Thinkpads Forum

Wouldn't that be great? Internet access anywhere you go? Not just where WiFi is, but anywhere a mobile phone works?
Now that I have a TP, I'm really considering it. But I know very little about the technologies involved (GPRS, EV-DO, EDGE) and I hesitate to jump in when it could involve contracts with mobile phone companies. Being personally averse to mobile phones, I have almost no experience of their products, but from what I've been reading it sounds like I have two options - buy a "cellular" modem PCMCIA card that accepts SIMs, or buy a mobile that has modem functionality built in. Does anyone out there have experiences to share along these lines - things and/or carriers to avoid, must-have features, etc?

Yes, it is great. I have been doing just that for a few years now. I use a Sony Ericsson GC82 card which delivers about 100K in good areas. I am thinking of going to a Kyocera EV-DO card which can deliver 600K, but areas with 600K aren't common here. You need to do your own research, consider your own options and packages, and understand the many limitations of these things. Very expensive, lots of limitations - still, I would not be without mine.
... JD Hurst

I have the GC83, similar to jdhurst.

At this time I would recommend Sprint/Nextel or Verizon with their EV-DO service. Can't be beat. I have Cingular, but they are slow out of the gate with HSDPA (=EV-DO). EDGE is OK, but generally kind of slow. Forget GPRS that's only a fallback for EDGE. CDMA 1xRTT is comparible to EDGE in speed.

In my opinion, a PCMCIA card is the best way to go. Depending on how you will use it, you may want to consider getting a card that an external antenna can be plugged into.

Here is an old link, but there is still good information in it.

http://www.nwc.com/story/singlePageForm ... D=49400836

EDIT: One other thing. You do want unlimited data service. Data usage builds up very quick, and without an unlimited plan, you may find an astronomical bill in your mailbox.

BikerMike wrote:Wouldn't that be great? Internet access anywhere you go? Not just where WiFi is, but anywhere a mobile phone works?

With a bit of good fortune, you can do that now to a certain level (see below) within many countries now, but its is still very difficult to achieve internationally.

As an additional challenge, most of the current mobile phone technologies were not originally designed to handle data at the sort of speed/volume that users are looking for now a days, so the usefulness of any connection you can establish can be quite variable.

The next round of wireless technologies, such as WiMax, looks somewhat more promising but has yet to be adequately proven. There have been some interesting results on initial deployments in particular sets of conditions, using products based on standards which are still in process of being ratified, but the practical capability for wide scale commercial deployment under wide ranging conditions is still largely unknown.

I'm personally using a 1xEV-DO Cardbus solution (Sierra Aircard 580 + a Wincom external antenna) . Here in Australia EV-DO is deployed fairly widely by Telstra in larger population centres, plus the service falls back to CDMA 1xRTT speeds when out of EV-DO coverage, so there is pretty much true national coverage across the whole continent (where there are people), which is useful enough for basic "staying in touch" business tasks.

The catch is that while the solution is fairly standard base EV-DO technology it will not work in the US. Similarly, US EV-DO devices will not work in Australia or New Zealand.

Cheers,

Bill

I'm considering seriously buying a new T60p with Verizon and am new to the whole "internet on the go"
I've had my home DSL for a couple yrs and can't live without it and figured it would be really nice to replace my home DSL with this service at home and when I travel.

But.. I've read several internet articles where the "unlimited" isn't really unlimited and if you download too much, stream video, file share, etc Verizon will shut down your account.

So to you guys who have this service, is it really a DSL/cable modem replacement to do ALL the regular things you do on the internet or just a neat little service to check email and browse internet?

Thanks for your time!

I have Cingular EDGE service. I have used mine for internet radio, Windows Updates, IBM/Lenovo updates, program downloads, web browsing, e-mail, etc. So far I have not had any problems with Cingular. I did just read the following article on another forum this morning.

All-you-can-eat 3G may not last

A coworker of mine got bumped from Verizon for downloading too much. He liked downloading movies a lot.

nickacs wrote:figured it would be really nice to replace my home DSL with this service at home

Current wireless WAN technologies are not an replacement for a wired DSL or "cable" connection. The next generation or wireless WAN technologeis is positioning to be a replacement for wired connections, but in IMO there is still a long, long way to go before there is any hope of that.

Wireless WAN technologies are great for genuine "connectivity anywhere" needs, but in terms of cost they just aren't competitive with wired WAN technologies for connectivity at a specific fixed location... especially if you like to use bit torrent, movies on demand or any of the other quota and bandwidth hungry applications of the Internet.

Cheers,

Bill (who uses HFC cable "at home" and EV-DO "on the go" for internet connectivity)

bill bolton wrote:Current wireless WAN technologies are not an replacement for a wired DSL or "cable" connection.

Amen! I've got a 6MB FIOS connection from Verizon for $24.95 a month, and a 6MB cable connection from Comcast that my wife's employer pays for.

It will be a very long time before I will consider giving either up for an EV-DO card at ~$80 a month.

Regards,

James

Recently I've been looking into wireless WAN technology too. I work 18 hours a day and I'm usually away from home.

One of the things that I REALLY need to get done is be able to process credit card transactions on the go.

Would it be possible to purchase a GPRS solution from T-Mobile or Sprint and use it to process credit card transactions with users from like paypal or some other transaction service without more overhead than just buying a CC machine and service?

Cheers, John