For about 3 or so years now, I’ve had Sony Ericsson phones, starting with the T68i and graduating to the T616. The main feature that I loved about these phones was that I could use them with my PowerBook to get online anywhere I had phone signal. It got even cooler when my second PowerBook had built-in Bluetooth and I no longer needed to use a USB module.

Well, it’s never been the most reliable thing in the world, and it’s not very fast, either, but the last time I changed my mobile plan I added Cingular’s unlimited data package for $20/month (a steal in my opinion). Previously I have racked up large charges when I am traveling and without the Net.

That all changed and became Very Inconvenient last week when my internal Bluetooth adapter failed, and no amount of cajoling, PRAM zapping, or PMU resetting would fix it. Fortunately, I had a Belkin USB Bluetooth adapter lying around, and merely needed to find the box it was packed in.

But I was still annoyed at the dropped connections (to the phone) and low speeds that I was getting from Cingular. I’d been threatening to get a Verizon BroadbandAccess card for a while. So on Wednesday, after wasting time trying to do my laundry at a laundromat and not being able to work while it spun, I decided it was Time.

I ran around to nearly every wireless store in Easley (Cingular, Alltel, Nextel, Sprint, SunCom, and several independent dealers. Nobody had a card that I could buy and use today, until - right as I was wishing there was a real Verizon store in Easley - one appeared in front of me that I’d forgotten about.

They had a PC5740 card that they sold me for $99 with a $59.99/month plan. Not too shabby. Pity it didn’t work with my Powerbook when I got out to the car.

Leaving my laundry churning in the laundromat (an arguably unwise thing to do), I drove to the nearest free Wi-Fi 10 minutes away in Jennifer’s driveway to find that EVDOinfo.com had already anticipated my exact plight. They had instructions for making the PC5740 work with a Mac, but it was a hack, and most of the card’s features wouldn’t be enabled. They insisted that the Kyocera KPC650 was the only card that a Powerbook user should have.

They were right. Apparently, Verizon has just recently released Mac software drivers for the KPC650 only. Apple had written even better drivers for the PC5220, but that card is no longer supported by anyone.

So I returned the PC5740 and had them order me a KPC650, which they kindly offered to FedEx to me overnight. When it arrived the next day and I installed the VZAccess software, I was a little disappointed that it didn’t have a slick little Menu Extra like Apple’s implementation, so I hacked together a quick Applescript-driven Butler menu (using GUI Scripting).

Apple’s PC5220 Driver

My Butler-made menu

I’ve been getting decent speeds with the NationalAccess network in Easley, but apparently BroadbandAccess is coming to Greenville next year.

My NationalAccess speeds (Easley)

My BroadbandAccess speeds (Baltimore)

The VZAccess software is alright, but the installer created a Broadband/NationalAccess location, and switches to it whenever you click Connect. I’d rather all of my connectivity devices be available in my Automatic location. So far I haven’t been brave enough to try changing it around.

The NationalAccess speeds end up being fast enough for me to share over Airport to Jennifer’s Powerbook, which will be nice after she moves out of her house next month. We’ll be canceling her cable internet, which means we won’t be able to leech off of it from her parents’ house anymore.