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?

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?

[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.

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!)

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.