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."

Comments

Ehh....why is this on /.?

[halo1982]

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?

Re:Ehh....why is this on /.?

[TheNetAvenger]

How feasible is online gaming on one of these cards?

Depends on the network, card, and game...

I have a Verizon 3G card...

In San Diego or DC where they have the full 3G implementation, my download is faster than DSL driving down the road or at the beach.

I can also play real-time FPS when in my home city of San Diego, no problem.

Outside of San Diego or DC, I get the standard 144kps connection, and real time gaming is not fast enough for FPS type of games.

However, if you are playing something like Star Wars Galaxies or other online role playing game, even outside the 3G cities, it works fine, still better than dialup.

Like the above poster said, this stuff isn't new, not even in the US. I have had my verizon card for months and have been getting better than DSL speeds on average no matter where I am in the San Diego area. I have only tested it at the airport in DC, but it worked just as fast there as well.

As for regular coverage, I just did a road trip from San Diego to Reno, and after leaving LA the radio stations on the car started dropping off.

So I turned on the laptop, tuned into one of my favorite radio stations on the internet and listened all the way from LA to Reno with only a couple of drop offs, and it reconnected within secs.

It was ironic that out in the middle of nowhere in the valley, we could only get static on the car radio, but had full internet service and could listen to radio over the Verizon card.

Why always somewhere else?

[BWJones]

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?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Why always somewhere else?

[agristin]

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.

Re:Why always somewhere else?

[megaversal]

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.

Re:Why always somewhere else?

[spectral]

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.)

Summary for US readers

[RobertB-DC]

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!)

Already available in Australia

[dan_barrett]

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.

data plan == arm & leg

[sPaKr]

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

[crapnutassneck]

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.

They charge like wounded bulls...

[Goonie]

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... :)

Re:Any Work with a Mac/Apple?

[O]

Get a Bluetooth phone. My Nokia 6600 works great with my PowerBook G4.

Re:Any Work with a Mac/Apple?

[JohnnyGTO]

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).

Free -- albeit slower -- alternative!

[Oliver Aaltonen]

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.