MBP with Cingular Problems

[TaylorB]

Let me tell you what I'm trying to do first off, then I will tell you what I was told to do.
We are going somewhere that does not have wireless internet, but does have Cingular EDGE service and all of that. What I wanted to do was use whatever card Cingular sells and just plug it in my MBP to get internet.

This is what I was perscribed:
The card Cingular sells cannot work with my MBP, its not the right size/thing whatever. The guy said, well, since you have a blackberry, you can upgrade your plan to the unlimited data wireless plan. You would need to upgrade because you can then just take your SIM card that is in your blackberry and put it in an AirPort Extreme Card that plugs into that slot on your MBP.

Sounded legit to me, I had never heard of an AirPort Extreme Card, all I knew was that I had the AirPort thing in my MBP and I thought the AirPort Extreme Card was for putting SIM cards into, so it sounded all too easy. I even said that to myself as I was walking out of the store, why is this so easy that I just buy one 50$ thing from Apple and then it all works? It was too good to be true. I visit the AirPort Extreme Card page and it sounds like an AirPort Extreme Card is what I have in my MBP already.

Overall: What do I buy from Apple that I can just stick in my MBP in that little slot, that can read my SIM card?

Thank you guys very much for your assistance!

 

[panzer06]

Let me tell you what I'm trying to do first off, then I will tell you what I was told to do.
We are going somewhere that does not have wireless internet, but does have Cingular EDGE service and all of that. What I wanted to do was use whatever card Cingular sells and just plug it in my MBP to get internet.

This is what I was perscribed:
The card Cingular sells cannot work with my MBP, its not the right size/thing whatever. The guy said, well, since you have a blackberry, you can upgrade your plan to the unlimited data wireless plan. You would need to upgrade because you can then just take your SIM card that is in your blackberry and put it in an AirPort Extreme Card that plugs into that slot on your MBP.

Sounded legit to me, I had never heard of an AirPort Extreme Card, all I knew was that I had the AirPort thing in my MBP and I thought the AirPort Extreme Card was for putting SIM cards into, so it sounded all too easy. I even said that to myself as I was walking out of the store, why is this so easy that I just buy one 50$ thing from Apple and then it all works? It was too good to be true. I visit the AirPort Extreme Card page and it sounds like an AirPort Extreme Card is what I have in my MBP already.

Overall: What do I buy from Apple that I can just stick in my MBP in that little slot, that can read my SIM card?

Thank you guys very much for your assistance!

You cannot put the cell SIM in the Airport Extreme Card.

You can use the Blackberry in tethered mode (via USB connection) and pay Cingular an extra $40+ for unlimited tethered Internet Access (basically using the phone as a modem) or...

You can find a 3G or other High Speed Internet card that works with the expansion slot on the MBP and pay a separate plan for that.

Unfortunately Cingular is somewhat expensive when using Blackberry and data services. They charge us separately for each service.

Good luck,

 

[logandzwon]

ya, your sales guy was very confussed. You can use tethered mode though.

BTW, that port on your pc is a ExpressCard slot.

 

[AZJayhawk]

Here is a great website that describes how to connect your MBP to the Cingular EDGE network using a Blackberry. It is a very simple process.

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/blackberry_pearl_as_bluetooth_modem_with_mac.html