Pros & Cons
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- Good performance in weak-signal locations.
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- Long, slightly awkward antenna.
- No UMTS roaming.
Sierra Aircard 860 Specs
| Service Provider | AT&T |
| Wireless Specification | No |
The Sierra AirCard 860 for Cingular's HSDPA network is currently the preferred option of the service provider's two cards because it gets slightly better results in areas with weak signals. But the choice between it and the
The AirCard is a PC Card with a port on the side for an external antenna and a long, jointed antenna that can catch on things if you don't remember to fold it up when storing it. Both cards are $199.99 with a two-year contract. An unlimited data plan costs $79.99 monthly or $59.99 with a voice plan costing $39.99 or more per month.
The cards use the Cingular Connection Manager, an unobtrusive Microsoft Windows XP program for accessing the Internet. The application's attractive connection panel lets you send and receive text messages, shows signal strength, and displays the amount of data transferred, but we wish it had the speed-charting option of Verizon's VZAccess Manager.
The AirCard can't send SMS directly from the Connection Manager, but we don't see that as a problem: With a PC Card in your laptop, you can send SMS through the Web anyway. The card isn't currently Mac-compatible, but Sierra Wireless says it's working on that.
During eight HSDPA test runs in Washington and Baltimore, the two cards performed almost identically. The AirCard had an average download speed of 587 Kbps with a peak of 955, an average upload speed of 122 Kbps, and an average latency of 322 milliseconds.
Its advantage came in the seven test runs where we had trouble holding an HSDPA signal. Generally, the card tried valiantly to lock on to any HSDPA signal, no matter how weak; the Novatel dropped more quickly to a stronger EDGE connection. We prefer the AirCard's behavior, because we're paying for an HSDPA card, not an EDGE card.
In EDGE mode, the AirCard performs like any Class 10 EDGE device; we achieved download speeds as fast as 198 Kbps, which is very good for this technology. We didn't test thoroughly enough to get conclusive results, but there's not much difference in how EDGE cards in the same class tend to perform, so we'd expect similar throughput from this card and the Novatel.
As a quad-band card, the AirCard lets you roam across the U.S. and more than 95 countries, attaching to GPRS or EDGE networks. There's no card yet that will let you roam on the faster UMTS networks you'll find in foreign countries, though Cingular said it will have one in a few months.
If you're going to buy an HSDPA card now, go for the Sierra AirCard 860. But you might want to hold off buying any card until Cingular builds out its network more and new cards with global UMTS roaming arrive.
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Final Thoughts
Sierra Aircard 860
The Sierra 860 doggedly hangs on to weak HSDPA signals, making it the better option of Cingular's two high-speed network cards.