cellpone card in lappy?

i want to have access to the internet eveywhere i go, how are those card you put into a laptop do? are they fast? solid connection all the time?
How are they like and many people use them, i heard in 6 months they will be as fast as cable is that true?

 

Verizon offers this...wherever they have coverage. It is basically like your cell-phone in terms of reception.

I doubt that it will be as fast as cable modem, because the cell sites are what you are connecting too. Me being in the business that deals in circuits each tower has like a DS3 or two. So with many users they couldn't obtain those speeds. Just my thoughts. Either that or the price is going to go up to keep up with the cost of bandwidth.

 

Curretnly Verizon has EvDo - PC World magazine recently had a article on Boradband to Go - you may want to hit their web site to review. From what I remember for a brief summary is , if the signal is strong speeds are excellent.

Cons are coverage is not global and signal strength can vary even within a few feet. Cost is another factor I think $60.00/mo for unlimited (but Verizons definition of unlimited will likley vary from yours - need to read the fine print)

Cingualr is providing their own access called High Speed Download Packet Access (or somehting like that) not sure on price , speeds are suppose to a little better but coverage is more limited than EvDo

Some Lpatop manufactors are now building EvDo cards into the system.

Then there is the WiMax initiative which still lives I believe - just taking a while.

So I think it depends on where you plan to use it, what is worth to you as a monlty cost and of course having to lock into a contract for X-years.

 

i've been doing some research into this as well...i've got a thred going here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=42648

but to be honest, it doens't seem worth it...i didn't check into verizon though, only cingular...if you live within their HSCPA network area..then its worth it big time....but any where else...not really...

 

Verizon's evdo network does not operate anywhere the voice coverage does, it is a lot more limited according to the maps.

 

Nope,

it basically works were you have cell phone coverge. It seems obvious, but i think they are even building the network bigger and bigger

 

Basically where you have vcast, you have the broadband.

 

I've used every single card and service available on the market. The Verizon network is superior in every way, if you're in their high speed coverage area and can afford it. It's very fast, not cable fast though. Actual speeds will varry depending on location and signal strength. I generally see speeds in the 400-600 kbps range though, very good.

 

I have a friend with the verizon service and he's thrilled with it. Although, I've never asked him what the speed is like.

 

Hmm good info Brian...i may rethink my ideas

 

I have one(verizon) that goes into the PC card slot. Under Broadband, I can get sustained 150 KB/s with the right sites.

 

that is their claim, and there are lots of places that don't have Vcast.

of course I still sometimes have to make use of an analog signal.

 

VZW has 2 'tiers' of service.

The first is 1xrtt (or something like that). It's limited to ~144kbps.

The second is EVDO. This is the new(er), high-speed data service that is available in some areas. It has theoretical limits of ~2Mbs (I saw ~500kbs last time I bothered to check). VCast phone use EVDO for thier multimedia features, and the newer VZW data cardsand some of the latest PDA phones use it for general internet access.

EVDO is only available in some areas currently, and the system will fall back to 1xrtt if you can't get EVDO, but both services are digital, so if you're in an area where you only get an analog signal on VZW network, you won't get either. You may still be able to connect over the analog line if the hardware card they provide supports it, but you'll be limited to 14.4kbs.