Mobile Computing

"I was stunned a true Eureka moment"

I read with interest the article in the December PC Update by Trevor Lawrie, The Internet Unplugged. Now, here's a man with my sort of attitude. He wants to get on the Internet when he's touring without having to buy more equipment.

In ads on TV we've all seen vehicles with singing people travelling everywhere using a laptop to connect, as well as a chap sitting in a park with his laptop connected to the Internet. My efforts in the past to use a mobile to connect to the Internet have always been full of assurances but were unsatisfactory.

Various telcos offer a plug-in card or dongle which connects your PC to the Internet. Interesting, but the cost of the unit and the on-going fees are substantial. This is OK for business people but it frightened me off.

As it happens, I have a BigPond broadband account and my mobile and home phone are also with Telstra. Recently, because neither my eyes nor my ears are as sharp as they once were, I became so frustrated with my squeaky micro-texted mobile phone that I decided to upgrade.

I winced when the Telstra salesperson showed me an all singing all dancing NextG unit, but I could certainly hear it. And the print, when putting in a number, was 1cm high. I was cajoled into it when I factored in the free calls included, which meant little real change in overall costs.

It offered HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) capability for BigPond, Internet and email, also multimedia, a camera and all sorts of other stuff I didn't want or need. Reading email on it is a pain and the camera is only just a camera. Big Pond extras also can be a horrendously expensive trap - so beware!

When I got around to installing the software bundled with it (which installs on Windows 2000, XP and Vista but not Windows 98) I noticed an Internet Connection option.

On investigation, this offered to connect the laptop to the internet through the mobile phone using my BigPond email address. For travellers, holiday makers and grey nomads this is equivalent to the Holy Grail. It had not been made clear to me when I did the deal that I could plug this mobile
into a computer and through it access the Internet.

I use the USB option with the cable supplied (Bluetooth is also an option) and I immediately dialled into my BigPond account using my email address and password. It's just like using a modem and it's fast broadband - the HSDPA specs say 3.6Mb/s - plenty fast. Using this option the only fees have been for packet data, charged at around $1.95 per Mb. Mind you, at this extortionate rate I use it sparingly, using webmail to selectively check email, not for browsing or downloads.

So, here we have it - with the right laptop, the right phone and the right ISP you have Internet access without needing extra equipment and without having to change any settings - you can use the same Internet setup on your notebook as you use at home.

If the NextG phone is getting a signal, it works, and NextG coverage is vast and expanding. Of course, if there's no signal then there's no phone, no Internet, no nuffin!

This HSDPA mobile phone with its software is brilliant - just the phone and the laptop to carry around. The extra expense and inconvenience of a plug-in card or dongle is avoided. If you're with a different phone carrier or ISP you'll have to do your homework. And always remember the Buyer's Basic Rule: DON'T TELL ME, SHOW ME!