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Review
Created: October, 2000
Connecting to the Internet when you're on the road is far too
difficult. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 300 takes away the worry
by allowing you to access the Internet without having to plug
in.
It's a laptop PC card (formerly called a PCMCIA card) that provides
your notebook computer with a wireless connection to the Internet
across a cellular phone network.
The card magically pulls and pushes data across the air at speeds
up to 19.2 kilobits per second. That's less than half the speed
of a wired telephone Internet connection and just slightly faster
than surfing the Web on a smart phone.
Nonetheless, it is useable and liberating. I sat on the patio
at the Water Street Starbucks in Vancouver one day recently,
busily answering my e-mail. It was also a piece of cake to work
from a hotel room in Seattle, with no need to crawl around on
the floor under a desk and wrestle with wires on the room phone.
Neither was it necessary to fiddle with settings to dial out
to an unfamiliar Internet service provider.
It does, however, require the presence of a cellular digital
packet data (CDPD) network, available in major cities in the
U.S., except Atlanta. In Canada, CDPD networks are in place
in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova
Scotia. It was never implemented in Ontario and Quebec, where
wireless network companies are focusing on other technologies.
Outside North America, CDPD is available in parts of South America,
Mexico, Israel, New Zealand and China.
A 15-minute software installation is required to get a notebook
computer working with the PC Card, which sports a tiny antenna.
The instructions are unnecessarily complicated and voluminous
but common sense will get most computer-savvy people through
it.
Once installed, the system is always on as long as the AirCard
Watcher software is running, so there's no need to dial a connection
of any sort.
The signal varies as you move from place to place just like
a cellular phone signal does, but not once did it ever drop
out completely.
The card was tested with an account provided by AT&T. It
worked fine in Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia but wouldn't
work when tested in Edmonton, Alberta, even though the CDPD
provider is the same as the one in Vancouver. AT&T couldn't
come up with a valid reason why, nor could Sierra Wireless.
The card comes in a version that works with hand-held computers
and notebooks or Windows CE hand-held computers that support
Type II PC Cards.
The technology gets you on line without using wires. That is
a wonder and a sign of things to come. If you travel or are
on the road a lot, the AirCard will keep you connected in a
reliable manner wherever there is CDPD service.
Reviewer's rating: 4.5 / 5
Comments: If you travel or work in CDPD-enabled areas
then the AirCard 300 is a good plug-and-go wireless solution.
It will be outpaced by newer and cheaper wireless technologies
into 2001.
More info: http://www.sierrawireless.com
Price: $399 US / $560 Canadian.
Monthly airtime charges cost $30 to $200 US or $50 to $300 Canadian
and are based on amount of data received and sent.
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Adding RAM is easy, 
