Sony Ericsson GC85

Mobile professionals requiring an always-on data connection when out on the road now have a number of choices of PC Card to use in their notebooks. At the slower end of the spectrum are GPRS and GPRS/HSCSD cards like Vodafone's <a href="http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023965,10003453,00.htm">Mobile Connect Card</a> and Sony Ericsson's <a href="http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023965,39117913,00.htm">GC79</a>, which will manage download speeds of up to 56Kbps (that is, dial-up modem speed). The fastest available mobile data cards are the recent crop of <a href="http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023970,39167071,00.htm">3G products</a>, which claim broadband-like speeds of up to 384Kbps. In the middle is a GPRS/EDGE card such as Sony Ericsson's GC85, reviewed here, which -- on mobile networks that support EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) -- can achieve near-3G speeds of 247Kbps. As with 3G, the EDGE card drops back to GPRS speed where the faster coverage is not available.