HSPDA problem

[Dave A]

Got a meeting on Monday and Tuesday at The Farm Inn in Pretoria.

Great, I've been there before and know something of the venue. For example - No Sentech or Iburst available. However, there is 3G.

So, I wander down to Vodacom shop to arrange 3G card (which I've kind of been considering anyway so no big deal).

No 3G cards available because all you can get is HSPDA. Well, that's fantastic - even faster - latest technology - way to go.

The shop does not have any in stock, but they'll get it delivered to me within the hour. Great - sign contract - done deal.

Sure enough, within the hour package arrives, and I'm advised to shoot out to Vodacom Customer Centre at Gateway to get set up as it can be a bit tricky.

Rush out (all excited - 1.8Mb connection here we come) and we start installing.

Come to that wonderful stage "insert card" and let's say it goes downhill from there.

You see, I have a fairly new laptop and, unbeknown to me, it has a PCMCII Advanced slot. Vodacom's HSPDA only fits into older laptops with the now redundant PCMCIA slot. Apparently the PCMCIA slot is all but phased out overseas already.

So, many phone calls and many excuses later here is the upshot of it all:

If you get HSPDA and you happen to get it working on your laptop, forget about upgrading your laptop within the next two years (unless you are happy paying for a contract you can't use).

The HSPDA card does not work on Vodacom's wireless router - so there is no workaround that way.

I can buy the wireless router for R1500.00 but there are no 3G cards available (although Vodacom has offered to source 2nd hand ones for me).

The HSPDA card does not work on the available PCMCIA/PCMCII Advanced converter (which is also not immediately available anyway).

Vodacom blames the computer guys for changing the slot etc., but the card does not even work on their own equipment (the wireless router).

The computer guys say that Vodacom is desperately dumping their outdated cards (read somewhere that HSPDA had been dropped in Europe because of no take-up)... and the problem is Vodacom's.

And no-one at Vodacom told me there might be this problem when I signed the contract. Apparently I was only the second person today with this problem so maybe there is no need to warn everyone about it as a matter of course...

But I thought I'd let you know just in case.

I just can’t figure whether Vodacom does not understand this particular market segment or whether they know us South Africans far too well.

[Chris B]

Vodacom...

Well Dave, I dont know wat to say except that in my experience with technology I found its better to let guys like you find out the hard way and only get into it myself once the product has proven itself through numerous sources.

I can however offer a solution to youre problem. I have a older model COMPAX available, im sure youre familiar with it So if you're interested let me know and we can talk...

[Dave A]

Nooo. You can't have my laptop.

For a first post - that was wicked!!!

[Dave A]

Solution in sight.

This issue has come up on My ADSL forum.

And it seems there is a solution.

The relevant thread is here.

Will update once I've found a functional workaround that works for me.

You just gotta love what these forums can do.

[Dave A]

It works!

I'm now the proud owner of an Elan U132 PCMCIA card reader. Plugs into a USB port and the HSPDA card works. I'm up and running (been dying to use that smilie).

Speeds are more like 3G at the moment, but too early to call if there's a problem there. Might be location.

[duncan drennan]

Good to hear that the Elan card actually does work Recently got my iBurst modem and it is great (much better than the GPRS on my cell ) Not quite as fast as your HSDPA but I was pretty happy to be downloading at 92Kb/s the other day

[Dave A]

I've still got to get 92Kbps. My best so far is 53 Kbps so you're ahead of the game right now, Duncan.

The main advantage for me with this is the wider coverage. Unfortunately iBurst just isn't (virtually) everywhere yet. When on the move, I was working through my cellphone (Edge enabled) as a modem before, and that wasn't too bad. But when you take/make a call - modem mode goes to

[Dave A]

Just run a Vodacom HSDPA speed test and the results:

Test Start Time : June 29, 2006, 9:26:10 pm
Test End Time : June 29, 2006, 9:26:54 pm
Download Time : 43.46 seconds
Size of file : 5238323 KiloBytes
Estimated line speed : 941.65 (Kilobits/sec)
Estimated line speed : 117.71 (KiloBytes/sec)

Not shabby, Nige.

But I've been having the odd stall all night which, on this evidence, indicates a DNS or gateway issue between Vodacom and the rest of the www

When HSDPA flies, it flies. When it stalls, oh boy.

[Dave A]

Just had a phonecall about where to get the Elan U132 adaptor.

The folks to contact are:

Micro-D (Pty) Ltd
Unit 2 Woodview Office park
1 Humber Street
Woodmead, 2146
South Africa
011 803 2111

Hopefully that will save anyone else the trouble of figuring out how to phone me.

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok.... I guess i need to explain this a bit. How HSDPA Works is that it works on tower signal structure.

IE if you in town near a MAIN tower and not a repeater tower then you will get good speeds with it. Whereas if you in an area that has min towers usually you dont even get close to 3G speeds.

HSDPA is good but the problem is
1) the price as its more expensive the 3G
2) the coverage isnt the best as it needs to be HSDPA enabled at tower.
so basically if you giong to a area that isnt so popular..... good luck getting HSDPA you will be dropped to 3G and if they dont have that GPRS.

Its kinda sad but works if you know what to look for

[Snoopy_inc]

BTW if you need any hardware etc... PM me i can either help or give you somone in your area that can help

BTW the PCMCIA slots on laptops are still ok its the Laptop that was the issue. What type of laptop you got dave..... popular brands still work fine.... IE ACER

[Dave A]

BTW the PCMCIA slots on laptops are still ok its the Laptop that was the issue. What type of laptop you got dave..... popular brands still work fine.... IE ACER

In my case Fujitsu Siemens (2006 model). However, I understand Apple has already gone this route overseas, and others are expected to follow.

Could be just sales talk, but the folks I was talking to were calling the PCMCIA card "redundant technonlogy". Advanced slots are supposed to be the new thing.

I still don't get why they wanted to change. The only apparent difference is the card is smaller and accordingly takes less space in the guts of the laptop.

[Snoopy_inc]

i wouldnt listen to ppl talking..... Rather see it first.

I look into this industry cause i work in it and i have yet to hear anything about this.

[irneb]

HSDPA PCMCIA to ExpressCard

I've been looking for this for a while now. There are 2 options I could find in the forums & doing a few Google Searches.

1. PCMCIA through a USB port with the Elan U132 (http://www.microd.co.za/catalog/prod...products_id=44)
This through the local suppliers at about R1600.

2. PCMCIA through the newer ExpressCard slot with the Roalan DuelAdapter (http://www.roalan.com/dueladapter_ex..._to_pcmci.htm). Unfortunately I can't find a local reseller for this. It is however the better option, as it is much faster (up to 5 times the speed of USB2) and also slightly cheaper (if baught directly from the UK company) at £95 (converted today R1332.25).

[duncan drennan]

It is however the better option, as it is much faster (up to 5 times the speed of USB2) and also slightly cheaper (if baught directly from the UK company) at £95 (converted today R1332.25).

I'm not really sure how speed plays a role at all. USB2 is 400Mbps (mega bit per second), and HSPDA is only 1.8Mbps with theoretical maximums of 7.2Mbps (I think). Basically, whatever you attach it to your PC with is MUCH faster than HSPDA will ever run. The HSDPA connection is the bottleneck, not the PC connection.