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the Right Card for Mobile Internet

Once deciding to purchase a Mobile Broadband Card for you laptop there are still several choices to be made. The first is: Which Carrier to get?

Since Sprint & Verizon are generally considered the leaders in this technology, we will limit the discussion to these two choices. As far as monthly pricing goes they are exactly the same, $59.99 a month. However, there is a very important distinction. Sprint offers truly Unlimited service for businesses and a 5GB limit for individuals, where Verizon has a 5GB limit per month for all customers. For the casual user this is plenty of data, but for a power user, Sprint clearly is the better choice here.

The other factor is coverage. Both carriers are going back and forth with their claims of “more coverage”. The best thing to do is check the coverage maps and see who has the most Rev A coverage in the areas you need service. Rev A is the fastest service currently available, so go with the carrier that covers you the best, but if it seems equal, Sprint would be the better choice since you do not have any usage restrictions.

Now that we have picked a carrier, it is time to decide which card to get. This involves several steps depending on what you plan to use the card for.

If using the card only in your current laptop, then determine what kind of slot your computer has. There are 3 types of slots now in use.

1) PCMCIA or Type ll Card Slot.

This slot is the size of a Credit Card and has been around for over 5 years. Most older laptops have this slot. The advantage of using this type of card is that it keeps most of the card inside the laptop, with just about an inch of the card sticking out. You can install this card once and just leave it in the laptop. As these are going away and being replaced by the smaller express slots, it is probably best to go with one of the options below unless you know you will be staying with the same computer for a few years.

2) ExpressCard Slot.

This is the newer type of card slot that is about half the width of the PCMCIA card. Most of the newer laptops will have this slot. Once again, the advantage here is that most of the card is inside the computer and you can just leave it there without risk of it getting bumped or loosing it. ExpressCards vary in price from $0 to $150 with a new agreement.

3) USB Card Slot.

Every modern computer has a USB slot. This is the main advantage of a USB Card – it will work with a new or old laptop, and even desktop computers. If you have an older laptop with a PCMCIA slot, but know you will be upgrading laptops in the next 6-18 months, then get a USB card so that you won’t limit your selection of a new laptop. The one slight downside to a USB card is that most of it is external to the computer, making it a bit more to keep track of when transporting your laptop. USB cards are usually priced from $0 to $100 with a new agreement.

Other factors to consider:

Mobile Routers.

If you want to use a Mobile Router to share your connection, currently you will want to stick with either the PCMCIA cards like the Novatel S720, with the Kyocera KR2 router. Almost all the USB and Express Cards are compatible with the CradlePoint line of routers.

GPS Functionality.

To take advantage of some neat and free GPS functions like finding the nearest restaurant, gas station, mapping your location, and even real time traffic updates, go with a Sierra Wireless Card from Sprint. The Sprint Connection Manager for these cards allows you to use this service at no extra charge.

Mobile Internet Satellite Broadband – chapter 3

Back in 1999 when we beta tested the first wireless mobile office with satellite broadband Internet we had something that no one lese had. Today you can buy these systems for $5,500 fully installed on any RV. We probably had $10,000 in the first system and we had mobile satellite number 34. Today there are thousands of systems out there. Continuing the beta testing story of the first broadband satellite internet system.

It appears the Canadian based companies for obvious reasons are gaining fast while the US companies were hampered by the FCC in the last few years, forcing communications to move out of the country, yet the customer bases will be here and many of these companies will have 50K subscribers in no time, and the US mighty powerhouses will end up with all the technology and hardware through acquisitions or set up new systems in the coming years with higher capabilities. But do not count out the GM Hughes Team, Craig McCaw (he is a lifer when it comes to passion of the industry) and of course Lockheed and Microsoft. Teledesic, and the other recent alliances and projects prove that the world will be more than united and on the same page it will be doing so in real time. Expect the human rights violations of yesterday to disappear in all nations, religion to be put in check and knowledge to be the universal truth. I would like to thank; John Kettlewell, Jon Haugan, Steven Genuser, Stacy, Allen, Steve Ford WB8IMY, Michael Tavern, Frank Morring, Kim Komando and a few other writers, researchers and industry insiders for all the data in our research. We have scoured over 20 magazines for the last year for bits and pieces of the puzzle and personally visited all kinds of people around the US for this input.

We at WashGuys are sitting on the latest and greatest technologies on this Planet. We will always be on the leading edge of anything that makes us great. And when we say us, we mean all of the US, but of course this costs the big bucks and we like out electronic toys, but it is not for everyone. Okay back to the talk. TracNet is another purely Internet Based satellite service and has download speeds of 400kbps, but since it is not directly two way it’s upload speed is 14.4 Mbps on a cell phone or at 9600 through the satellite, bummer, but it works no matter where you are in the US. Truck drivers like this one a lot. It also works about 100 miles from the coastline in a boat and is good on yachts. Many high-end motor homes have this system too. TrackNet uses the 802.11b wireless standard WiFi; this is at 11Mbps, same as an Ethernet network. The cool thing about this system is you can be outside on the grass in a park doing you work as long as you have the server in your car with the Trac net antenna set up. Of course you need some space for all this but the size of this technology is getting smaller and the price is coming down too. Right now this system costs about $6K. It uses the ExpressVu Bell Satellite and it requires a 14-inch antenna. Let me know if you want to see what the dome looks like. This will cost an additional $3,000. Cost is $ .99 per minute and after 900 minutes it is only $ .79 per minute. MotoSat System, 12Kbs on down load and 1.28Kbs on uplink all satellite, no cell phones unlimited use for $79 per month. Hell you can even watch TV on the damn thing.

Got to love the diehards from GM Hughes Spin off. What’s the catch? A 39 inch antenna, not exactly transportable or brief-casable. DataStorm it is called. Our WashGuy Command Center antenna is 42 inches high and 39 inches across in an ellipse shape. We believe the next wave of technology is where it is at however and predict this to be in place where WiFi is sitting on top of every billboard in the US for uplink and the antennas are 5 inches high and self tracking the downlink from the satellite and with this technology and user codes each company can help America track terrorists and once a terrorist is coded like a whale that has been tagged, you always know where he is. When will this be? Not long. Give it three, maybe four years or so tops, five if the FCC does not see it’s obvious value.

Another system, which may enter the market, is GE Capitals Americom Communications Unit. Our founder met the president of Americom once, about 8 years ago, interesting guy. Societe Europeene Des Satellite (SES) added these satellites to its 28 owned and 13 satellites that it has an interest in. Why? To have a piece at the broadband seamless global conductivity market. This was talked about in April 2 issue of Aviation Week and Space technology. This means that SES will also control AsiaSat and Embratel’s Brazil StarOne. Other articles to tell the history of this whole thing are; Nov 13 2000 AW&SPT and AW&SPT of July 24,2000. SES maybe the most profitable in the entire sector due to the contract backlogs of 6.4 Billion as of June 2001. So now what will they do with others entering the markets? It appears GE was smart to sell and now needs to get back into the game somehow. I see the coming of a new age. Where information, innovation, security, safety, will change the world. And just imagine the power it will give to all the research going on in the World. Very cool. Car Wash Guys are in close contact with these technologies so we can put a small antenna on every until and address the entire company and every crew in it every morning of everything going on by way of satellite video conferencing. WOW, we are almost here.

And that is the story of our Beta Test Project and we are glad to be a part of Communications History and we have now tested the satellite system in every city in the United States over 10,000 people. Think about it.