Bare Feats gave the Verizon Wireless ExpressCard/34 (Novatal V640) wireless PC card a two week try (spoiler: they returned it.)
As many of you know, we’ve been using CardBus versions of the wirelessbroadband in our PowerBooks since early 2005. But when we bought theMacBook Pro for the lab back in March 2006, it had an ExpressCard/34slot but no cellular company had an ExpressCard broadband wireless PCcard available. That’s changed. As of August 2006, the Novatel V640ExpressCard/34 became available through Verizon Wireless. (Neither Sprint nor Cingular have an ExpressCard wireless broadband solution as of this posting.)
I first activated the V640, the download speed was peaking at 144K.That was unacceptably slow — but sounded awfully familiar. Sureenough, when I called to complain, they admitted the tech designated”National Access” (max download 144K) instead of “Broadband Access” (upto 2Mbit/s bursts) when the account was set up.
After that was addressed, I did more speed testing. Now the downloadspeed (according to DSLreports.com) was running between 850K and 1000K.That’s as good as it gets for an “air card” from Verizon Wireless.
Read More…
Bare Feats >> Wireless Broadband ExpressCard/34 from Verizon Wireless
Bare Feats gave the Verizon Wireless ExpressCard/34 (Novatal V640) wireless PC card a two week try (spoiler: they returned it.)
As many of you know, we’ve been using CardBus versions of the wirelessbroadband in our PowerBooks since early 2005. But when we bought theMacBook Pro for the lab back in March 2006, it had an ExpressCard/34slot but no cellular company had an ExpressCard broadband wireless PCcard available. That’s changed. As of August 2006, the Novatel V640ExpressCard/34 became available through Verizon Wireless. (Neither Sprint nor Cingular have an ExpressCard wireless broadband solution as of this posting.)
I first activated the V640, the download speed was peaking at 144K.That was unacceptably slow — but sounded awfully familiar. Sureenough, when I called to complain, they admitted the tech designated”National Access” (max download 144K) instead of “Broadband Access” (upto 2Mbit/s bursts) when the account was set up.
After that was addressed, I did more speed testing. Now the downloadspeed (according to DSLreports.com) was running between 850K and 1000K.That’s as good as it gets for an “air card” from Verizon Wireless.
Read More…
Bare Feats >> Wireless Broadband ExpressCard/34 from Verizon Wireless
