Ericsson vs Sierra: EDGE Cards

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dbnnet

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Is anyone able to offer some comment on the pros and cons
between the Ericsson and Sierra Wireless EDGE PCMCIA cards??
 
dbnnet said:
Is anyone able to offer some comment on the pros and cons
between the Ericsson and Sierra Wireless EDGE PCMCIA cards??
Click to expand...

Hi dbnnet,

We have evaluated both and both are approved. Our experience shows very little performance difference, they both perform very well on EDGE.

PM me if you would like more detail.
 
On MTN, I would tend to go with the S.Ericsson model... since the network is all Ericsson my gut feel is that there will likely be less hiccups between them. I have no data to support this...just my intuition.:)
 
Will these cards do 3G as well as EDGE? Apologies if this has been answered before.
 
Unfortunately not. We expect the first dual mode cards to be available toward the end of the 3rd Quarter.
 
dbnnet said:
Is anyone able to offer some comment on the pros and cons
between the Ericsson and Sierra Wireless EDGE PCMCIA cards??
Click to expand...

note on the sierra card - dont try eject it from your pcmcia slot without shutting it down in windows first. "non safe" ejections have been known to fry them :D
 
Having briefly tried both units I'd personally recommend the Sierra Card.

Simply due to the approach and attitude of their international support teams. If you're doing integration and development work around these cards you can get decent info in decent time.

I also like the way the Sierra cards function under linux....

But this is SUBJECTIVE ...
 
Heya dbnnet...

Just make sure the pci to pcmcia carrier is a FULL pcmcia card...as I recall Mustek used to sell a carrier for their one wireless card... it was useless for any other card.
 
regardtv, thanks for all the feedback.
The P111 will be dispatched to Durban on Monday, so I can
start testing soon.
I agree with your Sierra comments .... have also managed to test both cards now.
(The Sierra antenna is great .... less chance of it snapping off by mistake!)
 
3G (& HSDPA) PC Cards

MTNHandsets, when do you forsee the release and availability of the SE GC95 and the Aircard 850?
I see from the SierraWireless site: (http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/ac8x0.asp)
that the Aircard 850 will support up to 1.8Mb/s on HSDPA networks. Can you give me a guess as to whether this will be suported on the future HSDPA network?

I would like to know whether it would be worth waiting for the 850 instead of getting an EDGE card now and wishing 3 months (or whatever) down the line that I had waited for the 850.
 
hotdog said:
MTNHandsets, when do you forsee the release and availability of the SE GC95 and the Aircard 850?
I see from the SierraWireless site: (http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/ac8x0.asp)
that the Aircard 850 will support up to 1.8Mb/s on HSDPA networks. Can you give me a guess as to whether this will be suported on the future HSDPA network?

I would like to know whether it would be worth waiting for the 850 instead of getting an EDGE card now and wishing 3 months (or whatever) down the line that I had waited for the 850.
Click to expand...


We are expecting commercial availability of both of these cards around September / October. This is the current plan as given to us by the suppliers. Bear in mind, we depend on them meeting these timelines in order for us to meet ours :)

I can't comment on whether the 850 will support those kind of speeds, as I have not yet seen one in action. Having said that though, we have no reason to doubt that the HSDPA capable prodcuts coming out toward the end of this year will not perform to expectation.

As for waiting... this is a personal decision for you, but the Sierra card certainly does look like being the most future proof data card offering this year that I am aware of. If you plan to use your data card extensively in Metropolitan areas where initial 3G coverage will be prevalent, I would suggest that a combination 3G / EDGE card is undoubtably a strong product choice for a solid long term user experience.
 
MTNHandsets said:
As for waiting... this is a personal decision for you, but the Sierra card certainly does look like being the most future proof data card offering this year that I am aware of. If you plan to use your data card extensively in Metropolitan areas where initial 3G coverage will be prevalent, I would suggest that a combination 3G / EDGE card is undoubtably a strong product choice for a solid long term user experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks MTNHandsets, now all I need to do is hope the MTN g*ds decide to shine favourably on Pietermaritzburg and give us some indication when we will be "Yello Broadband"ed. MTNBB, I know I've asked you before, but any indication yet when this will happen?

While waiting (patently) my mouth waters at the prospect of getting HSDPA speeds in the next year! Anything at this stage is better than GPRS, but hey, why not aim high ;)
 
dbnnet said:
regardtv, thanks for all the feedback.
The P111 will be dispatched to Durban on Monday, so I can
start testing soon.
I agree with your Sierra comments .... have also managed to test both cards now.
(The Sierra antenna is great .... less chance of it snapping off by mistake!)
Click to expand...
Hi dbnnet

Did you get your P111? Who did you get it from? Did it work as expected?

I'm desperately looking for one at the moment. All the Vodashops my PA phoned said that they do not have one in stock and their warehouse can not give them an indication as to when it will be available.
 
The PCMICA to PCI Card Works PERFECTLY.
The software driver (it's actually a P111 card) needs
to be installed BEFORE installing the hardware
(as is the norm with most systems), otherwise
I had it up and running in minutes!
(Used the Sierra Wireless EDGE card, on a Desktop PC to post this!)
 
Last edited:
Thank you for that info dbnnet. I'm taking a drive up to JHB tomorrow. Maybe I'll phone a couple of vodashops on the way and see if can get a P111 somewhere.
 
BEB, any luck locating one of those P111 cards?
This evening I downloaded the latest AirCard 775 Firmware, Drivers and Access software.
(MTN are shipping the product with the 2004 firmware).
This from the Sierra Wireless web site. They have a specific MTN download section there.
So far so good: This solution appears to be very solid and reliable.

I have not tested the Ericsson card on the P111, but I've used
the Ericsson card at work (on a Notebook) with good results.
My only comment about the Ericsson, is that it's antenna lacks
the robustness and "yuppie appeal" :) as is with the Sierra Wireless one....
but then the Ericsson card is cheaper.
 
dbnnet said:
BEB, any luck locating one of those P111 cards?
This evening I downloaded the latest AirCard 775 Firmware, Drivers and Access software.
(MTN are shipping the product with the 2004 firmware).
This from the Sierra Wireless web site. They have a specific MTN download section there.
So far so good: This solution appears to be very solid and reliable.

I have not tested the Ericsson card on the P111, but I've used
the Ericsson card at work (on a Notebook) with good results.
My only comment about the Ericsson, is that it's antenna lacks
the robustness and "yuppie appeal" :) as is with the Sierra Wireless one....
but then the Ericsson card is cheaper.
Click to expand...
Thanx for your input dbnnet. I was in Jhb on Tue and found one at a shop in Vodaworld for R350. I'm loaning a card next week to test in combination with the P111 in a Windows Small Business Server 2000 box for a client.

It's a small company that can not warrant spending big bucks on a Diginet line and can not get ADSL in their area.

I've been monitoring their data usage in the last couple of months and it has never been more that 1GB. I think this would be a perfect solution for them and other small companies like them.
 
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