Telus, Sierra Wireless carrying EV-DO Rev A to Canada
If the Canucks out there have been getting a bit jealous at all the Rev A love going around down south, your resentment ends now -- well, sometime this year, anyway. Thanks to Telus and Sierra Wireless, EV-DO Rev A connectvitiy is headed to Canada in the coming months, as interested users will be able to pop the AirCard 595 into their laptop's PCMCIA slot and reportedly reach peak speeds of up to 3.1Mbps downstream and 1.8Mbps upstream. Of course, it is noted that typical speeds will range between 300 to 400Kbps whilst uploading, and 450 to 800Kbps on the downward slope, but you Canadians will probably take what you can get, eh? Unfortunately, there's no set dates for the future rollouts, and "select markets" is all we have to go on for availability, but we do know that Telus will be charging $349.99 for the AirCard 595 sans a contract, or you can lock yourself in for a whopping three years if you've only got $99.99 to spare.
Filed under: Wireless
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff Lewis @ Feb 16th 2007 6:26PM
Wow - it's so cool...
Let's see - 800kbps = 100KBps (roughly)
Checking Telus' Connect Plan rates
For $5/mo you'll burn up $15 every MB, no included MBs.
For $25/mo you get 4MB 'free' and $12/MB after that.
For $40/mo you get 8MB 'free' and $8/MB after that.
For $60/mo you get 30MB 'free' and $6/MB after that.
For $100/mo you get 250MB 'free' and $3/MB after that.
For $375/mo you get 1GB 'free' and $1/MB after that.
At max rate and the cheapest upfront plan, that's $15 every ten seconds.
Such a bargain.
And that doesn't even include voice time, which is extra.
I think I'll just wait and go to a coffee shop, or get one of these:
http://www.shoprogers.com/Store/Cable/InternetContent/portable.asp?shopperID=
Richard @ Feb 16th 2007 7:19PM
No, No, No. It is EVDO Rev Eh!
ben @ Feb 16th 2007 10:32PM
now I just need a laptop.......
AT @ Feb 17th 2007 5:23PM
Us canadians will take what we can get? Hrmmm... What is that suppose to mean? It's like we're living in the stone age or something...
Slaven @ Feb 17th 2007 10:06PM
"Us canadians will take what we can get? Hrmmm... What is that suppose to mean? It's like we're living in the stone age or something..."
But we are when it comes to cell service - there is growing concern about our providers giving us the shaft, ever since Telus and Rogers bought up the competition. We pay way too much!
Ross @ Feb 19th 2007 12:36PM
Can someone from Telus e-mail me with a $60-$75 "All you can eat" plan with one of these cards. Thanks, about freaking time.
(The Rogers one is a box bigger than my portable!)
Jeff Lewis @ Feb 17th 2007 11:21AM
The Rogers box is large compared to a PCMCIA card, true - but it's fairly light and it's a relatively flat book-sized block. My plan is to take mine and put it in my car's trunk with an APC WiFi travel router and then connect to it using the laptop's WiFi.
And of course, the box needs power, so it's not a fully portable solution...
But at $50 a month for 30GB at DSL speeds and portable across Canada, I still consider it a better deal than EVDO.
But yeah, you're absolutely right - we need a cellco to offer a flat rate data plan. Or someone to improve the WiMax network and come up with a WiMax PCMCIA card to make the Portable Internet thing more portable.