Wireless Broadband compatibility & service feedback

[dmar]

I couldn't find an existing forum to piggyback onto, so started this one. Mods, if you think this would be best merged/posted elsewhere, feel free to do so.

About 2 weeks ago, I toggled back and forth between the wireless broadband service offered by Verizon and Sprint, but eventually settled on Sprint because you don't need the Voice Plan.

Here's the basis for my feedback thus far.
Locations: Los Angeles, CA & San Francisco, CA
Service Plan: Sprint - $59.99/mo. unlimited data plan
PCMCIA card: Pantech PX-500 (Free with 2 yr. contract)
Installed and used on: Thinkpad x31, x41t; Dell Latitude D620
Primary Use: Work email, VPN file transfers, FTP to web servers, Skype VOIP.
OS: Windows XP Professional on all 3 laptops (Will be moving x41t to Ubuntu soon).

Per www.speedtest.net

Download: 11100 kb/s
Upload: 98 kb/s
Latency: 183 ms
Server: Los Angeles, CA

So far, everything works great. As you can tell, speed is not blazing fast, but it gets the job done... and mobility is awesome! My particular PCMCIA card has a multi directional antennae (think ball bearing), and sticks out the side approximately 1". Getting connected in my service areas is typically under 5 seconds, and all the ports I need are not restricted (even the occassional utorrent). Additionally, the included Pantech card has a faux leather carrier to keep the card safe as well (I can provide unboxing photos if anyone is really interested).

The only Thinkpad related drawbacks that I've observed so far is that on battery, the EVDO sucks the life out of the x41t in a hurry, second being the x31, and lastly the Dell holds up like a champ. Of course, this is apples and oranges with lots of variables. But it does affect which laptop I grab before heading out the door!

Anyways, everything is going well, and I'm thinking of switching to the Merlin s720 card to benchmark signal strength, etc. If anyone out there has it, please give me some feedback!

Hope this thread is useful to you guys!