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I had a cable connection which is much missed now.  I moved and recently signed up for Sprint wireless for my home connection.  The options for my new location were very limited, dial-up  Wildblue/Hugesnet or Sprint Wireless 

I connect with a Sierrawireless Compass 597 through a Cradlepoint MB1000 router.  Is this all I can expect with this type of connection? 

::::::::::.. testmy.net test results ..::::::::::
Download Connection is:: 106 Kbps about 0.11 Mbps (tested with 512 kB)
Download Speed is:: 13 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 84 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 10 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/06/26 - 5:10am
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-XZFIMGUP1
U-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-CD74AZEHO
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14

What is GSM wireless and is it any different than the Sprint service I have now?

CDMA is currently the dominant technology in the United States. CDMA works by having all of the calls transmitted on the same frequency at the same time. It identifies different calls by code. This, theoretically, gives CDMA an unlimited capacity under perfect conditions, but of course CDMA does have a limited capacity. There is only a certain ammount of noise that a channel can accomodate before the system and your phone can't recognise one signal from another. If you doubt the limitations of CDMA ask some angry Sprint customers in these forums complaining of network busy signals. Getting back to CDMA, it works to limit this noise by having a phone transmit at the lowest possible setting that will get the call through. One of the factors that determines how much power is need to transmit is distance from the tower. All phones have to take this into consideration. The other factor that only CDMA-type systems have to account for is the number of callers connected to the system. This is an example that one of the mods here (bobolito I believe) used: Say one person is 1 mi. from the tower using 1 watt to transmit. He is the only one connected to the system. Then another person joins the system from 1/2 mi. away transmitting at 1/2 watt. The person further away would have to up his transmition power so that the closer person's signal didn't totally cover his. As more people join the system the current people have to continue to up their power so that their call isn't drowned out by the new ones (think of people at a party talking. The more people talking the louder you're gonna have to talk). Also, the more people who are connected to the system means that there are more distances and more levels of transmitter power and the closer people are starting higher. Now there are 1000s of people connected and the people at 1/4mi. are using 1 watt, the people at 1/2 mi. are using 2 watts, and the people at 3/4 mi. are using 3 watts and the person at 1 mi. looses his connection because it is drowned out by the closer voices and he can't transmit more powerfully (talk louder) than 3 watts. In this way, CDMA coverage is variable in a way that TDMA/FDMA (and systems based on those principals) aren't. Beyond calling, that oversimplification shows how CDMA does have limitations even if everyone is at the same distance using the same transmitting power. 1xRTT - the 2.5G voice/data solution for CDMA - is currently deployed by Sprint and Verizon in certain areas. A lot of the times the carrier has implimented 1xRTT data, but not voice since the data is immiedately apparent. 1xRTT voice does offer some improvement in call quality, but not much and is still a tiny bit behind GSM's EFR codec. 1xRTT data improves data rates to a theoretical 144Kbps, but again, in reality, it will never exceed 64Kbps. After 1xRTT comes 1xEV-DO (data only/optimised) and 1xEV-DV (data/voice). 1xEV-DO has a theoretical 2Mbps, but will be 384Kbps in the real world just like EDGE and wCDMA.

I'm getting speeds like this. Go to dslreports.com and look up the sprint forum. There are things you can do to improve your speed like external antennas and amps. I'm using a grid antenna and a cyfre 819 amp.