[geeks] Cellular data services

[Dan Duncan]

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Dan Sikorski wrote:
> Does anyone have experience using a data service from a cellular
> provider?  I'm looking for data service for a laptop user.  What i need
> is something that works with a PC card to put in a laptop, and be able
> to get online anywhere that there is cellular service.

I've used the data services on my phone with my PDA via IR and my
workstation via bluetooth. (and hopefully soon an iBook)  It works fine,
but only 56k.  If I were faced with your choice I would connect to a
cellphone instead of getting the GPRS pccard.  The hardware will
probably be cheaper and you can make phone calls with it.  You'll
have your choice of sync cable (usb, possible rs232), IR, or bluetooth.
I don't know if the pccard versions have a removable SIM or if
it's built in.  If removable, you can switch to the provider of
your choice.

> I've looked at
> AT&T, Verizon, Nextel, and Sprint.  They all seem to offer what i'm
> looking for, but i don't know whose service would be the best here.

Ask people who use cellphones which service works best in your area.

> What i'm looking for is first ease of use, a close second is
> reliability.  This would be for use with a windows xp professional
> laptop.  Price is not of great concern.  The user probably has much more
> money than patience.  Any advice?  (Nadine? :) )

My experiences with a workstation were in windoze XP using a
SonyEricsson T610 and P800 over both bluetooth and USB on Tmobile.
Tmobile doesn't have the best GPRS coverage, but they charge $20/month
for unlimited GPRS data.  AT&T wants something like $80/month.

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
#  Depriving a village somewhere of an idiot is my lifestyle choice.