Best GSM card for PC

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Mike H. - 17 Apr 2005 13:43 GMT

I'm getting ready to sign up for T-mobile's data service. I intend to use it
for international roaming. Having it for international roaming, I will find
myself using it in the US as well. I've noticed that T-mobile tends to sell
a single card at any given time. Some have built in antennas, others have
external antennas. I'm a bit suspicious that the ones with the internal
antennas like the Sony Ericsson GC79 would have inferior reception, though
it would be nice to be wrong. I'm open to purchasing an unlocked card from
another vendor. Any advice?

Thanks for your help,

Mike H.

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Peter Mounsey - 18 Apr 2005 23:15 GMT

I use a Merlin G701 card with great success (try eBay). If you are
travelling I would advise against buying from a network operator like
T-mobile as the card will probably be locked to them. While abroad you'll
want a local SIM card to get lower rates. GPRS can be staggeringly expensive
and using a contract SIM abroad can bring you back to bills of hundreds of
££ just for using email. It's usually much cheaper to buy chunks of GPRS
data in advance, you will probably have to go to the ISPs web site to do
this (catch 22?) but you might get data at about £1 per MB against £5
unbooked. Also, don't use Outlook for email if you can use webmail. Outlook
downloads all the spam etc at high cost. Hope this helps...

> I'm getting ready to sign up for T-mobile's data service. I intend to use it
> for international roaming. Having it for international roaming, I will find
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Mike H.

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Mike H. - 20 Apr 2005 04:00 GMT

Thank you Peter. I'll check out this card.

>I use a Merlin G701 card with great success (try eBay). If you are
> travelling I would advise against buying from a network operator like
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>>
>> Mike H.

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Stuart Friedman - 21 Apr 2005 03:46 GMT

A word of caution. Prepaid GPRS is in its infancy and is often restricted
to limited WAP browsing.If you are going to do internet abroad, consider
Wi-Fi. Boingo and T-Mobile have wifi access in a number of destinations at
no additional charge. Also if your hotel doesn't have wi-fi, consider a
prepaid dialup card. I know that we keep all like to be untethered, but
sometimes dialup still makes sense.

Stu

> Thank you Peter. I'll check out this card.
>>I use a Merlin G701 card with great success (try eBay). If you are
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>>>
>>> Mike H.

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Eabrandes - 28 Aug 2005 03:19 GMT

Hello,

I have a Sony Ericsson GC79 card from T-mobile. It is a little slow
but I don't really have any complaints about the reception. O
balance, the unlimited data plan for $29.00 a month works well for m
until I leave the country.

My trips have been primarily to Spain and I found the reception ther
to be about the same as at home (Southern Calif.). But, at .015 cent
per KB, the cost adds up fast - - although for collecting an
responding to my email it was still cheaper than paying for servic
through the hotel. Wandering about a foreign city looking for a wi-f
"hotspot" is not really on my list of things to do.

Here's my question - - do you know if it is possible to buy a
international SIM card for the GC79 with a lower rate than T-mobil
charges? I have read that data cards don't use the same SIM cards a
phones, but I am not sure if that is true. I also don't know i
T-mobile locks the card or if it possible to get it unlocked?

Any clues?

Thanks

Brandy E

--
Eabrandes

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Peter Mounsey - 28 Aug 2005 16:29 GMT

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Brandy E.

Pick up a Movistar SIM. They are widely available, even in small towns.
The last one I bought was Euro 12 which included Euro 6 of credit.

GPRS costs Euro 3 / Mb which is pretty good for Europe.

See here for details (hope your Spanish passes)

http://www.movistar.es/empresas/servicios/correomovil/movistarinternet.htm

Settings for Spanish networks:
Spain
Operator GPRS APN Username Password DNS
Amena internet CLIENTE AMENA 213.143.33.8, 213.143.32.20
Telefonica (Movistar) movistar.es movistar movistar
194.179.001.100, 194.179.001.101
Vodafone (Airtel) airtelnet.es vodafone vodafone 212.73.32.3,
212.73.32.67

gleaned from: http://www.access-sys-eu.com/gprs.html#415

Good luck, it's what I use for roaming email and emergency browsing. For
more intense stuff I still use Internet cafes.

Pete.

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Eabrandes - 28 Aug 2005 22:10 GMT

--
Eabrandes[/i][/color]

Pick up a Movistar SIM. They are widely available, even in smal
towns.
The last one I bought was Euro 12 which included Euro 6 of credit.

GPRS costs Euro 3 / Mb which is pretty good for Europe.

See here for details (hope your Spanish passes)

http://tinyurl.com/7qo8p

Settings for Spanish networks:
Spain
Operator GPRS APN Username Password DNS
Amena internet CLIENTE AMENA 213.143.33.8, 213.143.32.20
Telefonica (Movistar) movistar.es movistar movistar
194.179.001.100, 194.179.001.101
Vodafone (Airtel) airtelnet.es vodafone vodafone 212.73.32.3,
212.73.32.67

gleaned from: http://www.access-sys-eu.com/gprs.html#415

Good luck, it's what I use for roaming email and emergency browsing
For
more intense stuff I still use Internet cafes.

Pete.

Thanks, Pete.

Sounds like that is exactly what I need. Actually, it is the sam
network that T-mobile partners with - - but, it is a lot cheaper.

Brandy E

--
Eabrandes

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