Fastest wireless notebook connection?

[ZAPPER]

OK, here's the deal. My company gave me a notebook with the intentions that I could be able to send and receive whatever needs to be sent or received when needed. Oh what a big friggin fantasy that turns out to be.

More details. The machine is an IBM R-51 with all of the wireless bells and whistles for wifi or bluethooth or whatever they are called. It turns out that hooking up at the so called hot spots doesn't seem to work as well in the real world as it does on TV. I work in alot of malls and we figured that I would be able to get online pretty easy with all of the coffe shops and food courts advertising free internet access. My problems it seems are many. There aren't as many of these hot spots as we thought, their range is quite limited, I tend to be tucked away in concrete and steel dungeons with poor to no signal, when I do manage to get connected it is Slooooowww and often spuratic.

The next step, so instead of being at the mercy of someone else for internet access we got phone cards. Cingular Edge cards to be more specific. What crap! If the SIM card wants to work and I have signal (The most I have ever seen is three little dots) and I hold my mouth just right, I get a sloooowww connection.

What I am asking is this. Is there anyway that I can, From the time I turn on the notebook, be connected to the internet at a decent speed, in most locations that I work, and be able to send someone half way across the country a photo or e-mail with out me feeling like I am going to have a stroke?

Are there sattelite cards? Is any self contained wireless from a notebook going to reach even the speed of old fashioned dial up? Is it me? Is it all just a fantasy?

[ROF]

It must just be you or your equipment not setup correctly. I use my old laptop with wireless connection all the time. I can be inside food courts, coffee shops, bowling alleys, or other public location where wifi is supported and have no problems connecting. Speed varies depending on the location though.

[ZAPPER]

Thanks for the reply. Actually if I am at a hotel or at the hot spot itself, the wifi works pretty good. My real problem is when I am in a different area away from hot spots. I can't set up a desk or spread out a couple of sets of blueprints at Starbucks and run a job that is 500' away. That is why we went to the Edge card. I was just wondering if there was a more powerful card or antena setup. Or if there was anykind of a better system to make me totally self supporting.

A typical situation would go like this. I get sent to answer some kind of service call and give someone in their corporate office a price and time frame to make the repairs. I take some measurements and assey the situation. Now I need to find the price of a specific part or material and locate it locally or arrange shipping. (A web search can come in handy) I will also have to e-mail some photos to show that the situation is not something that I can just hit with a hammer to make better. Fighting with the technology is killing me time wise. I just want to be able to open the notebook and start working on the job problem, not hunt and fight for a connection

[ROF]

Have you tried Cellular internet? I haven't used it personally, but I have seen it in action. That would make you self-sufficient and would not require a hot spot.

[shelbyGT]

Doesn't Verizon have cellular broadband now?

[ROF]

Yes. Verizon was one of the first carriers of cellular internet.