Slashdot Mirror
3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card
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."
How is this anything special?
Sprint has a variety of aircards operating on their 1xRTT network at up to 144Kbps. Verizon has an aircard for their 1xEVDO BroadbandAccess network with download speeds of up to 2MBps (also 1xRTT compatible) and another aircard for their 1xRTT NationalAccess network. AT&T Wireless also has an EDGE aircard at up to 384Kbps (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?
In Australia, this service is already available from 3. 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!
"With Microsoft, you get Windows. With Linux, you get the full house" - unknown
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 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.
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.
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.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
... but Americans are surprised at this technology? This technology is nothing new in Australia, even though the take-up is not as expected, due to exorbitant pricing structures.
I've been using a novatel 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. The service is called Sprint DataLink. That link will be 384kbps. Soon it will be upgraded to over 2mbit.
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!
Gentoo Sucks
I have an Orange Novatel Merlin card plugged in right now, and it's pretty good. I every wrote a HOWTO 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.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Get a Bluetooth phone. My Nokia 6600 works great with my PowerBook G4.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 -- Mathematics is the Language of Nature.
They should do. The ones I've seen are cardbus USB bridges hardwired to a USB serial device that talks AT commands. I guess they've gone from PCMCIA serial to cardbus usb serial because they need it for the bitrate and want to keep AT interfaces.
MotherInLaw is using Verizon with her G4 laptop with great success! You need to find the appropriate drivers. This software supports the Express Network PC Card (PC 5220) in Mac OS X, for use on the Verizon Wireless network. To use this card, you need an account with Verizon (fees may apply).
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
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 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 and here.
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 is here.
Remember, there are more to Malaysia than just good quality pirated discs.
geek page at KY speaks
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.
Whoops I meant http://www.peck.org.uk/p/Projects/GlobeTrotter/V3G .html
I build access points and donate bandwidth for the sflan project 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.
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.
that is NOT a 3G phone. you can use if for GPRS, but that's analagous to dial up speeds, as opposed to 3G broadband cards
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. 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. 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
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.