I recieved the following information from Ken  (of Mrs Hudson fame) about
his European cruise this year:

  " More of interest - I have seen the future of laptop connection to

the internet while cruising - and it works - at resonable price - wonder of
wonders !!  Visited a fellow on an English built wide body barge  of about
40 ft in Calais  ( very nice crusisng boat to be sure - he and his lady were
off to the canals for about 2 yrs - which seems to be the generally accepted
period for such undertakings ) . He had a laptop on the table of the salon
with a small antennea of about 3 in  sticking up . Whats this ?? Well it is
my internet connection . Huh !! -- The connection is sold here in the UK
under the name of Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 for  a price of 220 Lbs  UK  -
it uses GPRS technology connecting 4 ( four ) cells together ( as are used
singly in cell phones ) . The connection time to the internet was as fast as
I can do at home and the cost of download  on roaming ( since we were in
France ) was 0.009 P ( or about a penny per kilobyte  ( he said that an even
better price was available ' at home - in the UK - but I did not inquire
what it was ..  He said that it was sold in the UK by Vodaphone  and
available in about 30 stores  .. He said he had bought the  first one
available in spite of his trepidition of buying the first of anything new -
and was quite pleased with it .. Needless to say I was quite amazed ... Have
no further  info at the moment - but will try to visit a Vodaphone store
sometime this week as we are back in the UK  .. Possibly someone on the TWL
has information about their availability in the US .. "

A search on Sierra Wireless Aircard: http://www.sierrawireless.com/  Shows
that the Sierra Wirless card is available and supported by some providers
inthe US.  The speed is 35 to 85 kb/sec--not bad for a portable.  If prices
are low in the US and coverage increases this may be a good solution for TWL
members as they cruise.  I suspect that the same problems that are present
with cell phone coverage--that the beams for focused inland and along the
coast, rather than seaward may be a problem.

Regards,

Bob Austin

GPRS service is now getting wider coverage in the USA. The GSM-based
cell phone providers, like T-Mobile/Voicestream, Cingular, and the new
offering of AT&T Wireless all offer GPRS, albeit not at the low prices
of Europe.

I just converted my cell phone provider from Nextel to T-Mobile (aka
Voicestream). In doing so, I changed my Internet connection from a true
9.6 kbps that Nextel provids on its backbone (never mind the "connected"
speed reported at 19.2) to T-Mobile's packet-based network which
measures 35-45 kbps with "industry standard" throughput tests. The
"connected" speed is 56.7 kpbs, but that is the speed between the laptop
and the cellphone, not the speed over the backbone.

The cellphone networks are now in flux and are moving towards 2.5 and 3G
technology - marketing speak for faster connections and a drive towards
packet-based networks instead of connection-based.

Verizon doesn't use GSM technology, but promotes high speed (for cell
phones, that is) of 40-70 kbps (measured) and a "burst mode" of 144
kbps. Verizon's service is fairly limited at this time and isn't
available in the Puget Sound.

I chose T-Mobile because it had much wider coverage on the West Coast,
where I live, than AT&T Wireless. The latter is building out its new GSM
network and isn't as evolved as T-Moble/Voicestream (who started as a
GSM network from day 1.)

I travel internationally a fair amount and having roaming GSM and GPRS
is a definite plus. T-Mobile's roaming capabilities are better than
AT&T's at this time.

Costs for data are very high, so beware. Most of the services charge
$4-$5 per megabyte. While the brochures say that a megabyte of data can
be 500-800 e-mail messages, real data connectivity means multimegabytes
per day. For example, I have a friend who (like my home connection) has
broadband access to her house. She routinely sends out photos and video
clips, often 4-5 mb, in her daily e-mail stream. Getting one of these
clips on a GPRS network paying $5 per megabyte can really make your
monthly bill go up.

Data-based networks are still a novelty and pricing wars have not driven
the "by the byte" prices down, yet.

The technology does work, but you must keep in mind the current cost
structure.

BTW - I chose not to use the Aircard attachment to my ship's computer,
rather I use a Motorola V66 cellphone and a serial data cable. My second
phone is the new Pocket PC Phone Edition, only offered by T-Mobile at
this time. This device is a true Pocket PC and cellphone in a nicely
configured package. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide "passthrough" from
the cell network to a computer. That is why I use the Motorola phone for
connecting to the ship's computer.

Regards,
Bob Miller
Anacortes, WA

Snipping comment: I didn't snip the original message from Bob Austin
because I feel that it contains a wealth of information that is germane
to my response.

-----Original Message-----
From: trawler-world-list-admin@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawler-world-list-admin@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of Bob
Austin
Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 10:55 AM
To: 1trawler world
Subject: TWL: Internet connection in Europe from laptops

I recieved the following information from Ken  (of Mrs Hudson fame)
about
his European cruise this year:

  " More of interest - I have seen the future of laptop connection

to
the internet while cruising - and it works - at resonable price - wonder
of
wonders !!  Visited a fellow on an English built wide body barge  of
about
40 ft in Calais  ( very nice crusisng boat to be sure - he and his lady
were
off to the canals for about 2 yrs - which seems to be the generally
accepted
period for such undertakings ) . He had a laptop on the table of the
salon
with a small antennea of about 3 in  sticking up . Whats this ?? Well it
is
my internet connection . Huh !! -- The connection is sold here in the UK
under the name of Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 for  a price of 220 Lbs
UK  -
it uses GPRS technology connecting 4 ( four ) cells together ( as are
used
singly in cell phones ) . The connection time to the internet was as
fast as
I can do at home and the cost of download  on roaming ( since we were in
France ) was 0.009 P ( or about a penny per kilobyte  ( he said that an
even
better price was available ' at home - in the UK - but I did not inquire
what it was ..  He said that it was sold in the UK by Vodaphone  and
available in about 30 stores  .. He said he had bought the  first one
available in spite of his trepidition of buying the first of anything
new -
and was quite pleased with it .. Needless to say I was quite amazed ...
Have
no further  info at the moment - but will try to visit a Vodaphone store
sometime this week as we are back in the UK  .. Possibly someone on the
TWL
has information about their availability in the US .. "

A search on Sierra Wireless Aircard: http://www.sierrawireless.com/
Shows
that the Sierra Wirless card is available and supported by some
providers
inthe US.  The speed is 35 to 85 kb/sec--not bad for a portable.  If
prices
are low in the US and coverage increases this may be a good solution for
TWL
members as they cruise.  I suspect that the same problems that are
present
with cell phone coverage--that the beams for focused inland and along
the
coast, rather than seaward may be a problem.

Regards,

Bob Austin

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