It just means that Sierra Wireless Aircard 860 uses silicon chips supplied by Qualcomm.
As asked in the original question
Originally Posted by awagner06
I just purchased the Sierra Wireless Aircard 360 and notice that on the bottom it says "Qualcomm 3G CDMA", does this mean that Cingulars new 3G network is based on CDMA technology (as I thought that it was a 3G of GSM.)
UMTS is a form of CDMA.
Last edited by helpermonkey; 02-07-2006 at 08:18 AM.
Results from an FTP test tool - alternately downloading and uploading files of 1000, 2000,3000,4000 and 5000KB in size for a period of time:
Total bytes down = 277,504,000.000
Average down speed= 793.697 kbps
Total bytes up = 276,480,000.000
Average up speed = 121.027 kbps
Signal was -87dBm
Some more results using the same FTP tool I used to post the above results. This time I was only downloading data and alternating between a 20000KB and a 1000KB jpeg binary file. I ran the tool for close to 24 hours for a total of 8.712GB of data transfered at an average speed of 807.718kbps.
Total bytes down = 9354240000.000
Average down speed= 807.718 kbps
The Cingular rep was out here in my little town (3 brand new spankin' 3g cell sites from Cingular) and demo'd for me, the SW AC860. Was blazing! He had the little flaming 3 in the com manager and all.
So I get the same card, and all I get in the same spot he tested is EDGE speeds.. no flaming 3 either.
With the "Cingular Accelerated", it's almost 200k for downloads. Speed tests are showing very fast readings. I figure that's the compression doing it's thing.
Overall, the experience isn't bad but certainly not the HSDPA speeds he was showing me.
So I called him, He says there is a "Patch" for the AC860 that fixes an issue with the earliest released cards.
Anyone know anything about that?
The most likely cause of this problem is that you have a weak 3G signal and your pc card is locking onto the stronger EDGE signal. The first thing you need to do is get rid of the Cingular software and install and use the Sierra Aircard Watcher software. If you don't have the CD you can go to the Sierra Wireless website and download it. After you install it click on Tools, then Options, then Network. Select the option that locks the card to 3G 850/1900mhz only. This should solve your problem.
I have not heard of any specific firmware updates for the card but if you follow this link you can download the latest build of SW Watcher.
The Cingular rep was out here in my little town (3 brand new spankin' 3g cell sites from Cingular) and demo'd for me, the SW AC860. Was blazing! He had the little flaming 3 in the com manager and all.
So I get the same card, and all I get in the same spot he tested is EDGE speeds.. no flaming 3 either.
With the "Cingular Accelerated", it's almost 200k for downloads. Speed tests are showing very fast readings. I figure that's the compression doing it's thing.
Overall, the experience isn't bad but certainly not the HSDPA speeds he was showing me.
So I called him, He says there is a "Patch" for the AC860 that fixes an issue with the earliest released cards.
Anyone know anything about that?
Thanks for the info.
I am running the SW software and as for the signal strength, I'm running at a
-64 as I'm about 2,000' from the cell site with it in clear view.
I made the changes to the TOOLS / Network area as suggested and the one thing I did notice was an improvement in the time it takes the card to register on the network.
Compared to my AC-775, the 860 seems to take 2 or 3 minutes to register on a cell site compared to the 775 which is about 30 seconds.
No 3G indicator on the watcher screen so....
I'm guessing that the HSDPA may not be running due to several problems they've had out here over the past week.
I'm going to try the latest watcher for Cingular as compared to what I used which was the latest for "All Others" and see what happens.
I'll report back here.
I've installed the latest SW for the 860 using the one selected under the Cingular name.
No 3g.
I'm going to have to drive into Las Vegas and verify the 3g thing.
It's possible 3g is not on this tower (though I'm told it is) or it's down.
There have been a few outages on the internet side over the past few days...
3g could not be on the tower. how far out of town are you? look at the 3g maps in the faq section. a umts outage would be repaired within hours. if you have umts you have hsdpa. i'm say you aren't in coverage if you have no 3g on the cingular software.
Just got off the phone with Cingular,
Seems there are some issues working in the S. Calif, S. Nevada areas with data services.
I guess it happens to everyone....
That would explain why my T-Mobile is dead too...
(They roam on the Cingular network out here...)
So I see on Sierra's site that if you select cingular for the carrier, you're presented with a 4.3.x version of Watcher. But if you select other for the carrier, 4.4.x is offered. Anyone know the difference between the two? Or why there would be?
Just got off the phone with Cingular,
Seems there are some issues working in the S. Calif, S. Nevada areas with data services.
I guess it happens to everyone....
That would explain why my T-Mobile is dead too...
(They roam on the Cingular network out here...)
Thanks for all the input. Have a great weekend..
pb
Do me a favor, try the sierra watcher software instead and let me know what you get.
Originally Posted by samab
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