In Brief

Don't have time to find a Wi-Fi hotspot, but need to get connected NOW? Cellular data cards let you get online anywhere you can get a cell phone signal, and there is finally a cell card fast enough to compete with a home broadband connection.

With real-world speeds up to 470Kbps, Verizon Wireless' Express Network PC5220 cellular data card is an attractive alternative to Wi-Fi hotspots and even DSL or cable modem (why pay two monthly broadband fees?). Nationwide coverage is promised by end-2005; as of October, 2004 the high-speed 1xEV-DO service that makes the card hum is available in 14 major metropolitan areas, and numerous airports -- check the latest coverage map to see if your city is up and running. Elsewhere, things will drop down to 1xRTT data speeds, about twice as fast as 56K dialup, but no competition for broadband. On the plus side, Verizon has excellent national coverage for 1xRTT, so you can go pretty much anywhere with this card without having to pay steep roaming fees.

At $250 for the card itself, and $80 a month for unlimited data ($0.69/minute in roaming areas), however, the PC5220 is a good value if you spend most of your time in the high-speed service areas and need connectivity wherever you go.

In Depth

Until recently, cell data networks lagged far behind hotspots in speed: the best you could hope for was 144Kbps, and that was on a good day. But with offerings such as EDGE (read our review) and 1xEV-DO, cellular carriers have finally broken that limit.

Verizon Wireless' hot new high-speed data offering, BroadbandAccess, is powered by 1xEV-DO (1x Evolution Data Only). 1xEV-DO is backward-compatible with 1xRTT (1x Radio Transmission Technology), Verizon's slower data offering marketed as NationalAccess. (Sprint also offers 1xRTT under the brand of PCS Vision. While Sprint does not currently offer 1xEV-DO, they have announced plans to support 1xEV-DV (1x Evolution Data and Voice), which is expected to have typical speeds of 1Mbps.)

When you're in Verizon's BroadbandAccess service area the speed is stunning. I use cellular data a lot, and I'm used to changing the way I work to accommodate its poor performance. But with 1xEV-DO, I was able to work as though I were in my home office, opening several simultaneous Web pages, reading email, running Instant Messenger, and more. When I'm on a GPRS or 1xRTT connection, I usually have to restrict myself to one or two of these activities at a time.

After a trip to Washington, DC on Amtrak, the service cut over to 1xRTT as the train passed through New Carrolton station in Maryland, and it was not unlike a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. If you don't spend a lot of time in the current high-speed service areas, you'll need to decide whether you can live with the slower 1xRTT until 1xEV-DO gets to your area. With 1xRTT, you'll be able to transfer a megabyte in about a minute at peak speeds, or about 2.5 minutes at typical speeds. By comparison, a 1MB download on my home cable modem using Wi-Fi took just 7 seconds.

Surprisingly, BroadbandAccess is currently priced the same as NationalAccess. So one way to look at it is as a 1xRTT plan with bursts of 1xEV-DO speeds when you travel to the right places. Although 1xRTT doesn't reach the peak speeds of the competing EDGE service, its typical speeds (50-70 Kbps) are in a sweet spot between the typical speeds of GPRS (30-40 Kbps) and EDGE (100-130 Kbps), and nearly twice what you'll get with a 56K modem.

So, if those speeds sound right to you, and you spend a reasonable amount of time in the BroadbandAccess coverage areas, the PC5220 will let you travel the country without having to find a phone jack or Wi-Fi hotspot. While Verizon has cheaper plans than the $80 unlimited service, we don't recommend them: it's too easy to go over your quota, especially at BroadbandAccess speeds. And once you go over the quota, you'll pay between $2 and $4 per megabyte, which can add up quickly.