[Leaplist] Broadband plug in cards -- CDMA 3G EvDO and GSM 3G UTMS

[Bryan J. Smith]

There are two, major "3rd Generation" (3G) mobile broadband options
in the US ...

CDMA-aligned EvDO ...  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution-Data_Optimized  
- Sprint
- Verizon

GSM-aligned UTMS ...  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
 
- AT&T (fka Cingular)
- T-Mobile (planned, not available yet)

Verizon calls it's EvDO "BroadbandAccess."  It's not available, it
falls back to the 2G "NationalAccess" mode which is "CDMA x1" aka
"CDMAOne" mode.  Performance of the former is up to 2Mbps, 500Kbps or
less is typical.  The latter can be several times a 56K modem, but
can be just as slow as 56K (although it's typically at least 3x).

AT&T call's its UTMS "Accelerated" and drops back to 2G
"Non-Accelerated" which is GPRS.  UTMS "Accelerated" varies greatly,
especially world-wide, as the US varies from other regions of the
world (a problem CDMA doesn't have as it's largely North
American-only).  Also, some pre-4G performance is available in UTMS
networks, although still rare (e.g., Dallas, New York, etc...). 
Typically UTMS should give up to 1.2Mbps (2Mbps is rare, but
possible), although performance can be as low as only 200Kbps.  2G
mode is typically only 3x 56K, although virtually world-wide.

Because I work in New York City mostly, and have traveled to Atlanta,
Dallas, DC and Denver more recently, most of these are top-tier UTMS
strong-holds.  I also travel overseas on occasion, so I like being
able to fall-back to GMS/GPRS (e.g., B-Mobile GSM/GPRS service is
common in Commonwealth and other EU nation islands, like throughout
the Caribbean).  In New York, I used to get sustained 500Kbps
approaching 1Mbps, and burst of over 1.2Mbps.  But they are clearly
over-capacity now, and that is rare anymore.

Although I have noted that UTMS in New York City seems to be more
reliable than EvDO.  Most of my colleagues seem to get dropped
connections out of EvDO, whereas I stay connected for hours with
UTMS.  Outside of cities, CDMA x1 mode typically kicks GPRS.  I only
rely on GPRS for the "push" type e-mail service, such as to my
Blackberry (I still have T-Mobile for that for now -- at least until
AT&T grants me a credit for the $2,200 I paid Cingular for 5 month's
service prior in 2004-2005 ;).

I'm using the Option GT ExpressCard/34, although the CardBus version
works well for most people.  It appears as a full UART in either the
ExpressCard (PCI Express signaling) or CardBus (PCI signaling)
versions, although the USB versions may be another story (most don't
comply with ACM).  That means wvdial works flawlessly for connection
in Linux -- Fedora 8 x86-64 (my personal HP Pavilion dv9000z --
ExpressCard-only) and RHEL 5 i386 (my company Lenovo Thinkpad T60 --
ExpressCard and CardBus).

For the most part, stay away from USB, as most are not ACM-compliant
(only about 25% of serial/UART-type USB devices are).  But
ExpressCard, like CardBus before it, is a fully designed spec, and
works just like PCI Express, as PCI before it.

-- Bryan

P.S.  One thing that is pissing me off is that AT&T isn't honoring my
corporate discount.  I'm trying to get Suckular--er, AT&T, to honor
that, especially since I did everything proper (including their
dropping my order twice on me prior to my getting it).


-- 
Bryan J. Smith       Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
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