Huawei E220 3G modem

The Huawei E220 3G modem is a popular 3G modem dongle. The modem was delivered with a USB cable with two USB connectors, one for the normal USB connection and another one to supply the dongle with the extra power from an additional USB port.

I tested the Huawei E220 3G modem with Diafaan SMS Server on the 64-bits version of Windows 7.

Huawei E220 specifications
Connection USB 2.0
GSM Frequency bands 850, 900, 1800, 1900
UMTS Frequency bands 850/1900/2100
Network protocols GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
Huawei E160

Huawei E220

Installation
Like most Huawei 3G modems, the Huawei E220 creates a new USB drive when it is connected to the PC for the first time. The necessary drivers are automatically installed from this USB drive. The installation went without problems, after the drivers are installed, a virtual serial port is created on the computer that can be used by Diafaan SMS Server.

Daily operation

The Huawei E220 proved to be one of the more reliable GSM modem dongle I have tested. I encountered no problems during my tests and most SMS features are supported as expected. The only feature that was not supported on this device was USSD.

SMS send speed

Network Vodafone
Signal quality Average
Time to send 500 messages of 160 characters, delivery confirmation enabled. All messages sent to the same number (concurrent send and receive) 14 minutes 15 seconds

Conclusion

The Huawei E220 is one of the most stable USB modems I have tested and it is also very fast. The double USB connection is very useful to ensure that the device has enough power to operate on laptops or older servers with low power USB ports.