New wireless access card
Mobile telecommunications provider Vodafone yesterday presented Vodafone Mobile Connect Card 3G, which allows a wireless connection to the Internet much faster than the GPRS connection provided to mobile phones thus far. The card is a laptop slot card which makes it possible for the use to send and receive e-mail, access the Internet, receive and transmit multiple SMS messages and resend and receive MMS (multimedia messages) through Vodafone’s MMS Photo Album website. The user of the card can be connected to the Internet and talk on the mobile phone at the same time. Transmission data speed is up to 384kbps, compared to a speed of 45kbps on the GPRS network and much faster than the PSTN and ISDN connections of most home PCs. In fact, this is a speed matched only by DSL connections in fixed-line networks. In case users find themselves beyond the coverage of Vodafone’s 3G network, the connection automatically reverts to the GPRS network. The card, like its predecessor model used in the GPRS network, allows mobile phone users to connect to their company’s local area network, if company policy allows remote connection, and access their e-mail and the Internet through their company PC. The price of the service will vary according to which mobile telephony package the customer is using.
