Sony Ericsson added to its line of wireless PC Cards with a card which brings WiFi and 3G mobile phone connectivity into the same unit. The company says that its GC99 card is among the very first such cards in the world, although a couple of other companies -- Belgium's Option, for one -- make similar claims. Sony Ericsson's card boasts a low-profile antenna housing and support for both 802.11g and 802.11a APs. In addition to WiFi and 3G, the GC99 offers regular GSM (quad-band) dial-up and GPRS packet-switched communications, the latter with EDGE support for better data rates.
Sony Ericsson says the card will not support the HSDPA 3G speed-boost technology. This is an interesting decision by Sony Ericson, as HSDPA will surely prove popular: It will increase 3G download speeds from 384 Kbps maximum to around 14.4 Mbps (there are some technical qualifications to this assertion). The GC99 will ship in the fourth quarter and work with both PCs and Macs.
For more on Sony-Ericsson's combo:
- see Tony Smith's TheRegister report