Hello Om community, Given that the GTA04 contains an off-the-shelf UMTS module and, if my understanding is correct, truly off-the-shelf GSM/GPRS/UMTS modems in the consumer USB stick form factor have been used during the BeagleBoard prototyping phase for the GTA04, I've figured that someone here might have some experience with / knowledge of these USB sticks, hence me asking here...
I'm looking for a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS "cell modem" device in the "USB stick" form factor which I would plug into my x86 laptop, running Linux, currently Ubuntu, hoping to switch to Slackware or Linux From Scratch some day. My requirements / wish list items are: * USB stick form factor, encased as it would be for a normal consumer, internal antenna and all. * No battery, drawing power from the laptop when in use, no possibility of any internal components being powered up when the stick is not inserted into a laptop's USB port. * I want to buy this thing from someone who just sells equipment, not service. I need this thing to take SIM cards, and I know I can get a SIM card from my local GSM/UMTS service provider without getting their equipment. * I need something that is sufficiently well documented in terms of its external interface (AT commands?) so that I can drive it from, say, minicom. * I need this device to be capable of placing old-fashioned data calls, not just Internet access. By old-fashioned data calls I mean the arrangement where one dials a number from the mobile device with ATD<number> (no semicolon at the end, making it a data rather than voice call), and the number being dialed is a POTS land line with a plain old analog modem answering the call. I want to be able to connect to my personal data center from remote locations bypassing the Internet. * I need this device to support GSM/GPRS/EDGE fallback, not just UMTS. I would like to have UMTS capability, but only in addition to plain GSM/GPRS, not instead of. I would also very much like to be able to switch between GSM and UMTS manually with AT commands, e.g., to force GSM/GPRS mode even when UMTS is available. * I need this thing to support the 1900 MHz band when operating in the GSM/GPRS/EDGE fallback mode, so I can use it with T-Mobile USA. So, would anyone here be able to recommend such a USB stick device for me? Maybe even with pointers to where I can buy one? My original plan was to use my GTA02 for this purpose, but I'm not currently able to do anything with that device because of the community's discriminatory handling of the Calypso FW semi-source code. Let me clarify: while of course the ideal situation would be for everyone in the world to have free access to the GSM fw source code, I can grudgingly accept using consumer off-the-shelf hardware for which *no one* in the supposed-open-source community has any firmware source. But I philosophically object to using a device for which Paul Fertser has a copy of the AT interpreter source code while I'm denied a copy of the same. Not being able to use the GTA02, I'm still using my old Motorola V66 phone: it's a *very* dumb phone (well below what one would call a feature phone) and it's full of misfeatures which I don't like (a UI design that suits me very poorly, bad pre-USB connector for the charger and data port interfaces, no ability to connect the data port and external power at the same time, etc), but what makes it morally acceptable is that I'm not aware of any supposed-open-source developer(s) hoarding a copy of its firmware source, selectively denying it to new entrants into the field. With the Mot V66 poorly suited as a device for making data calls from a Linux/x86 laptop and the GTA02 unusable altogether for moral / philosophical reasons, I'm now looking into the possibility of getting a separate data-only device in the USB stick form factor and keeping it separate from my voice phone, as in a separate SIM card from my service provider. (I already have several lines on my account for my large pseudofamily, no difficulty with adding one more.) I'm not aware of any cellular data USB sticks with hackable GSM/UMTS/ whatever firmware, but I can grudgingly live with that because it isn't the same as having a clique of supposed open source developers exclusively hoarding the FW source. From what I understand, the GTA04 developers were able to get docs for the external interface (AT commands or whatever) to their UMTS modem without having to sign their lives away in NDAs, right? Oh, and before anyone accuses me of being a hypocrite and hoarding or not-sharing the TSM30 FW source which I have finally located, let me reiterate I *do* freely and readily share this source with everyone in the world, just not via the Internet. Not via the Internet because my current FTP server doesn't have enough disk space and my external Internet connection is too slow. Instead I am offering a CD-R copy by snail mail to anyone in the world who wants one. Just give me a snail mail address (PO Box / anonymous / whatever, I don't care) and I'll send a CD-R copy out the same week, maybe even the same day. Anyone who would like to see it made freely available via the Internet is welcome to get the CD-R copy from me, then host it on his/her own server: everyone in the world but me uses newer HW for which half a GiB is nothing, and I'm sure that most people in the world have faster Internet connections than my 384 kbps symmetric. And I do have hardware docs for both Calypso and Glamo on my public FTP site: they are small enough, unlike the *gigantic* TSM30 FW source and the associated development environment. (The latter is for Windows unfortunately, and is required to compile the darned thing, until someone does the massive work to port it to compile with gcc & binutils toolchain.) 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