Better Roaming With Mobile Broadband

THIS ROAD WARRIOR'S GUIDE COMPARES THE VARIOUS MOBILE BROADBAND PLANS OFFERED BY THE CELLULAR CARRIERS.

IF YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON THE road and are either tired- or fearful- of using public Wi-Fi hot spots, it might be time to consider the various mobile broadband plans that are offered by the cellular carriers.

Mobile broadband offers better roaming- you can leave your latte behind and be connected while in a moving vehicle- and you might even get better throughput, depending on where you are and what service you connect to. And unlike public Wi-Fi, which leaves you a sitting duck for eavesdroppers and amateur hackers, cellular traffic is difficult to intercept.

As for pricing, if you pay more than $40 a month for your airport and coffeeshop Wi-Fi fixes, mobile broadband plans starting at around $50 a month are price-competitive. However, navigating the options among the four major cellular carriers isn't easy They do their best to hide their data plans on their Web sites, and, in some cases, offer a confusing array of options to further confound you.

Most of the time, it's cheaper to purchase data as an add-on to your existing voice plan: You can save $20 a month or more with the right combination. All the cellular carriers offer unlimited data plans, and all are in the process of upgrading their networks to deliver even higher speeds. (See chart, next page.)

There are three ways to use mobile broadband in your computing life:

1 Buy a laptop that has a built-in broadband modem.

These modems go by different names. Dell calls them ExpressCards and MiniCards, depending on the laptop model, and claims the cards are 45 percent faster than an add-on TJSB or PC modem adapter. Tests sponsored by Hewlett-Packard in the Seattle area show a similar performance edge. Plus, you can't lose a built-in card when you're on the road.

Both Dell and HP offer numerous mobile broadband-capable laptops on their Web sites. Sony supports Sprint on several VAIO models, though they're hard to find online. AU Lenovo high-end ThinkPad Reserve Edition models support AT&T or Verizon, and a few Toshiba Prot�g� models also support Verizon.

Of the major vendors, Dell's Web site does the best job of explaining carrier and card availability. According to the company, every Dell small-business notebook computer can be fitted with an ExpressCard. Many models also support the built-in MiniCard, including the Dell Latitude D430 ultra-portable; the D630, D830 and ATG notebooks; the Dell Precision M4300 model; and the Vostro 1400, 1500 and 1700 lines.

2 Purchase a PC Card or USB card for your laptop.

This isn't ideal, but it beats a smart phone or PDA if you use an older laptop.

3 Use your PDA or smart phone for your broadband connection.

If all else fails, you can use your phone's broadband radio and either a Bluetooth or cabled connection to link your laptop to the Internet. However, this isn't as simple as it sounds.

Some carriers try their best to discourage you from doing this and make you purchase a different kind of data plan that meters your monthly megabytes. There is a software program called PDA.net .www.junefabrics.com) that will let you work around this for some Windows Mobile and Palm models.

As for the carriers, Verizon does the best job of partnering with laptop vendors and offers the simplest plan, but its network is the slowest of the four major players. T-Mobile wants you to buy a phone and connect that way, but it offers a real bargain when it comes to using both Wi-Fi and mobile broadband connections.

AT&T sells three plans, one that offers barely any data usage (only jMB a month), another that is still somewhat stingy at 5GB a month and an unlimited plan for iPhone users only.

Tips for Travelers

Still not sure what to do? Here are a few tips to get the most out of your mobile broadband and figure out which plan makes the most sense for you:

* BUY A NEW LAPTOP FROM DELL OR HP with the optional high-speed modem card included if you're going to make mobile broadband your computing lifestyle. If you already own a newer laptop, check to see if a broadband modem card is available for your wireless carrier.

* NOT USING A WINDOWS LAPTOP? Then you're better off getting one of the plans that allow you to connect your PDA or smart phone to your laptop. Or you can buy the Sierra PC 5220 PC Card modem (if your laptop has a PC Card slot), since it works with both Mac OS and Linux. Mac users can also try the Kyocera KPC650 card.

* UPDATE YOUR PHONE'S ROAMING LIST. Carriers that use multiple high-speed broadband networks like AT&T and Sprint don't make it easy for you. If you use your phone for data access, it may still be connecting on the slower network. You need to update the preferred roaming list (PRL).

As the carriers continue to build out faster networks, consider doing a PRL update every couple of months. If you need help doing this on your phone, call your carrier's customer service.

* COVERAGE MAPS. Check out Evdomaps.com for coverage comparisons of Verizon and Sprint networks. They claim to give you actual speeds experienced by users, but take this advice with a few grains of salt.

* T-MOBlLE ISSUES. T-Mobile seems to be moving away from supporting laptop users. Once upon a time, the carrier offered and supported the Sony Ericsson GC79 PC Card, but now the only place to buy that card is on eBay. The company is investing in the higherspeed HSDPA network in Europe and will eventually get around to upgrading its U.S. networks.

On its Web site, T-Mobile offers four smart phones that support mobile broadband, and if you use its network,those phones are worth considering. If you still need Wi-Fi coverage, take a look at T-Mobile's unlimited Internet access on mobile broadband and at any of their Wi-Fi hot spots around the world at no additional charge.

AT&T and Verizon also have combination plans, but they charge for the additional coverage.

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