off - lot's of offices and coffee houses have this stuff now.

Of course there are the exotic options like Iridium, but it's expensive and I expect most of their bandwidth is being used by the DoD right now...

Metricom's Ricochet was a great system if you could get it, but I was never able to consider it: they never got enough of Austin covered to really make it an option. The only people I know that were really able to use Ricochet were in the Silicon Valley (San Jose) area, where the coverage is pretty good. It would be nice to see this approach (if not this company and its implementation) make a comeback - microcells are a great idea technically, but it appears to me that the cost of getting the rights for microcell sites is what killed them, compounded by the sheer volume of sites they need. I expect Metricom's cost of site acquisition was astronomical, except in places like San Jose where the city gave them carte blanche to hang boxes on any light pole.

Ricochet was great if you stayed put, but in a moving vehicle it had great trouble microcell-hopping. I find CDPD, as implemented as a virtual NIC by the Sierra Aircard 300, to be much more useful in mobile environments. It is even usable on most of the Amtrak trip between Washington, DC and NYC.

I've used CDPD to build a portable webcam.

Unfortunatley, much of the hardware that was developed for Ricochet has been discontinued. Hopefully the AirCard 400 can be brought up to speed again.

Although it may be tough, with GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT gaining ground around the world. Word on the street is that Telus Mobility (Canadian) will have 1xRTT up for Q1 next year.

This bad boy can run up to 150kbps on only 1xRTT.

Just wait until 2x and 3xRTT hit the market.

What I'm still trying to figure out is if ONE standard has been chosen for REAL 3G/UMTS. The recent AT&T adoption of GSM/GPRS would suggest that WCDMA is not the way to go?? anybody?

Unfortunatley, much of the hardware that was developed for Ricochet has been discontinued. Hopefully the AirCard 400 can be brought up to speed again.

Although it may be tough, with GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT gaining ground around the world. Word on the street is that Telus Mobility (Canadian) will have 1xRTT up for Q1 next year.

This bad boy can run up to 150kbps on only 1xRTT.

Just wait until 2x and 3xRTT hit the market.

What I'm still trying to figure out is if ONE standard has been chosen for REAL 3G/UMTS. The recent AT&T adoption of GSM/GPRS would suggest that WCDMA is not the way to go?? anybody?

Im really just trying to find a replacement for the Toshiba Libretto. After Toshiba stopped making the palm top, the only real choice people had was PDAs. I really need a wireless device, If I only wanted a calendar or contact list, I have PocketNet phone with Fonesync software. But I needed a true wireless connection with a tcp/ip stack(for SSH) so I picked up a CDPD modem. But carrying around a full size laptop sucks, so I migrated to a PDA. I first started off with an wireless Palm Omnisky. Battery life was nice, upto 1 week light use, and 2 weeks if it sat im my pocket. But I wanted color and sound, I migrated to the PocketPC (Ipaq) and CDPD modem. Not bad, I can surf websites in html not wap, and even listen to mp3s. (Very important for work ya know!) Battery life is weak, and I find myself letting the battery die right when I need. Picked up a IBM Microdrive. Fast, was able to move documents from my laptop and back, neat idea, but didnt use it as much I wanted. I gotta get around to trying out the Pocket Divx Player and put a divx movie on the microdrive. (Gotta watch Red Dwarf ep with the Sock Puppet.)

Heck, They even have PDA pr0n for those long boring conference calls. :)

Im really just trying to find a replacement for the Toshiba Libretto. After Toshiba stopped making the palm top, the only real choice people had was PDAs. I really need a wireless device, If I only wanted a calendar or contact list, I have PocketNet phone with Fonesync software. But I needed a true wireless connection with a tcp/ip stack(for SSH) so I picked up a CDPD modem. But carrying around a full size laptop sucks, so I migrated to a PDA. I first started off with an wireless Palm Omnisky. Battery life was nice, upto 1 week light use, and 2 weeks if it sat im my pocket. But I wanted color and sound, I migrated to the PocketPC (Ipaq) and CDPD modem. Not bad, I can surf websites in html not wap, and even listen to mp3s. (Very important for work ya know!) Battery life is weak, and I find myself letting the battery die right when I need. Picked up a IBM Microdrive. Fast, was able to move documents from my laptop and back, neat idea, but didnt use it as much I wanted. I gotta get around to trying out the Pocket Divx Player and put a divx movie on the microdrive. (Gotta watch Red Dwarf ep with the Sock Puppet.)

Heck, They even have PDA pr0n for those long boring conference calls. :)

Im really just trying to find a replacement for the Toshiba Libretto. After Toshiba stopped making the palm top, the only real choice people had was PDAs. I really need a wireless device, If I only wanted a calendar or contact list, I have PocketNet phone with Fonesync software. But I needed a true wireless connection with a tcp/ip stack(for SSH) so I picked up a CDPD modem. But carrying around a full size laptop sucks, so I migrated to a PDA. I first started off with an wireless Palm Omnisky. Battery life was nice, upto 1 week light use, and 2 weeks if it sat im my pocket. But I wanted color and sound, I migrated to the PocketPC (Ipaq) and CDPD modem. Not bad, I can surf websites in html not wap, and even listen to mp3s. (Very important for work ya know!) Battery life is weak, and I find myself letting the battery die right when I need. Picked up a IBM Microdrive. Fast, was able to move documents from my laptop and back, neat idea, but didnt use it as much I wanted. I gotta get around to trying out the Pocket Divx Player and put a divx movie on the microdrive. (Gotta watch Red Dwarf ep with the Sock Puppet.)

Heck, They even have PDA pr0n for those long boring conference calls. :)

Alot of people keep asking why we dont have the cool 3G phones in the US yet, well nokia, mitsubishi, erricson and motorola dont want to put out phones for the small US market. With the large ammount of GSM phones around the world, they can make more money selling only GSM phones. Now this is were GPRS (2.5G) comes in, they can alter the GSM phones to work on GPRS networks with less hassle.

ATTWS is already working toward 3G networks, GPRS/2.5 out NOW, then EDGE in 2002, and UMTS in 2003. Check Here for ATTWS upgrade news And here for the Motorola Timeport P7382i Remember that 10 Billion bux DoCoMo spent for 16 percent in ATTWS? That money is going to pay for the upgrade.

I currently have a Motorola GSM/GPRS Timeport P7382i on ATTWS network. Speeds about around a 56K modem here in Seattle. Even using IR via win2k IRmodem port and PPP, so linux should work flawlessly. On my Ipaq, Im upgrading my sierra wireless Aircard 300 cdpd modem. to a new GPRS pc card modem. Should have my GPRS pcmcia card within a couple weeks.

Side note. I cant wait to install Qnx on my Ipaq, after seeing that /. article.. I also need to try that PDA pr0n site out too. :)

I have an iPAQ with a PCMCIA card slot, sometimes hooked to a AirCard card (sweet wireless 128k download speeds in a taxi!), and sometimes to a Cisco Aironet wireless LAN card. We recently demoed this working through a Tachyon 1.5 meter dish satelite connection, routed to a wireless base station. I was streaming MP3s to a cow farm in Germany. Amazing applications, but one Achilies heel...

The problem: Power. My battery (even with the extra battery in the PCMCIA sleeve) runs out in less than 2 hours. As soon as I pop in an 1 Gig IBM Microdrive, it drops to about 1 hour, if lucky. To counter this, I've build a little laptop backpack that has 4 rechargable D-cells putting out the 5V DC that the iPAQ wants... backed up by a 12V DC-AC car converter and 3 solar cells mounted on the backside of the backpack (yes, I know it looks geeky, but stick on a couple Rage Against the Machine stickers and people think it's just a fashion statement, the latest in do-it-yourself geek-wear.)

So, the bottom line is now I carry a bag as big as a laptop whose sole purpose is to power my handheld laptop. Of course, I also charge my Digital Camera and Cell Phone off the same bundle, but I still feel like I'm missing something...

PDA's, PCCard Wireless Modems, Streaming Audio, Video Phones, Instant Messageing, etc..

Currently I have an Omnisky using CDPD (over ATTWS) and it rocks, I can SSH into my boxes, and work remotely. (Saves your ass more than once..) I just upgraded to a Ipaq PocketPC and waiting on my GPRS modem. Someone even picked me up a keyboard (god love those expense cards) for it. Full size Qwerty, and an SSH client. :)

And if you want a keyboard for you cellphone, get a Ericsson Chatboard It works with the Erricsson CDPD ATTWS PocketNet phone, so you can browse the web or irc. (No SSH yet, but I can wish.)

Or just to enable you laptop for wireless, go get a CDPD PCMCIA card from Sierra Wireless

Point is, I just listed some consumer products, there are business uses, kiosks, hardware monitors, coke machines, police mobile computers, fire and rescue, etc... Really with HighSpeed Wireless and Internet access, there will be some killer applications that people havnt even thought about, or waited till the technolgy was available. Now wheres my streaming pr0n. :)

--
No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris ... [because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping. Orville Wright (1871 - 1948)

I have been using my GPRS test phone tethered, just point my phones IR port to my laptop and dial the special PPP number and get connected. Its faster than CDPD, but im only bonding 1 channel. I cant wait till they use more for those DSL type speeds. :)

BTW, its totaly cool to see something you work with, I run the 2G(CDPD) and 2.5G(GPRS) PocketNet servers and Portal boxes. (Aka, Download ringtones and bitmaps to your phones, etc..)
The comments above are my own, and not of my employer.

The Sierra Wireless Aircard is a good card for laptops running Linux, they've even got a link on how to get it running under Linux on their web page.