Cellular Broadband

Anyone have any experience using say Verizon's VZAccess? I'm drooling over the w3j, but it doesn't have a PCMCIA slot, and the only cards I've seen for the service are that type.
Anyone seen or heard of a PC express card for cellular broadband? I'm sure they're in development, but who knows how long something like this would take to develop...

Might have to rethink my notebook choice.

 

... This is my life...... I travel a LOT - infact, 60% of my posts come from a car... We have a developer plan with Cingular for their EDGE and UTMS networks..... I've got a Sony PCMCIA card and my Express Card replacement is coming in a few weeks. It's a real a pain, but eventually everything will work out.

As far as speeds - I've also tested the Verizon network and it's up there with the speeds of EDGE.... so it's a nice hook up. It's fast enough that I can host the backup camera in my car on the web.... and I still constant contact with the office (for good and bad).

My guess is that Verizon is going to take a while to get with express cards.. I'm only getting one because I'm special (seriously).... I know the card isn't going to be available for some time to Cingular customers....

 

Verizon is very slow to adopt technology. So you might be looking waiting for some time. What cell phone do you have because some of the phones can be tethered to the laptop via bluetooth. The ones that have dun enabled. I know if you have a vx8100 with version 1 software you can get free evdo. and there is a hack to one of the seems that will enable it in verion 4.

 

Can anyone comment on the best Canadian option for cellular broadband at this time? How many options do we have up here and which is the best in terms of performance and price? Could be PCMCIA or Express.

Thanks in advance for any responses

 

Have they been able to cut the string between the tin cans yet?

... I'm sorry, I kid the Canadians.

Right now, there are ZERO Express Card's available to consumers for this purpose and won't be for a few months at the least.... so forget that right now... other than that, I can't help you with choices because I don't know the networks up there.

 

go to phonescoop.com they might have info. or go over to howardforums.com they have a nice cell hacking forum and can give you info if you start a thread.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Really want to grab the w3j, but our company is starting to use the Verizon service, and I'm not sure I can go a couple months without it... Gonna do some more digging. If I can get an estimated ship date of an Express card, I may hold out.

 

there are essentially no express card products available - either now or for foreseeable future

it will likely be 3rd quarter 2006 at best to see any type availability of expresscard products - and I'd guess Cell broadband will be at lkeast that

PCMCIA.org lists a few more than a dozen TOTAL Expresscard products and admits that they "are only a standards organization and cannot tell manufacturers what to build" - I say thats total bull poop

do not encourage a standard that has zero support - strongly DISCOUAGE your members (ie: all the notebook manufacturers) not to adopt ONLY the new standard when no cards exist or will for a long time

heck, you can't even get the kludge fix - a big ol PC Card slot in a box on end of a wire (USB I think?) until end of June - and that pretty much defeats the whole point of our slick new thin and light cptrs

Asus chose, to be fair along with some others (like Dell and MacBook) to elimiante PC Card and ONLY incl an Expresscard slot - others, like Sony include BOTH a PC Card and an expresscard - a necessity for foreseeable future

I waited for a V6j for months only to find out on eve of Justin shipping it that it was unusable - worthless - to me - since I use and need wireless broadband every day - and I had to cancel

this sin't 1st time this **** has occured either - for those around a while the various PCMCIA version have experienced this in past - at least then the slot was largely backward comaptible - Express card is not (even though they created a "wide" slot that fools people into thinking its a regular PC Card slot

call or write pcmcia.org and let them know your thoughts about creating and promoting a standard, that no matter how great it WILL be (and it will) its worthless to encourage its use when no products exist ....

/offsoapbox

 

Wow lucky you have so many connections Justin. Perks of being in the industry I guess. Dang.

 

ya that express card issue is a concern of mine. I use a verizon card daily, my regular business phone plan is with Cingular but EVDO is much faster than EDGE here so I went with the Verizon top of the line evdo card. I want one of the new Asus models but alas, without an express card alternative. I CANNOT get a new laptop, kinda ****ty. oh well.

 

i use a verizon e815 moto phone and connect to broadband via bluetooth on the phone. It eats minutes though but I don't use it super often. Just another option, though its not officially supported by vzw. But believe me it works perfectly when i'm on the road.

 

I havent done any research on it but can anyone tell me an average speed and price with the cellular broadband?

 

if you have the vcast service it wont use your minutes it will show up to them as using mobile web. But its not aloud to tether a phone via bluetooth to get free evdo. just so you know.

 

This could be a deal breaker for me. Might have to switch to buying a Vaio SZ. Seeing as the adapters aren't in the forseeable future (and I'm not sure I'd want to carry one around with me), and I need to be able to use my phone while on the net...
Sadly disappointed. I wonder how set in stone those specs are. I guess I'll wait till the official announcement of production for the w3j.

 

I've read (but cannot verify) that using bluetooth for DUN seriously degrades the speed - more like dialup and not Verizons broadband speeds

as to that question Verizon Broadband is 400 - 600k avg speeds with occasional higher bursts - if you are in area without VZW broadband it will fall back to older 1xRTT at appx 50 - 80k speeds

VZW Broadband is in appx 180 cities and 70+ airports - Cingular is in maybe 20 cities by now

 

The Verizon card is absolutely phenominal. I love it because whenever I'm at a trade show, the free WiFi is always jammed and slow if you can even get on. I've used it in a dozen or more cities, no problem.

 

DUN via bluetooth is equivalent to dsl speed I'd guess. Way faster than dialup. And yes DUN with EVDO is supposed to be a no-no but oh well. Poster above is correct in that it acts like mobile-web. But mobile-web burns your regular minutes too, therefor DUN burns minutes. Trust me I do this all the time.

 

I love my Verizon EVDO. I'm at my gf place right now on my laptop. Shes got dialup here so I use my card over here.

Kyocera KPC650 card

my business partner has the cingular card and doesn't see near these speeds. on EDGE

 

I have the same card and am generally satisfyed with the service.

 

Canadian eh ? Out here in the west we currently have two choices I am aware of Bell and Telus. Both offer EVDO cards. The price range on the cards are between 0 and $300.00 I think (depending on length of contract you sign). Last time I looked the data pacakges range from $25.00 - $100.00 a month depending on how much download / upload you want (and be carefull of 'unlimited' there is fine print) so it ain't cheap.

Someone suggest the howardforms.com that is a good place to look as they have Canadian content there as well. I think other than the price , coverage is 'sketchy' isolated to 'certain' major cities.

Persoanlly unitl the coverage gets better and price drops , it's not worth it for me anyway (but then again I don't travel much for work)

 

Thanks daacon...I'll check that site out and see what I can find.

The Bell and Telus EVDO cards you mentioned, are they PCMCIA or PC Express...I'm guessing PCMCIA only, same as the US right???

So none of the Canadian providers offer a PC Express cellular broadband option yet?