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Business Buyer's Guide to Mobile Broadband California

How to choose the best hardware, carrier, and service plan to take your business on the road.

1. Local Companies

2. Introduction

3. Technologies

4. A Look at 3G Devices

5. Featured Local Company

1. Local Companies

Charter Communications
626 221-1379
Southern California
Irwindale, CA

MindGems Inc.
738-4669
121 Santa Maria Avenue
Pacifica, CA

NRG Global
213-383-6745
3807 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Array Networks
(408) 874-2714
254 East Hacienda Avenue
Campbell, CA

Cyber Java At Hollywood
(323) 466-5600
7080 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

Western Skies Internet Services
(909) 748-0098
720 Bermuda Dr
Redlands, CA

Surf and Sip Inc
(415) 974-6321
470 3rd St Ste 100
San Francisco, CA

First Family Internet
(661) 833-3221
2909 Terrace Way
Bakersfield, CA

Zeus Technology Inc
(408) 350-9400
5201 Great America Pkwy
Santa Clara, CA

Sicommnet Inc
(619) 294-9191
2918 5th Ave
San Diego, CA

Business travelers know that staying productive on the road requires serious connectivity. That's where 3G (third-generation) cellular data services come in. By adding a mobile broadband connection to your laptop, these wireless wonders give you anytime access to the office, the Internet, and the world. Here's what you need to know to get your notebook online from anywhere.

3. Technologies

Currently three major types of cellular broadband technologies exist: EvDO, UMTS, and EDGE.

EvDO: Evolution-Data Optimized (EvDO) wireless service is the most established type of 3G data connection available in the United States. Offered by Sprint and Verizon Wireless, EvDO cards feature data rates of up to 3.1 megabits per second in a covered service area. In areas where EvDO service is not available, most EvDO cards will still run via the carrier's slower and older (but more widely deployed) 1xRTT data service. Most metropolitan areas enjoy excellent EvDO coverage, even in outlying suburbs.

UMTS/HSDPA: The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) has been growing in the United States, thanks to its adoption by Cingular in 2004. Now known as AT&T, the company has continued to offer UMTS service and devices. At this writing, AT&T's UMTS network remains less developed than the EvDO networks of Sprint and Verizon Wireless, though it is available in major urban areas throughout the country. If you require service in outlying suburbs, UMTS may not be ready for your business--yet. Older UMTS hardware offers data rates of up to 384 kilobits per second, while newer hardware using the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) protocol can reach speeds of up to 3.6 mbps.

EDGE: Not generally considered a true 3G data technology, Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) data service is still widely used by AT&T and T-Mobile. It is much slower than either UMTS or EvDO, with maximum data rates of around 236 kbps. Though EDGE provides acceptable performance on cell phones, it can seem painfully slow on a laptop. If online performance matters to your business, stick with EvDO or UMTS/HSDPA.

4. A Look at 3G Devices

Your notebook's add-on slot will dictate the right type of 3G card for you. Here's a look at the available options.

PC Card: Most notebooks made in the last decade feature a PCMCIA Type II, or PC Card, slot. About the width of a credit card, a PC Card slides into the side of your notebook and draws power from your notebook's battery.

ExpressCard/34: Smaller than a PC Card, an ExpressCard/34 device also slips into the side of your notebook. ExpressCard is common on newer notebooks only.

USB: These days Universal Serial Bus is, as it name says, universal on PCs and Macs. While many ultralight notebooks may not offer either a PC Card or ExpressCard slot, you'd be hard-pressed to find any modern computer lacking a USB port. USB data adapters are a great choice if you're planning to use a single device with a variety of different computers.

Built-in: As 3G Internet connectivity has grown, so have the options for delivering it to your PC. Many major manufacturers, including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba, now sell laptops with built-in mobile broadband adapters for EvDO and UMTS/HSDPA. Built-in mobile broadband typically adds about $180 to a notebook's retail price.

5. Featured Local Company

NRG Global

213-383-6745
3807 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.nrgglobal.com

NRG Global provides availability monitoring and performance management products and
services.

Use our products to monitor and manage your IT resources, including: servers, operating
systems, databases, applications, files, CPU's, memory, disks, and more.

Our flagship product is CleverEye. CleverEye is availability monitoring, alerting and reporting software. Automatically measure response time and trigger alerts when thresholds are broken. Easy to install, agent-less, and Web based, supports multiple concurrent users. Four powerful modules to monitor from different perspectives: network layer, application layer, SNMP and operating system. Monitor servers, websites, databases, applications, CPUs, memory, disk, FTP, DNS, LDAP and more.

We also provide consulting expertise to integrate our solutions.

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Business Buyer's Guide to Mobile Broadband California

1. Local Companies

2. Introduction

3. Technologies

4. A Look at 3G Devices

5. Featured Local Company