T-Mobile finally joined the 3G modem club on Wednesday with the webConnect USB Laptop Stick, aka the Huawei E181, the carrier's first high-speed USB modem for laptop PCs.
Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have all offered laptop 3G connectivity for years. But T-Mobile is only ramping up their 3G network now, so they're a bit late to the game. According to Jeremy Korst, T-Mobile's director of broadband products and services, T-Mobile's 3G network covered about 100 million Americans at the end of 2008, and will double its coverage by the end of 2009. The other three carriers say they cover between 250 to 280 million people with their 3G networks.
"We're hugely increasing the size of our network this year," Korst said.
T-Mobile jumps into this competitive fray at pretty much the same price and terms as their bigger cousins. To connect with the modem, you'll need to sign up for a $59.99/month contract, which nets you 5 GB of data per month. Don't go over, or you'll be charged $200 for each additional GB. The modem will roam to more than 200 countries, but at the terrifying rate of $15 per megabyte.
The modem costs $49.99 with a two-year contract, $99.99 with a one-year contract, or $249.99 with no contract.
The smallest of the four national carriers does have one advantage, though: its nationwide Wi-Fi hotspot network. T-Mobile includes unlimited use of their Wi-Fi hotspots with the webConnect plan. That includes hotspots at Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and FedEx/Kinkos stores. None of the other carriers include Wi-Fi with their 3G modem plans.
"The reason somebody would choose T-Mobile is that they like the T-Mobile brand, and they like our customer service," Korst said.
The modem is a 3.4" x 1.1" x .47", 1.59-ounce USB stick in black with green trim, that comes in a little leatherette case. It has a MicroSD card slot that can support cards up to 16 GB, and an external antenna jack.
The device works with Windows XP and Vista. Mac support is coming soon, Korst said. T-Mobile doesn't intend to support Linux.
The webConnect has GPS on board, but it isn't activated. T-Mobile will turn the GPS on with an over-the-air update soon, Korst said. A future version of T-Mobile's connection manager may be able to locate T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots near where the user is located, he said.
The modem is a quad-band EDGE device, with tri-band HSDPA on the 1,700-, 1,900- and 2,100-MHz bands. It won't roam on AT&T's network in the U.S., Korst said.
The device supports HSDPA 7.2 and HSUPA 5.76, advanced standards that T-Mobile has not yet implemented. For now, it will operate on T-Mobile's HSDPA 3.6 network. That means it will get speeds around 1 megabit down and 350 kilobits up. As T-Mobile upgrades their network, they'll be able to unlock faster speeds through over-the-air software updates.
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