Re: [A/S] Re: Cell Phone Internet Connection

[Rick Kunath <k9ao@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> If you like to get out in the boonies, Edge might not be for you quite 
> yet. Wait a year and I bet it will be there.

Actually the Cingular EDGE product is rolled out nationally already and 
Cingular has roaming agreements in place with other carriers as well for 
the digital service.

GPRS EDGE will fall back to GPRS if the signal strength is too weak to 
maintain an acceptable bit-error rate at EDGE speeds.

This is why I keep mentioning a proper modem.

A cellphone used as a digital modem isn't a proper modem. Use a real 
external modem and you'll be surprised at the increased range, not only 
because of a properly mounted external gain antenna, but because of 
better sensitivity, and a bulletproof front-end which is pretty darn 
immune to intermodulation distortion.

I've also seen a lot of external antenna installations over the years, 
and most really aren't properly done. There are also ways to use 
directional antennas to extend the EDGE range cheaply and simply over 
fixed omnidirectional gain antennas.

Also, as I've said before, a real modem will bond time-slots and is the 
only way to get all of the speeds that the network can deliver. If 
you're using a cellphone as a modem, you aren't getting all you're 
paying for. If you've used EDGE (or GPRS for that matter) with a 
cellphone, imagine what the difference between a cellphone that may only 
be able to use a singe time-slot and an external EDGE modem bonding many 
time-slots.

There is a lot of disinformation floating around the Internet about 
wireless high-speed access, and it must be difficult for 
non-professionals to sort it all out.

If anyone has any questions about doing wireless high-speed Internet 
right, don't hesitate to ask. There are a lot of marginal solutions out 
there that most folks use and suffer with, which not only cost them lots 
of wasted cash, but force them to endure slow access.

Rick Kunath
WBCCI #3060