[Hands0n]

I run a support team who are on an On Call rota through the week and weekend. They have a pair of laptops equipped with all the tools necessary to do their work remotely, and use their home broadband connections to do this. But occasionally they move house/flat and end up without broadband which always makes things interesting. One of my enterprising lot befriended a local and when gets called nips round with the laptop to make use of their broadband. I was impressed at the inventiveness.

Not so long ago I was spending a few days away from the office but armed with my firms laptop for all the usual reasons. Normally I would work disconnected. But on this occasion I really did need to get back into the workplace remotely and to do so I used my T-Mobile Web N Walk Plus data allowance via my Nokia N95. It worked okay, speeds did not seem to be any higher than 3G (this was a bit out in the sticks ....) but it was a darned sight better than having no connectivity at all. There were problems, the N95 battery did not hold out and I had not brought its charger from the hotel room. I managed about 1-1/2 hours usage before it gave up the ghost.

This all got me to thinking and soon after I returned I grabbed hold of a Vodafone USB Stick on £15/3GB contract. Its a beautiful bit of engineering and works a treat on the Macbook Pro and the Mrs' Wintel laptop. Time to get the firm into the 21st century (it is a tech firm after all). I ordered four Vodafone 3G mobile data "things" from Purchasing (thats how it works, you say what you want, they get you what you can have :D)

Today the first of the four arrived - a Vodafone Mobile Connect PCMCIA card on the £15/3GB account. Wonderful, not! I really wanted the USB stick, not this behemoth. Ho well, at least it arrived ..... mustn't be too ungrateful.

Installing the Mobile Connect software from the CD was a breeze as usual. Vodafone are not at all new to this and have had many years to perfect the art. The ubiquitous PC reboot was required - what is it with M$? I didn't have to reboot my Macbook Pro! After the PC came back to life I started making use of the device, slotting the huge red "thing" into the side of the laptop - ugh! it really does make the eye sore, that red is just too much.

I work in the central London area which is very well covered by Vodafone's HSDPA network which runs at 7.2Mbps, I am told :) I was only able to make a few short stabs at using it and was pleased to see it report a downstream rate of 4.5Mbps frequently while just doing some basic browsing. I never got the time to run up speedtest.net, that will have to be for another day.

All in all I am pleased with the 3G/HSDPA performance of the card and also of the software supplied. It all just works, and does so very simply - which is what it is all about.

Nice one, Vodafone. Nice one indeed :)

[Ben]

Congratulations! I hope you told Purchasing to get their act together on the other 3 devices... a nice selection of the various products available would be good! ;)

Is it an ExpressCard device in a PCMCIA adapter?

You have to hand it to Vodafone, they're good at this stuff. Unfortunately that's not necessarily hard when you look at the competition. But they strive to be the best, and that's why they are.

[Hands0n]

Is it an ExpressCard device in a PCMCIA adapter

Sadly it is not - it is one of the older 3G+ (HSDPA) adapters in the full PCMCIA form factor. Persuading my new(ish) masters will be hard to do. They are rather set in their ways LOL :eek:

[Ben]

Mhmm... Vodafone probably charge about the same for them as they do the new ones! I bet they love palming off old stock onto Purchasing departments everywhere ;)

Still, if it's like the one I have sticking out of my Linksys then it's a solid device.

[solo12002]

" if it's like the one I have sticking out of my Linksys then it's a solid device"

Is this one of your known medical problems ben following use of virgia?

[Ben]

I think that was a stretch too far, solo :p *trundles off to find out what virgia is*

[hecatae]

virgia = viagra?

[Hands0n]

Mhmm... Vodafone probably charge about the same for them as they do the new ones! I bet they love palming off old stock onto Purchasing departments everywhere ;)

Still, if it's like the one I have sticking out of my Linksys then it's a solid device.

I ordered four of the blighters - the second one turned up today and guess what? It is one of the ExpressCard device with a PCMCIA adapter. Very nice. I think I may snaffle that one for myself seeing as the Works PC has a PCMCIA slot and my Macbook Pro has an ExpressCard slot. Of course I'd only use it for official business .... :) Having got my own personal USB Stick 3G/HSDPA/HSUPA thingle from Vodafone.

Gosh, didn't I say 2008 would be the year of Mobile Data? I just didn't expect it to be coming out of every crevice quite so soon.... Lots of envious glances at work and a few forms being filled in :D

[getti]

talking about modems, 3 had (have) an issue with their site for anyone interested. If your an existing 3 contract customer a USB modem on PrePay is £19.99 when it SHOULD be £49.99 lol

[Ben]

Hands0n - excellent, sounds like you'll be able to observe one of each type of device at this rate! :D Defo get your hands on the new one, would love to hear how it fares in the Macbook Pro!

[Hands0n]

I finally got around to trying out the Vodafone 3G ExpressCard modem in my works XP laptop this afternoon. It has a PCMCIA slot so I had to use the adapter that is supplied with the ExpressCard (not required for Mac equipment which uses the smaller ExpressCard slot).

Slotting in the PCMCIA adapter the PC immediately decided that it has had a new USB Hub plugged in and configures it from its own drivers. You may remember, from earlier, that I had already installed the earlier 3G Data Card which is PCMCIA form into the laptop. Without really thinking about it I pushed home the ExpressCard into the PCMCIA adpater whereupon XP tried to find the drivers. I don't know, maybe it was naieve of me to expect the earlier drivers to work but they didn't.

Removing the software and drivers for the Data Card involved using Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs to remove the software followed by the statutory Windows reboot. Then I was able to install the software suite and drivers for the ExpressCard and, yes you've guess it, followed by yet another Windows reboot. At this point I will just mention that the install CD for the ExpressCard contains the software and drivers for Apple Mac computers.

Starting up the ExpressCard and software was easy enough, and it soon found a fairly solid (at that time*) 3G signal. I tried to run some speed tests with speedtest.net and it was immediately apparent that the HSUPA was working as I was getting uplink speeds in excess of 1.6Mbps - and I'm sure I saw it hit 1.8 at one point. This is very quick indeed and HSUPA is not at all played up by Vodafone.

Downlink speeds were much harder to measure. For some strange reason most of the speed test sites, including speedtest.net, only perform a tiny download giving insufficient time for a true reading to be made. The Vodafone software suite does give an indication of the uplink and downlink speeds but I was not able to measure more than a lowly 468Kbps when I know it can work faster. Ben suggested that I download some big files from the likes of M$. Good plan, I'll be doing that in the next few days if I can get the time on the machine and will post the results on here.

Suffice it to say that [both of] the Vodafone 3G data cards are performers. I can say the same for their 3G HSDPA/HSUPA USB Stick. These things move data around searingly fast on Vodafone's "upto" 7.2Mbps HSDPA network. The 7.2Mbps is only available in London postal districts and major airports at the moment. But undoubtedly Vodafone will roll it out nationwide as it is only software (and the cost of suitable backhaul circuits from the transmitter masts).

If this is what Mobile Data is going to be then the mobile network operators had better brace themselves for a deluge of new customers. As word spreads they will be shifting these devices and contracts off their inventory quicker than they can produce them.

NB: * At the outset the 3G signal was strong and permanent. But as time wore on the blue 3G light started to fade in and out which was a sign of a weakening signal strength. Eventually it dropped to green which is 2G only. A short while later it came back up to 3G. Was I witnessing "Cell Breathing"? It would have been inconvenient if I had been engaged in some heavy and serious work. And this is where the mobile operators have to be careful with their descriptions. Mobile Broadband? I'm not so sure, when is the last time your ADSL or Cable broadband slowed down to low 2-digit kilobyte speeds? Exactly.