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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Works As Promised Apr 03, 2008
I use this card for mobile access to fast Internet, and it meets my needs well throughout the US. If you are in a major city, suburb, or highway, you will probably have coverage. Consult the AT&T maps for more detail.
I can use this in airports (instead of costly and annoying wifi), hotels, meetings, conferences, and I even use it while a passenger in a car and the BART train into San Francisco. I am able to maintain connections while driving from San Francisco to Las Vegas, and use Instant Messenger all the way there, as well as email and web.
Downsides? The card gets warm, so it must be using battery life; as stated by others, the butterfly antenna is compact but fragile; it is expensive service at $60/mo; it is slower than Verizon's competing service; even though this thing will work in more countries than you'll ever visit, don't even try it. Roaming charges abroad are $20 a megabyte.
The reason I use this over the Verizon or Spring 3G data cards is that I use AT&T for my phone, thus get the lower "bundle" pricing of $60 instead of $80. Also, I get to use it with just one bill, instead of getting a separate bill from Verizon. Lastly, the 300Kbps that I typically get is plenty fast for email, web, and IM. If Verizon delivers 500Kbps, I don't see that as too big an advantage. The other thing that is good for me is that I can use my AT&T phone to see how good signal strength is where I am before choosing to boot up my laptop (the phone and Option card use the same network, so signal strength is related).
AT&T's communication software is small and straightforward, and manages the connection. I use XP Pro.
I used to use wifi, but I had to find a hotspot, then create an account, enter payment info...and by the time I was on the net 10 minutes had past, or worse, the hotspot was "down". I got tired of wasting my time. Now, wherever I am, I can be online in two minutes. This product met my needs for immediate connection to the net.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Card works great, even with fragile butterflies. Dec 27, 2007
I've been using the card for 4 months, throughout CA, Hawaii, NY, Houston, and more airports than I can count. Overall, I've had great success connnecting to the 3G network, which typically yields speeds in the 200-300 kpbs area. In Houston, I've actually topped out at 630 kpbs, for what it's worth.
Pros: consistent connections that are fast and stable; low profile, that makes the card extend only 1/2" from the laptop profile when the antenna is not extended (such as...when the laptop is in my bag).
Cons: butterfly is somewhat fragile - if you're careful, this won't be a problem. If you like to put your laptop right next to couch cushions, or throw the computer around (while it's connected to the network with extended antenna), then get the other AT&T card with the fixed profile. Note - you can put the butterfly away while connected to the network and you will not disconnect....but your signal will move from 3 bars to 1 bar on the 3G network.
Just had to relay this information counter to the first review. The product works fine, and would be better with a tougher antenna, but is still fine if your careful.
 Buttefly flys away Nov 18, 2007
This is a known issue. The butterfly antennae will pop off. For frequent travelers, this is a big, known, issue and is a defect with the manufacturer. Best to pay for insurance.
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