3G/GPRS data cards

[Funkstar]

Anyone had any experience with these?

I've been asked to look into them by my MD for him and the company owner (not that i think they need them, it's njust more toys).

All our company mobiles are BlackBerry 7100x's on O2. I've said they can just use GPRS data by connecting these with either bluetooth or USB, but i think they are after 3G and something more seamless.

Whats good? doesn't really matter if it isn't O2 as it won't be used for calls, just data.

What about international roaming? how does that work?

thanks for any input guys, this isn't something i know a lot about (can't justify/afford it myself, so why bother learning )

[slugs]

theres a new blackberry on its way shortly that will work at 3g speeds.
and the 7130 allows it to be used as a bluetooth modem

so you can connect to you lan within the blackberry subscription and the only pay the data charges for accesses outside of the blackberry apn

[chrestomanci]

The Register recently did a review of a High Speed 3G data card

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08...sdpa_datacard/

Pesonlay I would probably prefer to use a 3G phone and bluetooth as that way I would not have something sticking out of the side of my laptop to break off.

[Funkstar]

thanks for that guys, i'll let my boss know about whats available

[dave87]

o2 cards are shocking - my uncle uses one when he travels and they barely get 3g reception. The vodafone ones were considered the best if I recall, but that may have changed

[FatalSaviour]

I've only had experience with Vodafone 3G cards myself, but on the whole that experience has been pretty good.

I usually use it within London, but occasionally to more further afield places. On the whole, 3G reception is pretty good...there's only a few places in the sticks that I've had to fall back to GPRS on.

Not sure if cost is an issue at all...ScanCom seem to do some fairly good T-Mobile tariffs...
http://www.scancom.co.uk/product.php...736c50604f230c (or select a different provider on the left)

I might go for one of these myself when my existing contract expires.

At the moment however, I only get 25MB a month free, so I also use OnSpeed to compress the data...which works surprisingly well I've found.

HTH