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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 1

Being on the road has its advantages; the freedom is the biggest one. One draw back was the Internet Service, but having done much study on the mobile Internet Satellite Systems and future technologies; I was able to become a beta tester of the MotoSat system in 1999. I have used the system ever sense.

My company, the Car Wash Guys had joined forces with a Strategic Alliance of GM Hughes Satellite Division to beta test the First Fully Self contained, fully Networked Mobile Corporate Office, taking advantage of the newest in WiFi technology. We were the first in the world to have this powerful capabilities which at the time nearly blew away the Pentagon’s Performance with their 77 million dollar investment and Iridium Bailout.

Mobile Corporate Offices are the Wave of the future, where Network Centric Warfare (Net-Centric) in the marketplace combined with strategic mobile command centers used to create a network of networks, which will eventually dominate all of their market sectors. Corporate Giants are slowly learning the game is changing. And we are the ones teaching them. We are the leaders in technology and they will have to learn the hard way. Car Wash Guys are leading everyone’s industry this time. As far as the car wash industry is concerned we left them in the dust a decade ago. Today we use 20 times less water, a third of the labor and spend less than a tenth of the capital to do it. We now have much bigger fish to fry as we go for the gold. To work with this technology you must move your business at the speed of thought.

We at our Bravo research team of WashGuys, had been studying the newest in satellite technologies. Most of our recent studies have been on satellite data transmissions and as many of you know we have become very knowledgeable over the years with satellite communications, I happened to live next door in Malibu from a physicist who worked at the Rockwell Research Center in Thousand Oaks CA. First we would like to talk about actually data transmission speeds and problems associated with relays and problems of security of data when data jumps from satellite to satellite or from satellite to ground. Also with the problems of relay where any and all data can be recorded. As everyone knows the Pentagon bailed out the Iridium project, which is good since we have learned so much from this. The 75 million dollar contract helped pay the bills of 7 million a month including the 40 million per year to Boeing who flies the satellites. Iridium was nice in that it covered the whole Earth, all oceans and remote areas, with spare satellites ready just in case. Iridium had 66 satellites in orbit in use at about 485,000 up. Very close and helps with data lag associated with satellites which is normally a half second or more. The data can be transmitted at 1Mbs, which is slow considering the Wash Guys data transmission capabilities of 10-12.265 Mps up load and the 1Mbs download, faster than that of the US Department of Defense. The other problem we see with their system is the relay in Tempe, AZ home of Motorola, which is unsafe due to the newest wave of possible terrorist devices such as the brief case electronic impulse devises which work from building tops and could easily destroy its relay station. This is why other systems, which are not voice systems and generally web based and data use satellites are much better such as the Globalstar System.

With Globalstar, which is in debt and filed bankruptcy, due to small amount of debt to Qualcomm who is also in trouble and Loral, it may cease to exist. EuroCom has a neat system, which is used in the shipping industry and there is an interesting article in Professional Mariner this month about them and a few others. It is similar to Imersat and supports PBX and PABX systems on ships. Of course the bent pipe approach by GlobalStar is worth considering its 48 operational satellites and the four spares. Only real problem is the range of 70 degrees north to 60 degrees south. And also the gaps if you let’s say in the middle of the ocean at sea level in the South Atlantic and or middle of the Pacific. Several satellites can transmit the coded signal but unlike the Iridium system the Satellites do not talk to themselves. But all in all Global Star data transmissions are still about 9.6 KBPS and actually slightly less than the Iridium system, which does not have the lapse in service.

The Iridium of course is the Arthur C. Clark theory in practice and is worthy of note; the big problem right now with data transmission is the problems with direct sight to satellite, which we have encountered. Hard for submarines, and below decks on vessels or in buildings. Good for catching bad guys who have to go out in the open to use the phone, they do not work in caves either. Iridium like all of Microsoft software has triple redundancy, and uses CDMA technologies to gateway the data from transmission point into the terrestrial system. Inmarsat Systems include the I-4 system, which can transmit data at 432 MBPS turns out to be excellent for things like video conferencing. The newest satellites by Inmarsat are said to be able to 10 times more communications than the current ones. Since the Inmarsat satellites are at 22,300 miles up three satellites cover the Earth with 3 back-ups. But remember with that altitude there is a time delay. You will notice this when you see video feed from the Middle East Wars on live broadcasts on TV, CNN.