Ubiquitous access to broadband Internet service ( > 1mbps) – which is critical to the realization of the Internet’s true potential – still eludes us. It’s not that several attempts have failed. We just haven’t really tried. Cellular phone service, however, is getting pretty close to ubiquity, which is why I looked for a mobile data solution to my Internet access needs abroad. Knowing that I wouldn’t have immediate access to local, broadband services (i.e., xDSL or WiFi) in Pieve a Nievole, my goal was to have a service that I could at least rely on in an "emergency". It just so happens that Cingular provides a broadband wireless service in the USA that is compatible with services offered in Europe (albeit, via roaming).
The first thing to know about the service is that you can’t believe Cingular when they tell you that it isn’t compatible with the Macintosh. If, as a Macintosh user, you haven’t already come to realize you can’t trust most vendors when they tell you that something isn’t compatible, let this be your lesson. Whether you use the built-in Bluetooth to connect through your phone, or you use one of several PC cards, the service works just fine with a Macintosh. The trick is that you’ll need a piece of software that replaces the drivers typically shipped for Windows. A German company (Novamedia) makes a MacOS X software package they call
Mobile High Speed (MHS), which supports a very large variety of different phones and PC cards. Special Note: at the time of this writing, the software does not (yet) support the new Intel Macintosh models. Also, the new MacBook Pro does not have a PC card slot – it has a newer Express card slot. You’d have to use the Bluetooth method of connecting through your cell phone, rather than use a separate PC card.
Once you have the service from Cingular and the software from Novamedia, you can get Internet access at speeds greater than 1mbps pretty much anywhere. The service is sold for a flat-fee of US$60 per month in Seattle. The roaming charges can be quite steep, and appear to be based primarily on the data transfer. I'm bracing myself for the bill.
Update: March 15, 2007 - Novamedia has changed the name of their MacOS X mobile data software from Mobile High Speed to Launch2Net. The previous link in this post has been updated. In other news, the data charges for my time in Italy totaled $1,937. Most of the amount was due to sending a single e-mail that contained 25 megabytes in attachments. The service is excellent if you just need to perform some e-mail or web browsing. Don't make the mistake I made and use it for large e-mail attachments or file transfers.
Adrianne Young