Gobi Will Be Availbe For The Cf-29! And Dell's Toughbook?

alright guys after a pnumonia hiatis im back...and am also a Gobi 1 Kanobi 'ist thing type person..anyways for now Gobi is major wirelss friendly, SPRINT, ALLTEL, VERIZON, AT&T. Sub carriers ie Metro PCS are involved in the Sprint Network and will support Gobi. My friends Gobi is the new way to total wirelss living and soon will be as common in laptops and our beloved TOUGHBOOKS as WiFi. For now i have a CF-29 and recntly contacted Pana about Gobi...GOOD NEWS...Pana WILL, WILL, (one more time) WILL, retro fit CF-29's with the new Gobi chip/card!!! But be prepared to fork up the $$$...expensive enough to say ouch but still cheaper than a CF-30!
For now Gobi is availbe for the CF-30 beginning last week. This just hit the market and Pana is the first to the cherry. Dell and Hp will fallow shortly, Dell is about to launch a Gobi campaign to counter attack (finally) the Toughbook series of Pana. theirs is the same concept, mag allow case, shockers, heaters and such. DELL'S TOUGHBOOK series is going to be the The Latitude XFR D630 and is avaible in 2 color casings. Dell is off to a good start BUT hasent been able to as of yet conqure all that Toughbook has. For every upgrade on the The Latitude XFR D630 to making it fully rugged and as close to a Toughbook as possible their are other hardware sacrifices you must make. They have yet to do what pana has and offer all in one packages. For the whole scoop here is the link http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_03_04_rr_000?c=us&l=en&s=corpNe ways on to Gobi. Pana does not have access to individual sledding at this time. To be able todo this swap of sleds you will have to go through a reseller. The major resellers also have yet to recieve any access to the swappable sleds but they will be availble soon. Like towards the end of the year and crack of '09 which is just a few months away. Price = $500.00. Give or take. For now Pana and Dell are just trying to concentrate on their new products as they launch this Gobi campain, and keeping their fingers crossed with it in hopes that Vista doesnt hate it(seeing as how vista hates anything wireless). They have tied Gobi to the kite and are waiting for the lightning. As more details become avaible, because I love my CF-29 as do all of you, i will be updating this as much as possible.

 

What is gobi. Sounds like some kind of energy drink.

 

Correct me where I am wrong please. Gobi will enable you to get onto whichever network you prefer at the time. IE who has the best signal where you are at, etc. It is all on on sled.

What I do not understand yet, is how are they going to do the pricing each month. Will it be a monthly fee for usage to a certain network, or a flat rate for a certain amount of Mb?

 

The way it works is you HAVE TO HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH THE CARRIER. IE IF YOU ONLY HAVE A SPRINT MOBILE DATA ACCOUNT AND ALL YOU CAN GET IS AT&T OR VERIZON THEN YOU CANNOT CONNECT. BUT YOU CAN ONLY CONNECT TO THE NETWORK IF YOU HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH COMPANY. THIS IS A MULTI EVDO CARRIER CARD. FOR NOW YOU HAVE TO SPECIFY WHICH CARRIER YOU WANT AND THE CARD FOR THAT CARRIER WILL BE INSTALLED BUT IF TOU EVER HAVE TO MOVE OUT OF THAT CARRIER'S AREA YOU HAVE TO BUY A NEW CARD FOR THE DEFERENT CARRIER. GOBI IS INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL. YOU CAN EVEN GOTO JAPAN AND EUROPE AND CONNECT TO THEIR CARRIERS. A SIM CARD READER WILL BE INSTALLED FOR THOSE CARRIERS THAT REQUIRE SIM. Which part is wrong? My info came strait from Pana and Gobi.

 

This sounds like a very positive step forward
Compatibility is a good thing


Alex

 

So, how much are we going to pay? I have AT&T 3G PCMCIA card in my CF-29 and I pay $60.00 a month for unlimit access. If I want to upgrade to 4G (Gobi) how much will it cost me? Is it "pay as you go" plan? I'm using with my 3G almost 3,000,000Mb a month, what will it be with Gobi?

 

Gobi is not a service. It's a universal 3G Modem from Qualcomm. Which means IF you have Gobi modem in your Toughbook and decide to switch from AT&T to Verizon, there will be no need to change the hardware. All you have to do is to get a SIM card (YES, Verizon SIM card) with data plan, plug it in your laptop and viola!

 

I guess I am still confused

I have an account with Verizon for my embedded card in my CF30. Does this mean in order for me to use AT&T for example I would have to open an account with them as well and pay $ 50.00 or so dollars a month as well?

Or is it still too early to know the specifics yet?

Thanks

 

From what they are saying, the answer is YES. Gobi is nothing more than say your home phone. It will work on all the network "jacks", but you would still need the "service" to use the phone. Right now, you can plug your phone in, but if you don't have service, you won't get a dial tone. What Gobi does is provide one "hardware" platform that is compatible to every (correct me on this) carrier. Currently, if you want AT&T service, you need an AT&T phone; if you want to switch to Verizon, then you would need to buy a Verizon phone. Gobi eliminates that by allowing one device the ability to work with multiple carriers. But, for that device to use the services of said carrier, you would still need a plan.

I hope this clears it up a little for you.

 

Is that meen that this card can be use for 3G, EVDO, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, TDMA, HSDPA with Sprint, AT&T and Verizon any time I want but it will not work with Nextel IDEN or WiMAX 4G?

 

no, this means that their will be a card for each. One for Verizon, one for Sprint, one for ATT (Cingular), Alltel, etc... as far as your acronyms are concerned TDMA is Time Division Multiple Access and IDEN is Integrated Digital Enhanced Network. IDEN is actually TDMA with Motorola's direct connect overlay and is being phased out because it simply sucks... (14.4kpbs speed) TDMA networks were based in circuit switching, NOT packet switching which is why it's so painfully slow. GPRS is the GSM equivilent for data, which is ALSO PAINFULLY SLOW (53.6kbps) becauase once again it was initially based on circuit switching. GSM as a whole is almost as old as TDMA, which is why companies like ATT have switched to HSDPA 7.2 and UMTS because GSM simply put is old and sucks to FOR DATA (voice is okay). CDMA was BUILT ON packet switching, which is why even at 1xRTT it can go 200+kbps (which still isn't good compared to EVDO or HSDPA). CDMA is the newest technology as far as mobile communications is concerned, which is why its used here in the US way more than GSM is. Now on the other hand in Europe, GSM is a primary because the Europeans practically invented GSM

 

ohh and one other thing... that feeble attempt by Motorola with joint efforts from Nextel (before sprint ate them) to mass market "WiDEN" was a complete and utter failure because they were trying to juice up NOTHING... TDMA is dead, period, which is why even "WiDEN" only can go up to about 90kbps. So with that being put, IF they (iDEN) were to manufacture a mobile broadband card, (although its hardly broadband at 90kbps lol) it would be based on the WiDEN networks, which only covers like 8 cities anyways and is hardly feasible.

 

Well, one thing you skiped...WiMAX. Can you compare the WiMAX to HSDPA/EVDO?

 

I didn't speak on WiMAX because I don't know enough about it to compare anything to it... according to engadet their initial article about 3 weeks ago said that WiMAX didn't work in the car, then about 4 days later they reviewed a WiMAX card that DID work in the car... nothing on speed.

 

Ok, Doobie, you cleared up my misunderstanding. Thanks...

JB, You know too much to get yourself in trouble Even though you said negative things about my crappy Nextel phone! The only thing they did correct is grab the DC market.

I have to say my Verizon service on my CF-30 still amazes me every time I travel. There are very few places where I have not had service.

Thanks guys for all your logic.

 

So, my question is this. For internal WWAN cards for the CF-29, what is usable now? My came with one, but when I tried to activate it, Verizon said no go. They don't support it anymore. But it seems people are buying them, and able to activate them. I would love to have the internal solution back (which would require buying a card again) but want to be sure I can activate it before I buy. And if I can, what is the correct part number?

 

I am not sure on part numbers but I have a Sprint rev.0 EVDO card and had it activated on the sprint network thru another company and they had absolutly no problems in activating it. I am using it as I type this.

I did not want to use actual sprint or verizon for data as they both have a 5gb limit on the accounts and you have to sign a 1 or 2yr contract to have them activate it.

The palce I have a contract uses the sprint network but they have no 5gb cap (it is unlimited) and there are no contracts to sign I can cancel at any time which is very nice (I hate contracts)

You can go with verizon EVDO as well but they have a cap and i do not know of any company that uses there network besides themselfs.

There are a few Sprint EVDO cards on ebay from the same place I bought mine from. What he wants is actually pretty cheap. I got them a bit cheaper but still the price he is asking is very resonable. They seem to be super slow shippers but you will get the card eventually and it will be from what I can see brand new.

If you are interested let me know I will send you the auction number for you to take a look.

The gobi will be nice but it will probably cost over $500 and I never plan on using any other carrier than sprint so to me I dont care about it.

-James

 

I love this stuff lol... computers used to be my hobby, UNTIL it turned into my career, so I switched to cellular communications, which started by hacking old AMPS phones like the Motorola Startac in the day listening in on peoples conversations lol, obviously this isn't possible (well it is, but extremely difficult) any more because of all the heightened security measures + everything is digital now... so yea, I love it!

 

okay guys lot of questions and answers, here is the sum. Right now TB and Dell will install internal Air cards for which ever carrier u want. But u need a seperate card for each provider (ie. sprint, verizon, at&t, alltell ect.) All gobi will do is eliminate that need for seprate cards. So lets say you live in Austin Texas and are with Sprint. you will need to activate a Sprint Data Plan and register the Gobi card with sprint to obtain data service with the card through sprint. Now lets say every other weekend (ie. fri-mon) u fly to New York for buisness. Let just say New York City is a Virizon only area. Well ur up that creek with out a paddle to connect to the internet! or are you. You can then call Verizon and do the same thing with them (subscribe to their data plan and register you Gobi card and slip in the SIM on the sim reader inside the TB) and viola! You are now on the Verizon and Sprint Mobile Internet Network! One more, now lets say the weekends ur not in NYC or Austin you have to fly to Paris, (poor you). Well once u land ur in that same creek again..BUT all you have todo is call the UK's wireless provider and again do the same with them (buy service, reg card, ect.) and TADA! You are now connected in Eurpoe! How? B/C Gobi also supports HSDPA which is UK exclusive!!! So bam you now have mobile broadband internet coverage with Sprint, Verizon, and UKTELL and didnt have to buy any additional hardware! Its all on 1 internall aircard! Sure you now have 3 monthly data bills and are paying around $200.00 a month for the services but hey! Now the Internet really cant hide from you

 

So, what's the price for that magic card? does it need to be installed by the "panasonic certified technician"? Or, it's just another PCMCIA card.
Any pictures of this card/device?

 

Gobi will not be an aircard as of yet. It is only available as internal modem (mini pci-e). I guess you can always build a USB holder for it but that is another discussion. The "sim card" useage will only apply to AT&T or international carriers. You can always by a local pre-paid sim when overseas to save money as it will not be carrier locked.

The biggest advantage will be large companies which will have multiple accounts and different carriers and can use them accordingly. They can order all their toughbooks WWAN equipped and not worry about deciding which carrier to include or being stuck with a carrier if their needs change.

Some telecom companies have mobile broadband available without a contract on a month-to-month basis. Most give you a 30 day initial trial where you can cancel without a penalty. Then if you wanted you could try all 3 and see which is best in your area without having to buy separate modems. Gobi will replace all the WWAN that panasonic offers so there will be no more Sprint or Verizon or AT&T specific hardware anymore.

 

Inquiring minds want to know!