Vodafone Releases GPL Driver for UMTS/GPRS Cards
Mobile communications provider Vodafone has just released version 1.0 of its Mobile Connect Card Driver for Linux. The driver supports the use of GPRS, UMTS and HSDPA, as well as SMS transmissions.
At present, the driver supports the Option GlobeTrotter 3G+ EMEA (PCMCIA), Huawei E220 (USB) and Huawei E620 (PCMCIA) cards. According to the manufacturer, Linux power users should have no trouble modifying the driver to support other cards. The installation guide has more details. Vodafone is already working on version 2.
The card drivers GUI-based configuration and user interface accepts the PIN and displays connection information. It also serves as an SMS program and address book.
Vodafone offers the Mobile Connect Card Driver for Linux for UMTS and GPRS cards.
The driver requires HAL and Python as well as a couple of network and GUI libraries. The Huawei PCMCIA card also requires kernel version 2.6.18.4. The project page on Vodafone's developer portal includes ready made packages for Fedora 7, Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.1, as well as the source code, which is available under GPLv2.
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