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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?
This kind of thing has been in the UK for quite a while now. I've used both the VodaPhone 3G and the Orange 3G datacard 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.
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
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.
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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!)
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
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
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.
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!
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
I can finally be rest assured to have less bandwith-seeking nerds entering my wireless hotspot but, IANAL.
I don't think you'd be downloading warez and pr0n at that price... :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
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.
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.
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.