Can you beat this?

How many of you need network access wherever you go?  Do you really NEED it, or would it just be nice?  As a Microsoft evangelist, information is a core component of my daily life.  It’s bewildering how much news gets generated each day.  The members of my team are asked questions frequently.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get the answer NOW and not in a few days when we get home and can check our email after another week of travel?

Well, the time has come and I have begun changing the way I work.  For instance, in today’s seminar I was able to look up information before, during and after my show.  No, I didn’t just happen to have a WIFI hotspot near by.  No, the theatre didn’t happen to have live connectivity for my room.

Instead, I had a spiffy new wireless card for my laptop that uses the Verizon Wireless EVDO network.  This is not your ordinary wireless connection although we’ll all consider it ordinary in the next few years.  You might recall I mentioned I was making the plunge.  The EVDO network I’m using is capable of 1.5meg+ speeds.  I’m actually averaging about 700–800k (download) on the connections I’m making.  I’ve seen it burst up to 1.4meg.  That’s actually pretty good.  Think of this as taking your broadband connection on the road with you.

The possibilities are endless.  Today I used the Microsoft World Wide Event (WWE) application to download, update and upload event registration data.  The application runs on a Symbol PDA using Pocket PC 2003 and talks to a web service out on the internet.  Since I don’t have a PCMCIA card slot for the Symbol unit, it was tethered to my laptop via a USB cable and using ActiveSync pass-through. 

As wireless technologies move forward and cell systems are upgraded, high speed access will become common for PDA’s, laptops and other devices.  Pervasive high speed networking is going to change the business environment for sure.  I couldn’t wait any longer and I can already see it’s going to next “killer app” for calendar year 2005 and beyond.  I know, it isn’t an app, but you catch my drift.

Tested the speed from your cell phone or PDA?  Try testing your internet connection at https://testmy.net. No cheating.  You are not allowed to post the results from a WIFI hotspot.

Here’s an EVDO test result from my hotel room in Austin, Texas. 

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 1025 Kbps about 1 Mbps (tested with 748 kB)
Download Speed is:: 125 kB/s
Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server1)
Test Time:: Tue Aug 16 23:06:31 CDT 2005
Bottom Line:: 18X faster than 56K 1MB download in 8.19 sec
Diagnosis: May need help : running at only 65.75 % of your hosts average (myvzw.com)
Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-RTFM03J7W