Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 19:57
Mobile devices
Page 1 of 3
Although competing models with a screen showing you signal strength and battery life do exist, NetComm’s “MyZone Pocket 3G Router” is the slimmest and most capable 3.5G Wi-Fi router on the market, giving Wi-Fi access to all your gadgets when on the go – whether you’re at home, interstate or overseas.
Ever since I started hearing about portable 3G modem Wi-Fi routers overseas, I wondered when they would finally make their way to Australia.
That happened when Virgin Mobile launched such a device in October last year, being supplied by Huawei and looking like their “soap-on-a-rope” USB modems, supporting 3 concurrent users, and then again when Internode launched its Novatel-supplied MiFi device in January, capable of supporting up to 5 simultaneous users.
When I was in Hong Kong earlier this month I also saw a D-Link 3.5G Wi-Fi router available in some local computer stores, along with those soap-shaped devices, but the recently released NetComm MyZone is the slimmest of the lot, while still packing the same four-hour battery life the Virgin Mobile and MiFi are rated at.
The MyZone is unlocked, and of note for Telstra customers, works on the 850MHz Next G network as well as the standard 2100MHz networks offered by Vodafone and Optus, although it doesn’t support Optus or Vodafone’s 900MHz networks which largely compete with Next G in regional areas.
Priced at AUD $299 outright (without a data plan) and available to buy at the Apple Store (physical or online), it competes well against Internode’s more expensively priced MiFi (which is $349 when purchased outright or $249 on a data plan contract), but is more expensive than the 900/2100MHz Virgin Mobile 3.5 router available from Dick Smith Electronics at $149 outright (without a data plan).
While the MiFi’s battery is removable, with a second battery available to purchase at $99, NetComm’s MyZone still has the best specs on speeds (when connected to Telstra) and can cope with the largest number of simultaneous users, although if ten people were connected and all heavily using the Internet, things would by necessity slow down for every connected user.
The MyZone also offers 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi, something that is now standard. 802.11n pocket routers with 3G or preferably the faster LTE standard (which will replace 3G and 3.5G HSPA networks in the future) still to come, and is easily recharged using the supplied Micro-USB charger or any Micro-USB cable plugged into any powered USB socket.
When a 3G Wi-Fi router with an iPhone or 3G-enabled iPad, you get the benefits of your iDevice being connected via Wi-Fi, instead of via 3G, where Apple automatically downscales the resolution of YouTube videos and restricts the maximum size of App Store and other downloads.
Until recently, these 3G Wi-Fi routers also enabled you to use services such as Skype over 3G and Wi-Fi, but even though Skype over 3G on the iPhone or iPad is now natively possible, there’s still the issue of Skype planning charges in 2011 to let you call other Skype users or real phones over the 3G network, a charge which Skype says won’t be applied to Wi-Fi users.
Continued on page two, please read on!
