TITLE
    PwrBk 5300 & 190: GSM & Nokia Cellular Phone Card Issue (1/96)
Article ID:
Created:
Modified: 		19172
1/8/96
1/18/96
TOPIC


    I live in New Zealand and I am having trouble sending and receiving faxes using my cellular phone with my PowerBook 5300 series computer. I am using a Nokia DTP-2 PC Card. Are you aware of any issues in using the Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) Connection kit with Macintosh PowerBook 5300 series computers, particularly with faxing?

DISCUSSION


    Issue
    =====

    Yes, there is an issue involving using the GSM Connection kit 1.1 and Nokia phone with a PowerBook 190 or 5300 series computer. There is a local hardware flow control problem in the PC Card driver, an extension that comes with the PowerBook 190 and 5300 series system software. Since thedefault setting of the GSM connection is hardware flow control the fax breaks after sending a small amount of data.

    Note: Installing the Apple Telecom Software 2.3 does not fix this issue.

    Background
    ==========

    The basis of this issue is that New Zealand uses a different type of cellular phone system than is used in the United States. New Zealand uses both Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) cellular (analog) and Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) cellular (Digital).

    Digital GSM is not widely used yet in the United States, but it is in New Zealand, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South Africa. GSM is now known as Global System for Mobile Communications which is a set of standards specifying the infrastructure for a digital cellular service. AMPS is essentially synonymous with analog cellular radio.

    Apple R&D in France wrote the "GSM Connection Kit for Macintosh, the part number is either M4130Z/A or M3925Z/B. Version is 1.1 works fully with the PowerBook 500 series computers, but is not entirely functional with the PowerBook 190 or 5300 series computers. It does not work sending or receiving faxes with the PowerBook 190 or 5300 series computers.

    Resolution
    ==========

    A new version of the GSM Connection Kit version 1.2 (part number M3925Z/C) has been written to solve the issue with using GSM on a PowerBook 5300 or 190 series computer. The 1.2 version has been released especially to allow faxing capabilities on PowerBook 5300 and 190 series computers. It corrects a regression within the PC Card driver installed on these computers. In previous versions, instead of returning an alert it just crashed the system. The fix has been implemented in version 1.2 of the PCMCIA GSM extension which contains the fax components.


    Article Change History:
    18 Jan 1996 - Added info about GSM 1.2.

    Support Information Services

Document Information
Product Area: Computers
Category: PowerBook
Sub Category: Software

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