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Raymarine’s VHF/cellular
system is revolutionary, but it’s not perfect. For one thing, the
cellular unit only supports analog service, somewhat limiting possible
connections and foregoing the added features available from digital services.
Raymarine does plan
to introduce a trimode cellular box in the future, but to really comprehend
what’s possible with digital cellular, let’s examine what a
new company called Onboard Wireless is offering. Its product is a fairly
complex combination of hardware, software, and services, all designed
to take maximum advantage of the particular flavor of digital cellular
known as GSM. A connection kit consists of a fixed 2-watt modem and high-gain
antenna, a separate Nokia 5190 GSM mobile phone, PC software, and subscriptions
to both VoiceStream GSM service and Onboard Wireless’ Web and e-mail
servers. The idea is to provide the best possible voice and data cell
service on the water, now and in the future. Right now Onboard Wireless’
servers filter and cache commonly desired Web pages like weather and news
so that they can be downloaded reasonably quickly given the slow 9,600-baud
speeds common to all cell connections these days. More exciting is the
prospect of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), an extension of GSM that
promises 115-kbps data speeds–a more than tenfold increase. With
GPRS you could be surfing the Internet and retrieving large e-mails on
your boat with cable-modem-like quickness. GPRS is starting to roll out
in the United States and Europe, and Onboard Wireless’ equipment
is ready for it.
Another unique GSM feature
is its portable Service Identity Module (SIM), a tiny card containing
your phone identity and other data like your speed dialing list. When
it is in the Onboard Wireless modem, you have a fixed full-power boat
phone with (optional) voice communications through a handset attached
to your PC. When you go ashore, you just pop the SIM out of the modem
and into the Nokia handset, and you have a regular cellphone with the
same number and service plan. This seems like a particularly great feature
for cruising, when you may want the capabilities of a fixed system sometimes
and a mobile other times. (The SIM can also help deal with the inconsistencies
of GSM service in foreign lands.)
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