Datacard OR 3G cellphone ??

[willyv]

I intend to go for a contract to 3G internet .
A sales-mamager Vodacom Canalwalk told me that the internet speed with a 3G cellphone (connected as modem to a pc) is definite SLOWER than a (pcmcia) Data-card...
Is that so ?? Much slower? Why ? Very confusing for me,now
Somebody have practical experience with a 3G cellphone used as a modem?

 

[vodacom3g]

There should be no speed difference.

There's probably a usage breakpoint where a datacard would make more sense.

If you use very little data (few Megs / month), maybe the occasional e-mail, etc. it makes to use a phone.

If you're a power user, like a lot of the forumites, and download hundreds of Megs of data, a data card would make much more sense as your phone would be in data mode most of the time and would never be available for voice.

You'll probably fit somewhere in between these two extremes and need to decided how much data would warrant a dedicated data card.

I'd venture <100Mb, get a phone. More, a data card.

What would the forum suggest?

 

[jarr]

I agree. One other possible factor to look at is battery life of the phone. Don't have a 3G phone yet myself, but my experience using a gprs phone as a modem over bluetooth, is that it certainly does drain the battery rather quickly. Just something to keep in mind as well...

 

[ScrnScrm]

I would lean towards the phone at the moment... Until a datacard comes out that supports EDGE. The step down from UMTS to GPRS is rather drastic, and in a lot of instances better with a phone.
There are also technical reasons viz-a-vis performance that I have explained elsewhere on this forum. Cant remember where, but it was recent.
Hope this helps!

 

[erike]

Decided to get a phone because of the following reasons:

1) I have a MAC.
2) My Mac doesn't have a CardBus slot or a PCI slot.

So a phone was the only viable option available to me. Perhaps Vodafon should look into releasing a USB device for desktop users?

 

[diabolus]

Yea that's kind of sad, the MAC Mini is afterall a real impressive little PC and sometihng i also considered as an alternative to a laptop [i went for a XCube instead or commonly referred to as "small form factor" pcs, but the mac mini is problably the smallest still!].

Welll just for interest sakes:

http://www.mobl.com/expansion/pci/ . In short, add PCI slots to your laptop [yes it's a bit the opposite to what we want, but you get similar stuff for MACs, but it's costly in general].

This is probably not very helpful, but interesting to take note of nonetheless maybe?
I assume this only works with 'storage' related PCMCIA cards [and not the 3G data card]?

http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/pocket_udd.asp

M6785 Memory Card Reader/Write - 6 in 1 including PCMCIA - USB 2.0
Six in 1 - Will read and write full size PCMCIA ATA, Smart Media, Multimedia, Secure Digital and Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro memory cards via a USB connection. Operates with Win 98 or later on a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port.
• Four sockets: supports SecureDigital Card, MultiMedia Card, MemoryStick (incl MemoryStick Pro),
3.3V SmartMedia Card and ATA (PC Card).
• Allows data exchange between different sockets.
• High-speed USB 2.0 interface access to storage card reaches 480Mb/sec(Max).
• Active LED indicators of power and busy(read/write) equipped
• Supports Mass Storage Class Drive; no additional device driver needed under Windows ME/XP and Mac OS 9.0/X. (Drivers provided for other supported OS)
• Supports Windows 98/98 SE/2000/ME/XP, Mac OS 8.6 or later versions.
• USB powered, no external power required.
M6785 Memory Card Reader/Write - 6 in 1 including PCMCIA - USB 2.0: $115+GST 4/04

 

[briantw]

The phone is NOT slower than the card.

The phone can be connected to multiple devices with bluetooth, ie laptop, desktop, PocketPC.

The phone has a battery. My first 3G phone, the E1000, didn't last till lunchtime. I eagerly await the Nokia 6680.

Your phone can still be used for voice while in 3G mode, but a fallback to GPRS will put you out of touch without you being aware of it.