In a previous blog post about the UX50 Tom Stone made the comment:
In your DigitalTrends review, you mentioned connecting with Sprint's EVDO. What additional hardware did you buy to make that happen? What plan did you buy from Sprint?
Thanks for the good review!
Glad you liked the review, Tom! In order to get cellular-based Internet connectivity via Sprint EVDO on a machine that doesn't have PCMCIA, you can tether via USB to one of their "PowerVision" phones and then either pay by the minute for usage, or even better, get unlimited EVDO access added to any voice plan for an additional $40 a month. I bought the cheap Samsung A920 phone, and it came along with the appropriate USB cable for this. (EVDO plan not available online, you have to go into one of their stores to get that set up. Often overlooked by their staff, it's listed in their brochure about phones and plans. At least it was available as recently as two months ago.) Walkthrough to get everything going with the A920 can be found here.
High speed cellular Internet from Sprint will get much better later this year because they are coming out with a USB device that uses the new EVDO Rev A standard:
The most excellent part of this is it allows for much faster upload speeds. It's the USB MCD3000 from Novatel, but will be sold in the third quarter of this year as the Sprint USB720. Here's the details:
http://www.evdoinfo.com/blogcategory/CTIA_2006/
I'm definitely looking forward to that device. Another option if you get the Japanese version of the UX50 that includes the ExpressCard slot is to wait for the upcoming Rev A ExpressCard from Novatel which was announced two months ago.
Another option is to use a CF2031 and get the painfully slow 1xRTT speeds. Not being manufactured anymore, but apparently there are still a few of those around. For the sake of your sanity I can't recommend this kind ot lethargic connection.
So tethering is currently the best option I'm aware of.