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Taking T-Mobile's First 3G Laptop Modem For A Spin

Years after T-Mobile's competitors took the lead, T-Mobile has finally launched a USB wireless broadband modem for laptops. The ungainly-named T-Mobile webConnect USB Laptop Stick lets laptop users access T-Mobile's 3G network for wireless Internet. It works just fine, but T-Mobile blew a big opportunity here.

T-Mobile is far, far behind AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless in this market. The larger three network operators have offered 3G laptop cards for years. But T-Mobile just recently brought its long-awaited 3G network online in about two dozen U.S. cities (including some of the biggest markets) during the fourth quarter of 2008. With 3G finally available, a laptop card was expected, and today it became a reality.

T-Mobile sent one of the cards for me to evaluate. It couldn't be much simpler to use. Out of the box, it only supports Windows XP and Vista, meaning Mac users (such as myself) are left out in the cold. T-Mobile said that Mac support is on the way, but didn't provide a timeline. I plugged the dongle into my Vista laptop, and the the software necessary to run it was automatically launched from the card itself. T-Mobile Connection Manager, which is made by Smith Micro, runs the modem and lets you find the best networks to access.

As for some specs, the dongle is made by Huawei, and has tri-band GSM/EDGE radios and tri-band HSDPA/UMTS radios in the 1700, 1900, and 2100MHz bands. It also has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi on board. These radios, combined with the connection software, do their utmost to find the best possible network connection, be that 3G or Wi-Fi. The card also supports microSD cards up to 8GB, and it has the ability to send/receive SMS messages as well.

Where I live in the suburbs of New York City, there is ample 3G coverage from T-Mobile. The card easily latched onto the network. In some speed tests, I loaded a few basic sites, such as CNN, InformationWeek, Google, Yahoo, Amazon and others. Most pages loaded in about 15 to 20 seconds, which is pretty slow compared to the speeds I see with my Verizon Wireless laptop card. I decided to download a song from the iTunes Music Store. A 4.6MB file took 1 minute and 17 seconds. Not bad, but not great, either.

I signed into a wide array of my Google services, including Gmail, Reader, Docs, Blogger, Picasa, and Calendar. Running those six open tabs plus four others didn't appear to slow my browser down.

I also took it to a T-Mobile hotspot at the local Borders. The connection manager software instantly locked onto the Wi-Fi -- rather than 3G, even though 3G was available -- network and browsing speeds were much better.

Here's where I think things get ugly. The card costs $50 after rebate with a new two-year agreement. You also have the option to pay full price for it without a contract, which amounts to $250. The cost of the card isn't the problem, but the cost of the service is. Rather than set a new benchmark, or give itself a competitive edge over the other network providers, T-Mobile matched them on pricing and terms. Users will need to pay $60 per month for 5GB of data, which is exactly what the other network operators offer.

Given the limited 3G footprint and slower speeds I experienced, I would have rather seen T-Mobile price its service at $50 per month or lower. I understand that T-Mobile wants to recoup some of the billions it spent buying the AWS 1700MHz spectrum on which this service is based, but it had an opportunity to set a new standard for this type of service and wasted it.

That gripe aside, the card gets the job done.

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