DIFFICULT CHOICES
This New York Times article provides a good summary snapshot of the current options for wireless data via cellular carriers in the US. As it explains:
"Such services are available from Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Cingular. Access plans range from about $20 to $140 a month and, not surprisingly, the terms of the plans resemble those for cellphones: in most cases contracts with early-termination fees are required; activation fees are about $25 to $35; and rebates are offered on essential hardware — specially equipped PC cards with antennas — to entice new users to join. (T-Mobile, the other major carrier in the United States, said 3G services were scheduled for 2007.)
The services deliver download speeds of about 400 to 700 kilobits a second, which is roughly 10 times the speed of dial-up and the wireless services that have been offered by carriers for years; the upload speeds are less, though, in the range of about 50 to 100 kilobits per second, which is still usually faster than dial-up but could be slow for users who frequently need to transfer large amounts of data from a laptop to, say, a server on a corporate network or Web server.
To use the services on a laptop ordinarily requires an available PC-card slot; certain notebook models from companies like Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell offer options to include built-in wireless modems."
I would add Sony to that list of companies that offer built-in wireless options, although currently they're limited to Cingular's EDGE service, which is much slower than the services offered by Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
The one thing the article could have added is that if you travel overseas a lot, the Verizon and Sprint phones won't work there since they're not on the GSM network. For that capability, you need an AT&T/Cingular or T-Mobile phone, which don't have the fastest wireless data services yet.
A difficult trade-off for global travelers, for now.
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