Today I received and installed my cT-1000 Nextel Wireless Broadband PC Card. The hardware is manufactured by Flarion. Nextel and Flarion launched a trial in the Raleigh-Durham area back in February and have been expanding the coverage in the triangle area as the trial has continued. The trial appears to have been called a success as Nextel is now offering the product to the public.
Nextel is currently offering plans ranging from $34.99 to $74.99 depending on usage and speed requirements. Download speeds range from 750kbps to 1.5mbps with bursts up to 3mbps possible. Packages also provide private or dynamic-public IP addresses with static IP addresses available for a small fee ($10.00). The hardware is currently being offered for $50 (Regular $199) until June 30th.
I think there is great potential in this product for mobile users that move within the RTP area. While being marketed as "Cable-speed without cables", the result of bandwidth and mobility greatly increases the possibilities for mobile applications. This modem in a TabletPC creates and extremely versatile and well connected platform for software developers.
The setup in my Toshiba M200 went extremely well. In fact, compared to devices I have installed from other manufacturers, this was amazing simply. The process was to insert an auto-starting CD, click next 3 or 4 times, agree to run unsigned code (Which is something in this day and age I think they should correct and instructions should not tell you to ignore those warnings. Get your drivers signed!) and then insert the PCMCIA card. I was connected. Plain and simple.
I haven't had much of a chance yet to test the speed and coverage in the area, but I'll report back when I do.