[KLUG Members] Sprint Mobile Broadband Cards

[Bruce Smith]

> > At work we have both the PC-5740 and the Merlin S620, and I've tried
> > both cards on SuSE Linux 10.0 (Dell Laptop).
> > The PC-5740 works fine.  It appears as a modem in Linux, and you simply
> > have to tell it that it's a Sprint modem and to dial "#777".  I also
> > edited /etc/ppp/options and commented out all the lines that start with
> > "lcp", otherwise the connection drops too often.  Pretty painless.
> > FWIW, it also works fine on my Powerbook in both Ubuntu Linux and OS-X.
> 
> Any idea what your mode/average/approximate data-rate is?

When I'm in an area with EV-DO coverage, I usually get around T1'ish
speeds the few times I've benchmarked a download.  I did that at the
chamber during KLUG meeting awhile back.  For normal surfing & email,
it's like being on broadband.

When your in the old PCS network coverage (1X), the download speeds are
somewhere in the neighborhood of a dual channel ISDN line.

Latency is usually noticeable with a 1X connection.  Not as bad as true
satellite internet, but more noticeable than a good dialup connection.

I can rarely notice any latency with a strong EV-DO connection (one with
a lot of "bars").

 - BS