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The new high-speed Internet is way cooler than Wi-Fi hotspots. Verizon, Sprint, and Cingular are all bumping up their wireless PC Card speeds to genuine broadband, blanketing dozens of cities and even offering decent upload speeds for all that Web 2.0 content you're creating.
In recent months, Sprint has lit up two dozen cities with EV-DO Rev A, the fastest thing out there, giving you download speeds over a megabit and uploads hitting 800 kbps. Verizon's Rev A rollout is starting right now, and Cingular says they'll bump up upload speeds on their HSDPA network to 384 kbps early next year. If you're a laptop person, this is the ultimate laptop Net.
The main barrier to everyone getting high-speed wireless right now is price, and that's no coincidence. Cellular networks have limited capacity, and a Verizon executive once confided to me that by keeping prices high, they can make sure they only get as many customers as they can handle. PC Card plans on all three major carriers cost $60/month with a two-year contract. (Verizon and Cingular also demand that you have a phone with them to get that rate.) If that sounds steep, think of it as six nights of hotel Wi-Fi. Sprint can bring down the price to $40 if you get your Net by connecting a phone to your PC rather than using a dedicated card. That's slower than using a card—and there are no Rev A phones yet for the new network—but it's also cheaper, and it's still broadband-ish.
Capacity concerns also have led the carriers to slap truly awful terms of service on their networks. All three of them say that you shouldn't use your PC Card to replace a wired home connection. Otherwise, Sprint is relatively liberal; they even sell a Wi-Fi router so you can share your bounty out to friends. Verizon and Cingular both prohibit anything except Web surfing, E-mail and corporate Intranet access—in other words, anything fun. Verizon says they'll crack down on anyone who uses more than 5 GB/month.
In descending order of speed, here are your high-speed options:
EV-DO Rev A is the speed demon, with speeds better than 1 megabit downloads and up to 800 kbps uploads. Sprint currently runs the only retail network in the US, but they'll be joined by Verizon Wireless soon. Our favorite card for Rev A is the Sierra Wireless AC595, available on both Sprint and Verizon. Folks who don't have PC Card slots can also get a USB dongle, the Novatel Wireless U720; we'll have a review of that soon.
HSDPA is Cingular's offering, with speeds of 800 kbps down and 384 kbps up on a good day. (We tested it a while ago, before the upload upgrade.) Another major advantage here: if you're using an HSDPA phone, you can connect to the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time, something you can't do with EV-DO. We like the Sierra Wireless AirCard 860, though global roamers will appreciate the newer AirCard 875, which also works on high-speed networks in Europe. For a phone that will also hook your laptop up to the Net, try the Samsung SGH-A707 Sync.
EV-DO Rev 0 is run by both Verizon and Sprint. It offers very good download speeds at around 800 kbps/sec on a good day, but slower uploads at 140 kbps or so—but it covers many cities and has many devices. We like the Kyocera KPC650 PC card and the Palm Treo 700p smartphone for accessing this network.
T-Mobile users are, alas, stuck with EDGE for now – a much slower network, with downloads that run at about 120 kbps on a good day. But T-Mobile's plans also include Wi-Fi hotspots at Starbucks locations around the country. If you like that idea, look into the Dash smartphone, which has both EDGE and Wi-Fi support. T-Mobile has said they're going to start turning on their own HSDPA network sometime in 2007.
Mentioned in this roundup:
Sprint Upgraded Power Vision
Currently the only retail EV-DO Rev A network, and the nation's fastest way of getting online in broad metro areas.
Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess EV-DO
Wide coverage areas make Verizon's network a good bet for business travelers heading to major US cities or their suburbs.
Cingular BroadbandConnect HSDPA
Cingular's service has improved since we originally wrote this review, and they now have an array of feature phones and smartphones that tap into their system.
Sierra Wireless AirCard 595
Available for both Sprint and Verizon, it's the fastest way to hit the next-generation wireless Internet.
Sierra Wireless AirCard 860
Our preferred card for Cingular's high-speed network.
Kyocera KPC650
This card runs as fast as you can get on EV-DO Rev 0 systems, but it doesn't support the new Rev A networks.