Mobile Data Is In the Cards

Short of plying them with free booze, the easiest way to get the press to write about your products is to give away “samples,” “test units” or — as it's most commonly known — “swag.” That's why a conference room in New Orleans' Ernest N. Morial Convention Center was packed with grabby media types on March 17, when Sprint PCS gave away PCS Connection cards to CTIA Wireless 2003 attendees to tout the expansion of the carrier's 1XRTT network.

The ploy certainly worked with this reporter. Here's a running journal of my experiences with the PCS Connection card.

March 18, hotel room in New Orleans: After a few false starts, I'm determined to get this thing running. Several analysts told me they couldn't get it working, but I'm smarter than them. 4:00 p.m. — success! Feels like a dial-up connection, but hey — I'm wireless and walking around my room while surfing the Net.

March 19, convention center: Lots of congestion. Feels a lot more like dial-up today. Just for fun, I try logging onto the corporate VPN. Connection not working.

March 21, Chicago commuter train (60 m.p.h.): The client says 2.5 Mb/s in; 328 kb/s out. Feels like dial-up. Web browsing OK, but still can't log into the VPN. Send a note off to IT department asking if there's an issue with wireless connections and VPN login.

March 24, couch in my living room: Difficulty maintaining a connection for more than a few seconds. Got a note today back from IT, scolding me for using “unapproved” devices on the sacred VPN. And no, there is no issue with wireless access. They've tested it themselves, thank you very much.

April 1, San Jose Convention Center: With about 500 tech-heads walking around this place (carrying a minimum of two wireless devices each) and an in-house Wi-Fi network, connection is virtually impossible. Must be some kind of April Fool's Day joke.

April 3, back of a Chicago taxi (70 m.p.h.): Forgot to send a story to my editor, so why not give this a try? Client says 3.2 M b/s in, 379.5 kb/s out. Feels like a little faster than dial-up. VPN access no problem. Story sent. Ain't technology great?

April 9, back on the commuter train: Says 2.7 Mb/s in, 336 kb/s out. Feels like a hair faster than dial-up. Can read e-mail through Web interface. Runs Flash games over the Net just fine.

April 13, back on my couch, facing south: 684 kb/s in, 302.8 kb/s out. Feels like dial-up. Logging onto the VPN is difficult — can't get Outlook to sync, but Web access is OK.

April 14, on a different sofa, facing east: Says 2.6 Mb/s in, 699 kb/s out. Successfully back on the VPN (still using my “unapproved” device — I like to stick it to The Man). Sync is slow. Internet browsing is about as comfortable as having your toenails pulled out. 2.6 Mb/s my foot!

April 17 to 18, my kitchen: Success! As a simultaneous test of the Sprint PCS connection and the corporate VPN, I set up activity on both at 10:30 p.m. and leave them running all night long on the kitchen counter. Surprise! Both were still actively functioning at 6:45 a.m the next day. The Sprint client claimed I was moving along at 9.2 Mb/s, which was hard to believe in a quick Web access test, but it worked all night without booting me off. Take that, AOL!