Sprint EVDO with Sony built in cellular card?

[SamsungDave]

Hi

I am a Sprint cell customer and recently bought a Sony Vaio TX690P which I love. It has a built in cellular card for Cingular Edge and I am in the middle of the 30 day free try-out. It works OK but fairly slow compared with when I had a Sprint cellular card on my old IBM laptop. I am probably going to go for an unlimited data plan from Sprint instead (which includes a free PMCIA cellular air card). It would have been sweet to use the built in card on teh Sony, but the Sprint EVDO network seems to be significantly faster and since I have a cell plan from Sprint, $20 less a month than the Cingular plan (59 vs 79). For that I'll suffer plugging the air card in. Before I do the Sprint 2 year data agreement, I'd just like some expert confirmation from the forum.

1) Am I assuming correctly that the Sprint EVDO data network is faster than Cingular Edge? I mostly access from large cities.

2) Am I also assuming correctly that the built in Cingular (GSM) air card in the Sony could not be used for Sprint (CDMA) even if I swap out the SIM card (which is easy to do).

3) Any hints on trying to get a good data plan deal from Sprint, lower than the 59/month? (Though I have to say the free air card seems like a great offer. It's on the corporate side which I hope they'll let me take advantage of.)

Thanks
David

[mc1974]

Originally Posted by SamsungDave

Hi

I am a Sprint cell customer and recently bought a Sony Vaio TX690P which I love. It has a built in cellular card for Cingular Edge and I am in the middle of the 30 day free try-out. It works OK but fairly slow compared with when I had a Sprint cellular card on my old IBM laptop. I am probably going to go for an unlimited data plan from Sprint instead (which includes a free PMCIA cellular air card). It would have been sweet to use the built in card on teh Sony, but the Sprint EVDO network seems to be significantly faster and since I have a cell plan from Sprint, $20 less a month than the Cingular plan (59 vs 79). For that I'll suffer plugging the air card in. Before I do the Sprint 2 year data agreement, I'd just like some expert confirmation from the forum.

1) Am I assuming correctly that the Sprint EVDO data network is faster than Cingular Edge? I mostly access from large cities.

2) Am I also assuming correctly that the built in Cingular (GSM) air card in the Sony could not be used for Sprint (CDMA) even if I swap out the SIM card (which is easy to do).

3) Any hints on trying to get a good data plan deal from Sprint, lower than the 59/month? (Though I have to say the free air card seems like a great offer. It's on the corporate side which I hope they'll let me take advantage of.)

Thanks
David

Does anyone know the answer to this? I am in the same situation as David and would like to use the built-in Cingular Air Card in my Sony laptop for Sprint EVDO service. Thanks.

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by SamsungDave

Hi

I am a Sprint cell customer and recently bought a Sony Vaio TX690P which I love. It has a built in cellular card for Cingular Edge and I am in the middle of the 30 day free try-out. It works OK but fairly slow compared with when I had a Sprint cellular card on my old IBM laptop. I am probably going to go for an unlimited data plan from Sprint instead (which includes a free PMCIA cellular air card). It would have been sweet to use the built in card on teh Sony, but the Sprint EVDO network seems to be significantly faster and since I have a cell plan from Sprint, $20 less a month than the Cingular plan (59 vs 79). For that I'll suffer plugging the air card in. Before I do the Sprint 2 year data agreement, I'd just like some expert confirmation from the forum.

1) Am I assuming correctly that the Sprint EVDO data network is faster than Cingular Edge? I mostly access from large cities.

2) Am I also assuming correctly that the built in Cingular (GSM) air card in the Sony could not be used for Sprint (CDMA) even if I swap out the SIM card (which is easy to do).

3) Any hints on trying to get a good data plan deal from Sprint, lower than the 59/month? (Though I have to say the free air card seems like a great offer. It's on the corporate side which I hope they'll let me take advantage of.)

Thanks
David

1)Yes, sprint EVDO is much faster than cingular Edge. You will get average speeds of anywhere from 600kbps to over 1Mbps

2)No, the cingular GSM aircard could in no way be used on sprints service, sorry.

3)If you already have a sprint EVDO phone, you can add a phone-as-modem package to your plan and use the phone as a modem (duh). That might be a much cheaper solution for you. Although, the cards are much better for wireless access as they seem to be faster. Also, the batter will be drawn from your laptop with a card, as opposed to being limited to the phones battery source.

[xenophon]

I'd be leary of buying notebooks with integrated radios for specific carriers. One, it ties you to the carrier (which they want) and two, there will be new versions EVDO/HSDPA coming in the next year and those radios are suddenly outdated.

Best to just get an EVDO wireless data card and then upgrade the card when the next revision comes.