So I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a fan of the Blackberry. Really don't need that thing strapped to my waist at all times so I can answer an email at a moment's notice. Don't want to deal with that little tiny keyboard and besides, better than half the emails I recieve require some sort of document to be sent back to the recipient, which resides on my laptop.
My wife convinced me to take some needed time off and we traveled to the Pittsburgh area for a great visit with her grandparents. They live in a small, very rural town outside the city and have absolutely no internet connectivity. Connection to the internet and email is critical to my business success and even being away, I had to be able to connect with the office, vendors and clients.
Now in researching wireless broadband for my spiffy MacBook Pro laptop, I quickly learned that almost nobody supports the Mac platform with the express 34 cards. Sure the cards were out there, but no carrier was accepting it. Least of all the company I've used since 1999, Cingular / AT&T.
Enter Sprint and the Novatel Wireless Merlin EX720. In my research, Sprint is the only major carrier (actually the ONLY carrier I found) supporting the Mac OS platform and I have to say it performs brilliantly. Download speeds are in the neighborhood of 1.5mbps which is about half of my current cable modem speed at the office. But for email, it's plenty fast enough and even the internet surfing is just fine with this card.
But there is a major catch with this card. Even the Sprint Technical Advisor laughed at this one when we found out. The card must be activated in a Windows PC. So you don't want to purchase this card online via the Sprint store if you don't have access to a Windows laptop with an Express 34 slot. I purchased the card and the internet plan through a local Sprint Nextel dealer and she used her own personal Windows laptop to activate the card for me. The Technical Advisor said to give it some time and we should be able to activate the cards directly in the Mac in the near future.
Other than that little glitch, I have to say I've been extremely pleased with the connectivity of the device. I simply click on the Modem icon next to my Airport icon and say "Connect". It's that easy. I have found that if I'm connected for longer than 30 minutes it can sometimes lose the signal, but I simply disconnect / reconnect and keep going. A minor annoyance for connectivity pretty much anywhere I want it. Heck we stopped at a Wendy's in the middle of nowhere Virginia and were able to check emails no problem. From what I saw on the Sprint coverage map, the Data coverage area is much larger than the voice coverage area.
If you have an older G4 PowerBook with a PCMIA slot, Sprint has you covered there too with the Merlin S720.
So now I have the connectivity I desire, without a Blackberry hanging on my waist, and I have total control of when I retrieve my messages along with my entire hard drive full of documents, graphics and even movie clips. Can't recommend this service enough if you're in need of internet connectivity pretty much anywhere with your Mac laptop. In fact, this entire blog was written while connected to Sprint.
Here's a link to download a PDF on how simple it is to install the Novatel software.
http://www4.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/support/downloads/index.jsp
Simply select Mac OS in the drop down box.
