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After the initial thrill of WiFi and coffee coming together in the form of a Starbucks hotspot wore off, I began to resent having to find the shallow circle of coverage 802.11 offers. Oh yes, it’s all very well and good for your fancy New Yorkers, with more WiFi in the air than limo fumes (but only just), but for the rest of us a lot of the time we’re reliant on cellular internet connections which, generally speaking, have been less than stellar.
So now imagine a world with upload speeds of 300 to 400 kbps and 450-800 kbps download speeds. That’s was the promise of Sprint’s EVDO Revision A network upgrade, which SlashGear covered back in October. It was meant to launch, packaged with the Novatel U720 USB adaptor, first on November 5th, then November 12th… and then Novatel broke the news to Sprint (and salivating travellers) that they’d forgotten to get the FCC’s blessing for a “Y” cable that was part of the accessory kit. And so the waiting began again, culminating in a package our pin-up boy with all the frequent flyer miles, Vincent Nguyen, excitedly opened in a video ceremony over at Unbox.IT - go check it out, I’ll wait. And then read on after the cut for our review, as well as a video of the U720 up and running on Mac OS X…
Okay, so the hardware is here; what’s it like? Well, it’s a little bigger than perhaps first expected - we’ve been spoilt by ever diminishing memory sticks and USB WiFi adaptors, so the added bulk of the U720 comes as a minor surprise. Still, any disappointment there soon wears off once you’re enjoying EVDO, especially in any of the areas supporting high-speed Rev.A!
That last part, for some, will be the make or break argument for whether they buy now or hold off: so far, Rev.A is available in San Diego, Seattle, Milwaukee and Las Vegas, with further markets getting the speed boost soon. Our initial tests with a Samsung Q1 UMPC and the U720 in Phoenix (a non Rev.A market) yielded 512Kb/s downstream and 312Kb/s upstream; we’ll have thorough speed tests shortly on the other Rev.A cards available, as well as comparisons of non-Rev.A markets versus Rev.A markets.
Check out how SlashGear got the U720 working on a MacBook Pro on page two…
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Those are some nice pics of the U720, it really is a little bigger than what people expected. It is still a great portable mobile broadband card and a perfect card for people that have a express slot on their laptop.
I was wondering if anyone knows how to get the VZAccess Manager without being a Verizon customer. Once you do get it, what settings do you use in order to get the Sprint card to work on the Verizon software? Thanks for any ideas anyone might have!
Travis - the only way to get a copy of VZAccess Manager by being a Verizon customer or knows someone with a valid Verizon phone number. After installing the application, you’ll need the Verizon phone number again in order to activate it. No setting is required beyond that step. Good luck.
Want the best rates on the Novatel U720? I will take care of you.
Joshua.X.Imhoff@sprint.com
i just used the phone number 618.920.3683 and was able to dl the s/w
I tried the 618.920.3683 number but don’t get a dial tone what should I do next?
What do you use for the user name and password?
goto http://www.vzam.net and go through the motions of downloading the software. It will ask for a phone number so you can download it. You do not call the number, you use that number to download the software.
thanks for the info john