3G Modems Cruising Info Equipment Pages 3G Modems What are 3G Modems? Practically, speaking, they allow you to get broadband internet access anywhere you can get a cell-phone signal! This, of course, is virtually anywhere on land these days and even out to sea about 15 miles or so (and further with special antennas). For the purposes of this article, we refer to '3G' in the generic to refer to this type of technology, even though 4G & higher speeds are now becoming available. OK, it doesn't let you update your webpage from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but it's still pretty cool. How often are you in the middle of an ocean? Historically, we're on passage about 7% of the days we're on board. Download the latest version of the My Vodacom App from your app store for all the latest benefits. View and manage your airtime, data, voice and SMS balances, PLUS you can buy bundles, access your account details and claim rewards. MTNza KeyPad is a FREE app that allows you to use any of the existing USSD services currently available on the MTN (South African) network. This app allows users to check their airtime balance (on *141#), load airtime vouchers (*141*Voucher-Pin#) and purchase internet bundles (*141*2#) simply by using short codes, i.e. Codes starting with * (star) and ending with # (hash). We generally have a cell signal the other 93% of the time. GSM is the cell-phone technology that's currently used all over the world. Most countries have a GSM network, even remote ones like, Nepal Telecom, Celcom (Malaysia), AIS (Thailand) & Telkom Kenya. It's not as popular in the USA but it's growing even there (although the US uses slightly different frequencies for its version of GSM, so a GSM phone or modem from the US may not work in other countries unless it's a special tri- or quad-band unit). Sai baba bolo ringtone mp3 download. 3G is a technology that piggy-backs on the GSM cell signals, providing broadband internet access wherever cell signals are available. Many GSM phones these days have 3G modems built into them, and many allow 'tethering' so your computer can get internet access using the phone's data signal. We first heard of this technology when we were in Brisbane in 2006. Summer in Brisbane is a time of intense thunderstorms, which sailboats don't like at all. Even a nearby lightning strike can destroy many of the sensitive electronics that we carry on board (we lost over $4,000 from a near miss). But the Brisbane airport radar can see these thunderstorms and publishes graphics of them on the internet every minute or so. They'll even show their tracks over the last several minutes, so us cruisers can see if the storms are headed towards us or away. But we didn't actually buy a 3G modem until we got to South Africa, paying R1,700 (about $240) for a unit that (we later found) was locked to the Vodacom system. Still, Vodacom and its affiliates cover much of the world. And prices now (late 2011) are only about $30 for an unlocked 3G modem here in Malaysia (and even better if you can catch a promotion). Connect time is expensive in South Africa, so we had to pay an additional $45 for 2 gigabytes (GB) of data, which lasted us about 2 months if we were careful (but now connect time is much cheaper). ![]() ![]() In Malaysia, Celcom (which is affiliated with Vodacom) charges about $6/week for 2GB of data, and in the Seychelles, the service is provided for free (or perhaps they hadn't worked out a way to charge for it yet). Physically, a 3G modem looks a bit like an external WiFi unit - about the size of 1-2 fingers, with a USB tail to plug into the computer. Most units have a light that changes color to indicate your connection speed. To the computer, most units look like a flash-memory ('nerd') stick, and most carry all their software in that flash memory, requiring no additional installation software and providing a complicated but plug-&-play software installation. Even in Africa, our modem provided us with excellent service. We could be in a rest-camp in Kruger Park, outside our primitive safari-tent, and still be online, while the hyena on the other side of the fence contemplated us, wondering what we'd taste like. Download hd loader ps2 fat vs slim. Friends of ours were sailing down the coast of South Africa in thick fog, wanting to come into Knysna but afraid to approach the coast and the narrow 'Knysna Heads' entrance in the fog. But they were only 5 miles offshore and they had a cell signal, so they checked into. That site has 2 webcams pointed at the Knysna entrance. No fog, and no swells! So our friends turned towards shore, soon sailed out of the fog, and made a successful landfall at Knysna. GSM works on 2 frequencies, one usually close to 2 GHz and the other about half that.
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