What is EVDO |
| Saturday, 12 February 2005 | |||||
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Finally, you can have wireless broadband internet access to your Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux laptop without the need for a hotspot! Insert an EVDO Card into your laptop and, seconds later, you are connected to the internet at DSL-like speeds (500K-1,000K) - - - you are your own hotspot! The broadband-speed 1xEVDO is currently available in most metropolitan U.S. cities (Verizon and Sprint are both continually upgrading their service areas to Revision A - the newest development in EVDO that provides dramatically increased upload speeds averaging 300-400kbps). If you are unsure whether you have EVDO coverage in your area, please visit EVDOMaps.com and see the results EVDO users across the country are experiencing in their area. Update: Verizon's EVDO network is now 100% Rev-A
EVDO is based on the 1xRTT standard, which is available in almost all cell phone coverage areas and provides Internet speeds of about 2-3 times that of dial-up (about 60K-100K). If you go out of the 1xEVDO broadband coverage zone, you will automatically be switched onto the 1xRTT standard, which means that you can still access the Internet almost anywhere your travels take you! learn more about 1xRTT vs. EVDO here!.
Are you writing an article on EVDO for your newspaper, magazine, or blog? Link to this page to give users additional information on EVDO!
What is EVDO? Tell Me More
Almost all of Verizon's cards ship with Mac compatibility (the exception being the Sierra Aircard 595, however; if you order from 3Gstore.com we can include the neccesary software for it to work properly). While Sprint has not shipped any of their cards (except for the CDU-680) with Mac compatibility (the experts here at EVDOinfo.com / 3Gstore.com have found Mac solutions to make all Sprint cards work on your Mac. All the cards work with Windows.
Begining last year, many new EVDO phones started to become available.
These phones hook up to the existing EVDO network to provide new cell
phone services such as real-time 3D games, TV (on your cell phone),
email access, and lost of other cool features.
OK, I understand What EVDO is. So how fast is EVDO? Your signal strength determines how fast EVDO will be. Like your cell phone, you can have from zero bars of service (no service at all) to 4 bars (excellent, zippy service). Here is a speed test done while having 4 bars. The location was Schaumburg, IL 
An antenna can greatly improve your signal strength, and thus your speed.
Without moving, we plugged in the Booster Antenna and saw a improvement in the upload and download speed:
How does EVDO compare to other technologies?  How does EVDO compare to other 3G Technologies? Peak Data Rate by Technology: CDMA Rev A 3,000 kpbs CDMA 2000-1x EVDO 2,400 kbps W-CDMA 2,000 kbps EDGE 384 kbps CDMA 2000-1x 144 kbps GPRS 115 kbps GSM 14.4 kbps 1xRTT (Verizon's NationalAccess) 1xRTT has been out a lot longer than EVDO and is available (almost) wherever cell phone coverage is for Verizon or Sprint. 1xRTT has a maximum of 144K upload and download, but the typical speeds are 50K - 80K. When EVDO is not available, your EVDO card or phone will automatically drop down to 1XRTT. Recently I was in the middle of Illinois (farm land), going 70mph in my car, and did a benchmark test to see how the 1xRTT held up. The test confirmed that I had 94K download speeds (see below), which is actually not too bad for email or web browsing. So, even though EVDO may not yet be available everywhere you want to use it, 1xRTT probably is. Do EVDO Cards work with PowerBooks? Yes, we have set up a Mac EVDO page discussing this in more detail. 
Can I use EVDO overseas?
Currently, most of Europe uses GSM, which is not compatible with EVDO, so EVDO will NOT work overseas. Verizon has roaming agreements with Canada and Puerto Rico so that your cards will work there (additional roaming charges may apply).
EVDO for Mobile Hotspots and WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network)
MDG provides consulting services to help your company to convert EVDO to WIFI. That is right, you can create a mobile hotspot with your EVDO card! This opens up new opportunities (see below). Did you hear about "Google's Magic Bus"? Google has shuttle buses with this technology. They shuttle employees to and from work and the employees can connect to the internet for increased productivity during the commute. Using an EVDO router (Kyocera KR1 Router, Linksys WRT54G3G, Top Global MB6000 or MB8000) anyone can do this!
EVDO Booster Antenna
If you are in the fringe area of EVDO and coverage is spotty, or if you are in a weaker signal area, consider an EVDO external booster antenna. Thiese antennas plug directly into your EVDO Card (note that it does not work with the 5740 card, as that card does not have an external antenna port) and improve performance dramatically. They will increase your signal strength, which will give you a much faster throughput. The booster antenna is very small and portable - about twice the size of the PC Card, while the externa antennas are a bit bulkier. We do not recommend buying a Booster Antenna that clips on to the current antenna - - get one that plugs directly into the external antenna port that is built-into the EVDO cards. When you plug in an external antenna through the antenna port, the built-in antenna is disabled and you only use the external and get much better performance. 
EVDO Phones
EVDO phones allow your cell phones to hook up to this high speed
network. If your phone can send email or browser the web, it will be
VERY fast. With an EVDO capable smartphone/PDA you can check email, instant message, and browse the web at broadband speeds! On certain devices you can also watch entertaining video
clips, Sports clips, news videos, weather videos. Here is a list of Sprint
smartphones and PDAs that have EVDO:
EVDO Forums
To help EVDO users, we provide EVDO Forums, a 2-way discussion forum for anyone. There are many users who provide help and useful information in response to a wide variety of wireless questions. Stop by and take a look! OK, so that answers the question, What is EVDO?! Be sure to explore this site and EVDOforums.com, as you will find a wealth of EVDO information. We aim to be the most comprehensive, knowledgeable EVDO site on the internet, but if you have any additional questions that should be answered on the What is EVDO page, please let us know.
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