Adding Mobile Broadband capability

After searching online with minimal success, I was wondering if anyone knows of any mobile broadband "adapters" that can be connected to a laptop/netbook via an ExpressCard or SDcard media reader slot. Your help is appreciated!

 

All of the major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon) have mobile broadband cards that use the ExpressCard slot.

 

Are any available that fit into the SDcard media card reader slot? The ExpressCard usually juts out over the side, right?

 

Anything that could fit into an SD card slot would not have a large enough antenna for reliable reception.

 

They are all USB, PC card, or Express card.

 

Perhaps Mini PCI-E flavor would work for your laptop, although you'd have to either route an antenna through the lid or out a vent, or out the Expresscard slot, i'll have to do something like that when i receive my Mini PCI-E TV tuner.

 

If you have an ExpressCard slot, I can personally vouch for this modem.

It supports the three HSDPA bands that are used in the US and Europe, is completely unlocked, capable of speeds up to 7.2Mbps and is extremely simple to get up and running - all you need to do is program in the APN settings for the network you want to use.

I've been using mine in the UK on O2, Orange and T-Mobile without any issues whatsoever.

 

Do they sell those apart from whole systems?

 

You could just get the MIFI from Sprint or Verizon so you can use your wifi and not worry about usb/express card. I have had the usb versions and you have to be careful not to bump it. My Verizon MIFI is awesome.

 

Unless you plan on using an EV-DO carrier, then you'll need a SIM slot and I don't know many mini PCI-e cards that integrate that. SIM slots are usually an integrated feature on the motherboard. IMO, if you plan on using att or t-mobile, or any other GSM carrier, there is an Option GT card that the only thing sticking out is the antenna. Att sells them refurb I think, and ebay sells all kinds of flavors carrier unlocked.

 

i connect my 3g smartphone though wifi so my notebbok uses my phone as a kind of wireless router although it does drain my phones battery a lot and on my phone contract my data allowance is only 500mb so its not an ideal solution but it works for me as i dont use it a lot

 

And then after what, about 3 hours or so, the battery runs out and you're forced to connect it up to your laptop via a USB cable, making it the world's most inconvenient USB modem.

Not only does that kill your phone's battery but a lot of phones, whilst being used as a router, are unable to make or receive calls or send or receive texts, meaning that you are effectively without a phone.
Plus, the vast majority of networks will hit you with colossal charges if they find out you're using your phone as a modem without a tethering bundle - even if you stay within the 500MB allowance you have, that is almost certainly meant to be for use on the handset only.

 

I really don't know many people that will use a MiFi for more than 3hrs without being near somewhere else that HAS WiFi/power outlets.

While a HUGE drain on a phone battery, every phone *but* the EV-DO phones from sprint or VZ will be able to make or receive phone calls or TXT messages, and when on 3G HSDPA they'll be able to do both concurrently. On EDGE the phone will "pause" the data for long enough to receive the TXT or phone call then when the user hangs up, the data connection resumes. The EV-DO phones cannot use more than one radio at a time, and EV-DO is not the call carrying radio.

 

I use mobile broadband for a number of hours at a time without being anywhere near a usable wi-fi hotspot.
I do have access to power sockets but to then have to carry around a second power cable or a USB cable, on top of what is already a larger device than it needs to be, would be an inconvenience.

Unless you need to connect more than one device to the internet, a Mi-Fi style unit is overkill.

The few times I have used my Touch HD tethered to a laptop, calls and texts have interrupted the data connection but it is possible that I was in a non-3G area I suppose.

Either way, the list of downsides is pretty big to using your phone as a modem.

 

For quite some time, I was using a NOKIA E51 via Bluetooth with its bundled software for connecting to the internet.

I paid for a 5Gb 'datapack' from my telco (Telstra..OZ), and can report it was as fast as by current 3g router type solution I use now. (No ADSL BB support in the country) Battery life was around 2-3hrs and could handle concurrent calls with ease.

Truely wireless. Just phone on desk nearby or in my pocket.

 

I agree. It would really help to know what level of integration the OP is looking for. I can think of about 5011 different ways for mobile 3G data access, some of them pretty solutions and some, not so pretty. There's expresscard or pcmcia, mini PCI-e. But then with expresscard, does your notebook have 34 or 54? With mini PCI-e does your notebook have an integrated SIM slot? What's your carrier preference?... I could go on and on...

 

Any ExpressCard/54 slot will accept an ExpressCard/34 card and, to the best of my knowledge, most mobile broadband modems are produced in the /34 size.
Plus, a lot of them are available unlocked/will function on a range of networks.


If the OP has an ExpressCard slot, I would strongly recommend it as a solution.