Cell Phones Finally Make a Fast, if Imperfect, Net Connection
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, February 24, 2002; Page H07
After years of waiting by frustrated Internet users, it's finally happened: Cell phones have gone over the speed limit. They can finally connect to the Net faster than the 56-kilobits-per-second maximum of a land-line modem.
This has taken an amazingly long time. Up until last fall, cell phones maxed out at 14,400 bits per second, the same data rate that modems reached back in 1991.
But in November, VoiceStream launched its "iStream" service, promising connections as fast as dial-up (only in the wireless Internet can this be considered brag-worthy).
And now Verizon Wireless's new Express Network (www.verizonwireless.com/express_network/) advertises a peak connection speed of 144 kbps, with average speeds predicted at 40 to 60 kbps.
Those numbers look pretty lame next to a cable-modem or digital-subscriber-line connection, but they represent a real advance for the cellular industry. Express Network and its "CDMA 1X RTT" technology may not be the "next generation" of wireless access, but they do represent a badly needed next step.
Make that a tentative step. Verizon offers only two devices compatible with the service -- a $300 Sierra Wireless Aircard 555 modem that slips into the PC Card slot of a laptop or handheld computer, and an $80 Kyocera 2235 cell phone.
Both are incomplete solutions. The phone's built-in Web browser supports only Verizon's older, 14.4-kbps data service, so getting any use out of the Express Network requires buying an $80 connection kit to plug the phone into your laptop.
The Aircard modem, meanwhile, doesn't require any juggling of cables, but in return it makes voice conversations comically difficult. To call anybody with it, you have to plug a hands-free kit into the card and, presumably, try not to look ridiculous as you appear to talk to the computer.
I opted to try out the service with the PC Card Verizon lent for this review. After a prolonged and confusing software installation, in which I was repeatedly advised to ignore any warnings about loading "unsigned" drivers, I flipped up the card's little antenna and clicked the "connect" button.
I was online within 10 seconds.
When the stars are in alignment, Express Network is that smooth. It has some of the wow-look-at-this appeal of cable or DSL access, making the Internet only seconds away from any place in range of Verizon's signal.
In a week of testing, I experienced many such pleasant moments. I saw connections take as little as five or six seconds to establish, with speeds topping 70 kbps. With a full-strength signal, I clocked downloads faster than 90 kbps.
The service also showed an impressive degree of fault tolerance when I took it for a ride on the Metro to Springfield. I logged on at the National Airport stop and stayed online all the way to the end of the line. Even when the signal briefly disappeared in a few underground stretches in Alexandria, the connection did not drop and resumed on its own once I was above ground.
But when the stars are crossed, Express Network's glitches are cruel reminders that it's a wireless service that can fade out at any moment. I realized this when I repeated my Metro experiment by taking a train out to Vienna. The connection broke up several times on the way out, and on the way back I enjoyed maybe two minutes of access in the 14-minute above-ground trip.
Sierra Wireless's half-baked software, which kept saying it was "ready to connect" while refusing to let me dial out, didn't make the journey any more amusing.
Like VoiceStream's iStream data service, the performance of Verizon's Express Network varies with both signal quality and network traffic. With the software indicating a three-quarter-strength signal, download speeds dropped to roughly 60 kbps, barely faster than dial-up. On a weak signal, Web pages would load glacially slowly if they would consent to load at all.
Verizon says it has upgraded every digital transmitter in the Washington area to support Express Network. The service is also available along the Northeast Corridor, from Norfolk to Boston, in the San Francisco Bay area and around Salt Lake City. By midyear, the company says, Express Network will be available in the majority of its network, with 75 percent coverage planned for the end of the year.
The pricing screams "early adopter": $30 extra on any $35-and-up digital calling plan. After an unlimited-use offer ends on March 15, Express Network use will count against a calling plan's airtime allowance. That could quickly get expensive, since -- when it works -- Express Network is convenient enough to make you want to rely on it a lot.
As I've done with, well, every other wireless-data service, I plan to watch this one from the sidelines for a while. It's full of promise, but the high price and extremely limited hardware selection leave me skittish.
Unfortunately, even if we never sign up for any next-generation data service, we all are going to have to deal with a lot more complexity in the wireless world. AT&T and Cingular are moving away from their existing signal technologies to use the GSM standard employed by VoiceStream and most carriers in other countries. Verizon would like someday to get rid of its analog transmitters. Sprint plans a nationwide launch of its own next-generation high-speed service this summer.
As these capabilities develop, the phones that exploit them will change too. A phone with a four-line screen makes zero sense on a high-speed network -- it's like hooking a telegraph up to a DSL connection. Tomorrow's phones may feature color screens and hi-fi sound that will let you play back much streaming audio and video off the Internet.
I certainly hope my next phone can do all these wonderful things. But in the short term, my wish list for wireless service is less complex: I would be happy just to see an end to dropped calls and botched bills.
Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at rob@twp.com.
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