W3J Express Card (Aircard question)

I have a W3J, which apparently has an Express Card slot. I'm looking into getting a wireless aircard for when I'm on the road through either Sprint or Verizon. They don't list any "Express Cards" as models, but they have tons of Type II PCMCIA cards. These are not the same right? I assume Express Cards are fairly new, but do any of you W3J owners have an Aircard in your laptop? Need some help...thanks.

 

LARM, meet the only limitation of the express card format! Basically one of the only things people NEED an expansion slot for today would be for a cellular card - so you'd think those would have been the first things made considering the express card format is coming up on two years old in a month. The thing is, pcmcia is everywhere and if you're going to make a product for the masses, you're going to continue to use an old format to keep prices down.

Verizon I believe has an 34mm express card (which will work)... I've gotten to try out an express card for Cingular's network, but not sure it's commerically available yet.... In the next six months they should be all over though.


And yes.. you can't use pcmcia cards in an express card slot and vice versa...... Express Cards are the future and will provide high, high bandwidth compared to the dying pcmcia, but it's that transition period that stinks.

 

Thanks for the information. So this card should work for me, correct?

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=2407


Quite steep in price...$179 for the card and $80/month for service. But I need it, so I guess I'll bite the bullet.

 

Correct, that is a ExpressCard.

JC

 

Yep, well that's what you get... like I said, express cards are the new tech and the cost of the cards will be high for some time. In the long run it won't matter much... however that $80 a month for service may. It's $60 a month for unlimited service through Cingular and right now in the North East anyway, there is no faster service (regardless of what verizon claims)

 

Sprint also offers an Express Card Aircard for $249 plus $59 a month for unlimited use. The initial price is a bit steep, but saving $20 a month over the Verizon program will make up for it pretty quickly.

Also, if you already have a Sprint PCMCIA broadband wireless card just call them and ask them to send you a new Express Card for free...it worked for me, and I suspect the other companies will do the same. What they really want is your monthly subscription.

 

Can you send me a link to this $249 express card? I don't see it on their site.

Also, ProPortable, does Cingular have an express card?

 

Pro,

Where do you see that its 60 dollars a month for cingular? I was looking on the cingular site and it was 99.99 for laptop connect unlimited. I'm in the north east too by the way.

 

gkc - ProPortable is in PA. Verizon's national website lists $60/month and in all honesty, Cingular sucks like a foul piece of crap. Why? Their reception is poor - now, speed for both are probably the same but what matters the most is whether you get reception. Ask anybody - who gets more reception? Cingular user or Verizon? It's a no brainer - if you go with Cingular you'd probably have to leave your laptop next to a window in your apartment all day long just to get a signal while Verizon allows me to even venture into the basement.

This is just not the northeast, too - it's nationally. Cingular sucks balls. And yes, I used to be with Cingular (before and after the ATT merger) - so I know. Now a Verizon user and proudly so. Go with Verizon. Go with the force, young Jedi.

EDIT: I don't go into the basement with my laptop. That was just speaking metaphorically.

 

squawks, do you have a pc card for verizon? If you do how is it?

 

I do not have one but I am seriously considering giving up my $50/mo TimeWarner roadrunner cable modem to switch to Verizon wireless (it's only $10 more).

My big bro, however, has Verizon. They provide you with the card and he says it works perfectly with downloads averaging 100 KB/sec (tested from download.com) and you can go online ANYWHERE where there is Verizon coverage. As most of the nation is obviously aware of - there is far greater Verizon coverage than Cingular. Usually if I am getting weak Verizon cellphone reception, my Cingular buddies have absolutely no reception. Fewest dropped calls? Hah, doesn't matter if you can't get squat reception!

Where are you based, gkcomp? I am located in NY (where Verizon is superb statewide) and I originally lived in San Diego (where Verizon killed Cingular hands down) and I also spent quite some time in the bay area of CA (where Cingular is actually on par with Verizon).

 

I'm in nj 15 minutes outside of new york city. I've had both cingular and verizon cell phone service. Both were pretty good, verizon seemed like it was a little better .

 

Turns out Sprint's card is not an Express Card but rather a USB card that will replace the PCMCIA air card. Pricing is the same.