HSDPA modem in canada

I just bought a Sony Z VGN-555DN, and it has a HSDPA card in it (would it be called a modem an air card? whats proper term?).

I have no idea how to use this thing. I would assume that I would need to call a cellphone provider for service.. My questions are:

In canada, which providers support this card?
How much is it per month (dare I ask)?
What is the real world speed of this service? (in kilo and mega BYTES please, ratings in bits drive me nuts).

Thanks guys! =)

 

I don't think it'll be much per month, over here in Sweden it's maximum of $50 per month, usualy around $20. But you can only use it up to like 5GB total per month with maximum speed, then when you've reached that limit you have reduced speed down to like 50KByte/s. That's just so you know a little more about how it works, over at canada it may not be like here though

HDSPA is up to 7.2Mbit/s that's the same as 0.9MByte/s or 900KByte/s maximum, but that's the theoretical max speed, you may only reach like 800KByte/s max, all depends on reception too ofcourse!

I've tested HDSPA with my w910i on my notebook and max-speed i reached was 700KByte/s at one time. That's pretty neat


I think most of all the suppliers for mobilephone subscriptions have HDSPA-support. Try going into their homepages and have a look, don't know which companys you got over there.


HDSPA is short for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access. It's used with 3G communications. You can say it's a modem.

 

ok for hsdpa connection ask rogers. if not try bell. both have these technologies and i think its max 7.2 MBPS...

 

How would I register it with rogers or bell? do i need a sim card?

 

Most probably you need a sim-card yes! I guess your HDSPA-card has a slot for it

Just call them up and ask for the service and how you can set it up, i guess they'll register you and send you a sim-card!

 

Bell doesn't have the facilities to serve HSDPA. Rogers is the only gsm carrier in Canada (the reason why they have exclusivity on the iPhone, BTW).

So go talk to Rogers to get set up, and be prepared for a huge shock when costs are quoted.

 

Yes, you will need a mobile sim card to use the feature, try and get an unlimited

At least you don't live in the UK. Here one provider is saying that for £99 you can get 14MB of data which should last 12 months of light internet use....

There are some all inclusive packages (I have one on my iPhone for £10 a month, others usually are unlimited as long as you don't use more than 3GB per month) but if you go for a true PAYG type package its usually £3-5 per MB. It sent shivers down my spine thinking how much the data bill would be after running Windows update.

 

Yiiikes, how is that practical? Better off with a blackberry at that point. Thanks for the heads up