Coffee Break - HSDPA faster than Starbucks WiFi

A new mobile day means a new Starbucks to cross off my list. I guess that makes only 8,000 to go. I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with Mike, a jkOTR reader, at the Jenkintown, PA location. Jenkintown is one of the first towns you hit heading due north out of Philadelphia on Broad Street. For the uninitiated (or future Jeopardy! contestants), I believe that Broad Street is one of the longest, straightest streets in the nation at over 10 miles in length and zero deviation other than City Hall. It bisects the city of Philadelphia from top to bottom.

During our conversation, we had the Tablets out on the table and noticed another Tablet in the room. It was actually *gasp* unattended as it's owner was apparently getting a cuppa Joe. Mike and I kept a watchful eye on what appeared to be an HP tc4400 to me and the young lady belonging to the Tablet soon returned. No ink was spilled as she was using the HP in convertible mode. At one point during our conversation, I ran a quick speed test on the Q1P using the Sierra Wireless 875U USB AirCard. I could have used WiFi in the Starbucks which usually tops out around 1.5 Mbps down for me but I wanted to see how the 3G card would do with only 2 bars of signal strength. I'm sure there have been better reported results than this, but I'm pretty happy with 1663 Kbps down and 330 up; I'd love to see it a little quicker going back up, but the download was slightly faster than the Starbucks typical WiFi.

I still have time to decide, but I think I'll be keeping the 875U for use with my UMPC, Tablet and MacBook Pro. Although I haven't checked the power drain when using the card (I'll be checking it over the weekend), I like the flexibility to use this single device and data plan with all of my computers. I just wish AT&T had the same amount of coverage area that Verizon had; I got spoiled with that!

Comments

[Jethris]

I thought Colfax Avenue, in Denver, was the longest. 24 miles, or something like that. Not that it really matters, but if it comes up on Jeopardy, it'd be better to have the right answer.

[Tax Man]

Thanks, kct.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

You could be right Jethris; I'm not familiar with Colfax. I'm going by the Broad Street Run (a great 10 miler BTW) where they say on their site: "Let your mind race back in time, as you pass over a century’s-worth of historic sites on your way down the longest, straightest, urban street in the world." http://ibxrun2007.com/course_highlights.html

TaxMan: no prob; what speeds are you seeing in your neck o' the woods?

[Tax Man]

You got me thinking. Here's the results I got in my office. My wifi is pretty fast but my Sierra results were slower than yours.

http://urltea.com/1b73

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Bear in mind that speeds will vary between coverage area and external factors. Still good speeds!

[Rodfather]

That's great. Good to know what the potential is. Just may have to pick one up since I'm with AT&T and can swap the SIM out to newer devices later. I read a smaller USB EVDO modem (Novatel U727) is coming out soon for Sprint though.

[Oliver]

What's the latency of HSDPA compared to T-Mobile WiFi?