Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card

Posted by timothy on 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."

8 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Which ones of these cards work under Linux?

  2. data plan == arm & leg by sPaKr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

  3. Re:Why always somewhere else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. maximize profit, not maximize quality of life by Cryofan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 today. Every other western nation has gone on to modernize their government and system. And as a result they have a better quality of life. But here in America, the structure of our govt still enslaves us, by allowing corporations to do as they pretty much please. It is not as bad as it once was. At least that is their justification. Why, in a couple of minutes, some rightwinger will reply to this post, telling us how good we have it...compared to the 3rd worlders.

    Anyway, by stringing us along with slow upgrades, wringing out of the consumer every bit of profit possible before moving on to modern infrastructure, the corporations make more profit. Same as it ever was....

    --
    eat shiat and bark at the moon
    1. Re:maximize profit, not maximize quality of life by jsebrech · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The simple truth of the matter is, no matter what sort of government construction you try, it's going to suck. Flopping to socialist democracy from liberatarian is merely exchanging one set of problems for another.

      No, the simple truth of the matter is that the US electoral system is designed to shut out third parties by making it next to impossible for small parties to form coalitions and thus get any power. As a result you get two behemoths who take positions on issues, and people choose the least of two evils. That's not a very democratic way of running things. And you see this reflected by government policy often being contrary to what the american public actually wants.

      You can't just wave the magic government wand and make things that aren't profitable suddenly be worth people's time. Russia and China both tried that and history shows that it doesn't work.

      Russia and China were communist nations (china is gradually transitioning away from communism). There is a world of difference between communism (the abolishment of private property with the aim of maximizing quality of life by providing goods and services on an as-need basis) and social democracy (government funding and regulating of enterprises that are unprofitable and/or natural monopolies with the aim of providing a minimum quality of life by guaranteeing a minimum level of service). If you take something that is not naturally profitable for some segments of the population (like healthcare), and you leave it entirely to private enterprise, private enterprise will cut out service to the least profitable segments of society until it makes maximum profit. That's why so many americans don't have affordable healthcare. You need government involvement in some classes of enterprise to be able to provide that minimum quality of service and life.

      As an aside, the reason communism failed was not government involvement, it was lack of personal incentive. When working hard gets you no more than working the absolute minimum, you lose all motivation to work hard. Productivity in Russia was abysmal. Social democracy does not have this lack of personal incentive, and as a result productivity per hour of labor in Europe is roughly equal to the US. The reason Europeans have lower net wages, is because they work fewer hours, have more free time, spend more time with the kids. It's a lifestyle choice, not some inherently bad design of government.

      This lack of personal incentive can occur under capitalism too. Everyone knows at least one person who slaves away at a job that won't pay them more regardless of how well a job they do, and as a result spends most of their job hours procrastinating and generally being useless.

  5. Re:People claim Australia is lagging.... by kayak334 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... but Americans are surprised at this technology?

    No. The article is very old news to us also.

  6. Yawn. I use 1xRTT from Verizon, and by CFD339 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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".

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
  7. Re:Why always somewhere else? by Talez · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 large population densities you get sucky coverage and require more cells. If you have a small population desntiy you'll get longer range per cell and require less of them. While it doesn't work out exactly the same (the balance is still biased in favour of large population densities), X isn't nearly as small a number as you would think.

    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.