Product for sale: AT&T Sierra Wireless Aircard 875U
Market selling, brand new: USD299.90
Refurbished unit: USD 149.99 to 249.99
TH IT promotional price: RM650 (USD205) unit (while stock last)
Specification highlights:
Transfer wireless data at speeds up to 3.6 Mbps on HSDPA capable networks
High performance internal antenna
Supports worldwide roaming through HSDPA and UMTS on the 2100, 1900 and 850 Mhz band, Quad-band Class 12 EDGE / GPRS on the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands
Supported OS: Windows® Vista, XP, 2000, and Mac OS X
Field firmware upgradeable
Stylish, portable solution for enterprise & home use, offering the best mobile and fixed wireless alternative available on the market
High speed wireless connectivity in more places than Wi-Fi, offering greater mobility
Support for latest 3G technology, but backward compatible where 3G is unavailable
Secure internet access wherever there is network coverage
Solid product reliability so users can work efficiently on the road
Read full review from PC Magazine
Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U
REVIEW DATE: 07.10.07
Total posts: 1
$299.99
by Sascha Segan
Blaze across the virtual globe with the Sierra AirCard 875U, the fastest, most flexible way to connect your laptop PC to AT&T's high-speed network and to dozens of other computer systems in foreign lands. High-speed wireless connection solutions are available from three major carriers, in four different forms. You can get them from Sprint , Verizon , or AT&T, and they come either as chips embedded in laptops, as PC Cards, ExpressCards, or USB dongles.
USB dongles such as the AirCard 875U are less compact than the other options, but they're a lot more flexible. Since pretty much every PC has a USB port, it's easy to move them between computers. The 875U's SIM card slot is also relatively easy to access under its front cover. This lets you move your SIM between the dongle and your phone more readily than you could with a card.
About the size of an old-school pager, the 875U has a USB jack that pops out of the modem's body on an easy-to-release latch. Plugged into your laptop, it sits upright like a periscope, with unobtrusive green power and signal lights. There's an easy-to-access external antenna port covered by a little rubber plug on the side.
The 875U operates with AT&T's standard LaptopConnect plans. One option costs $69.99 per month for unlimited use in the U.S., and the other will set you back $139.99 per month for unlimited U.S. data plus 100MB of data overseas, with additional overseas MB $5 each. Those prices are on a par with what's offered by Sprint and Verizon.
AT&T's network, meanwhile, has come a long way since I first looked at it last year. AT&T uses HSDPA technology, which also works in dozens of countries overseas, including most of Western Europe. Over the past year, AT&T has extended its network to most major U.S. cities and metro areas. The current HSDPA spec allows for 3.6-Mbps downloads and 384-Kbps uploads, in theory.
In reality, we got average speeds of just over a megabit for downloads on the 875U, with download speeds peaking at 1.63 Mbps. Uploads averaged 275 Kbps, but with a strong signal frequently hovered around 350 Kbps. That's broadband speed, although if you're used to wired or Wi-Fi broadband, you'll still feel that Web pages load slowly because of the average 240-millisecond latency on network requests. The 875U supports the 850, 1800, 1900, and 2100-MHz bands, so you'll be able to get access in Buffalo or Berlin, provided you're on the right service plan.
When the 875U isn't in 3G range, it drops down to AT&T's EDGE network, which offers speeds of around 80 to 120 Kbps down. I generally don't recommend EDGE cards for laptop users for a different reason—EDGE transmissions tend to make some laptop speakers buzz annoyingly. If you're traveling primarily through EDGE country, I'd recommend tethering a phone to your laptop via Bluetooth instead.
The 875U proved faster than the competing AirCard 875 PC Card and Option GT MAX 3.6 Express in head-to-head download tests. It's also faster than older models such as the AirCard 860. The competition was tight. Of 35 downloads, the 875U was the fastest on 15 of them; the ExpressCard was faster on 14 tries. Differences in signal strength between the 875U and the Option ExpressCard were negligible.
Rather, it's the AirCard's flexibility I like. As a USB device, it's easy to plug and unplug at will, and the SIM card slot is easier to extract cards from than on the ExpressCard. Better still, the 875U is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS 10.4.9, though its driver isn't integrated into the Mac OS. You have to download a "Sierra AirCard Watcher" application from Sierra's Web site.
How to buy:
Contact person: Mr. Lee Te Hua, rental sales manager
Contact number: 019-2626812 email: tehua@th-it.com
Payment terms: Cash & carry
