Brief Hands-On Report--Apple's Verizon PC 5220 Wireless Internet Support

[11/30] [Updated] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple's Verizon PC 5220 Wireless Internet Support: In brief, it works very well and simply in our 17" PowerBook G4.

Verizon Wireless has a fast wireless broadband internet service available in many cities and airports. They claim 300-500 kbps speed with peaks over 1 mbps. Most of the wireless internet PC cards using cell phone technology do not work on the Mac or at least need a hack. However, Apple has a driver for the Verizon card (Qualcomm 3G CDMA PC 5220) and its broadband wireless internet service.

We downloaded Apple's Verizon BroadbandAccess Support 1.0 driver for the AirPrime 5220 PC card and Verizon's wireless network from this Apple web page. According to the web page:

This software supports the Express Network PC Card (PC 5220) in Mac OS X, for use on the Verizon Wireless network. To use this card, you need an account with Verizon (fees may apply).

Fees do apply because Verizon's service costs $80 per month for unlimited time and volume.

We installed the driver, restarted and plugged our Verizon AirPrime 5220 PC card into the PowerBook G4's PC-card slot. The AirPrime card had been previously activated on a PC laptop so we do not know if it can be activated on a Mac. [It can according to reader Mitch Pilchuk who wrote, "I got this card last month. I did the apple download and then went out an purchased it. I plugged it in and a requestor popped up asking if I wanted to activated the card, click yes and a few seconds later you are up and running. Works great. I love it. I only wished I'd plugged it in while in the store. The sales guy didn't believe that it would work on an Apple. It has been seamless. I'm in the Washington DC area."--ed] A dialog box popped up stating that a new port had been found. We opened the Internet Connect application and saw that a new panel had been added and, better yet, it was already configured (see image at right). In addition, an icon appeared on the menu bar with a drop-down menu (see image below left).

We clicked on the "Connect" button and it just worked, claiming a connection speed of 230 kbps, nearly 5 times as fast as our usual "56K" modem connection of 46-48 kbps. Not quite cable or DSL speed but very good for internet access almost anywhere in the supported cities and airports. [Bill Fox and Brian Nakamoto]