An aircard basically plugs into you laptop or desktop PC and lets you connect to the Internet - no cable, no wireless router, just through the air! It actually uses cellular digital packet data (CDPD) networks that have been used primarily for voice devices - thus it connects using cell phone networks.

Have you ever lost your office connection and been basically dead in the water? The aircard is a viable backup solution and a reliable personal laptop solution.

Faster Speeds!
Aircards have been around for several years, but the initial connection speeds were very slow – at one point 19.9 mbps – slower than the old 28.8 modems. However, along comes “EV-DO Rev A.” (as if we need another acronym!) - EVDO stands for “Evolution Data Only’ it is much, much faster than earlier aircard speeds.

Just about a month ago Verizon completed conversion of all of its Houston area towers to “Rev A.” Now per Verizon, “Customers in enhanced broadband wireless coverage areas can expect average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits and average upload speeds of 500-800 kbps, which means customers can download a 1 Megabyte email attachment-the equivalent of a small PowerPoint(R) presentation or a large PDF file-in less than 15 seconds and upload the same-sized file in less than 25 seconds.

Extended Coverage - Disaster Recovery
Note that, “customers who travel outside the enhanced BroadbandAccess coverage area with an EV-DO device will switch seamlessly to the company's NationalAccess service.” Note the side advantage that if the Houston area network does go down due to a storm, you can get access as soon as you leave the Houston network area.

The pitch from Verizon:
“BroadbandAccess provides mobile workers the ability to get their corporate information as if they were attached to the information via a high-speed wired connection but with the freedom of true mobility. Developed with a range of users in mind, the service enables large enterprises, small to medium-sized businesses and mobile professionals to conduct business anytime, anywhere in the BroadbandAccess coverage area via a secure, true high-speed data connection”

The Bottom Line
Other networks have aircards with the faster speeds as well, but we are using Verizon here as an example – and they did have good performance during Rita!
The aircard cost from Verizon:
$60-$150 for the hardware (comes with a $50 online rebate)
$25 activation fee
$59.99 per month – unlimited data transfer

The aircard, with the speeds now available becomes an interesting alternative connection for small business needs including disaster recovery plans.