Unwired WiMax PC Card reviewed

The future is here. Er, actually, it's in Australia. Sydney, to be precise. If you live in the Sydney environs, and are willing to shell out AU$349 ($255), plus AU$55 per month for a data plan, you can now get a WiMax card for your laptop, along with access to a pre-WiMax network that offers speeds you're not going to get from most other wireless networks (other than EV-DO, which costs much more in Australia). APC Magazine took a look at the card, and tested it on Unwired's network, and came away impressed with the speed of 750Kbit/s, which allowed them to reliably use Skype, download large files and get a clear, reliable, relatively latency free signal throughout the coverage area. Of course, that coverage area is pretty limited, so don't rush out and buy one of these just yet, unless, that is, you can look out your window and see the Opera House.

[Via Slashdot]

[nyc @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

pfff, "The future is here". Like you mentioned, EV-DO whips it, and the 750kb/s is misleading, why not just say about 98Kb/s which is what everyone normally operates in.

Oh and you only get 2 gigs of transfer per month - that's upload and download combined. For $75 australian dollars a month.

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

#1.. wow that is pretty bad. I cant do anything with 2 GB. I use aprox 900GB a month here (and my isp limits me to 60) but they dont seem to enforce it.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Yes yes, my I may not use 900, but I definitely use well over 200 GB a month downloading and about 10 GB a month uploading (mostly from my crappy website).

Brian

[Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Oh here we go, all the kiddies start crapping on about how they cant download their terrabytes of porn and warez over wireless broadband. Get a life you idiots, you pay a premium for being mobile.

I use the 3 network (WCDMA) and get 500MB for $99AUD (at around 384kb/s) which helps my business operate in ways I couldnt imagine only a few years ago. I can do this in the 5 biggest cities in Australia, I can be in a car, taxi, train or bus with no drop outs and the coverage is awesome.

Understand that bandwidth over the air costs infinately more than pushing the same data over a dedicated line to your house.

[Russ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

a friend sent me this link just this morning:

wiMax to deploy in japan by Xmas.. 70Mbits! for 55 euro a _year_!
http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-10592-WiMAX+for+Christmas+in+Tokyo%21.html

i predicted that when wimax arrives in Sydney - it'll be a bloody gouge, and not as fast. didn't take long for that to come true!

[Paul Stewart-Day @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

No mention was made as to whether or not this PCMCIA card gives people a mobile connection, ie a seamless cell to cell handover while on the move. The Unwired network has not supported that in the past, so I wonder if they have upgraded their network for mobile use, as well as having launched the PCMCIA card?

[daniel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

#5 you think japan is fast?
go to her neighbouring country.
70Mbits is so old skool in korea

[Russ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Daniel, is that via cable or wireless? Someone told me s. korea has _two_ cable channels dedicated to network gamers!