October 17, 2005

Cellular Networks on Laptops: Slow But Meets the Need

The Washington Post feels that cellular networks built into laptop computers are not good enough as the speed is slow, the connectivity is tied to one provider and other issues.

I bought an adapter for my cell phone and can use it to connect my notebook to the Internet. Is it blazing fast? No. But it allows me to get online, especially in an emergency, when I need to. Sure, I'd love a wireless chip that lets users connect to multiple cellular networks (Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, etc) but for now, I'm happy with what I've got.

The Washington Post writes With a clear signal -- four or five bars of indicated strength, out of five total -- things proceeded pleasantly. When the test Vaio T350P, a pre-production unit lent by Sony, had just booted up, it took about 30 seconds to detect the wireless receiver and log on. Afterward (except for one time when the laptop couldn't find the receiver after waking up from standby mode), connections took less than 10 seconds.

That's awful compared with WiFi but far superior to the alternative of dial-up or nothing at all. Looking up information online required minimal patience, and I could download reasonably small files (for instance, updates to the antivirus software) without aggravation.

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