A couple of weeks ago, I speculated if virtual COM ports for mobile phones connected to a notebook via a USB cable are fast enough for broadband wireless Internet connections over HSDPA or EvDO Rev. A, B, etc. While some tests suggested that it could work, I wasn’t able to deliver final proof as I didn’t have a broadband mobile at the time. Now I’ve had the opportunity to run a real test with a Motorola V3xx, a category 6 HSDPA device capable of speeds up to 3.6 MBit/s. With download speeds around 2 MBit/s at the location I tested it, it shows quite clearly that virtual com ports do not have the speed limitations of their serial ancestors. The Motorola driver even announces a maximum transmission speed of 12 MBit/s. As shown in the initial post linked above, however, this value is pretty much meaningless. Anyway, it’s good to see we haven’t hit a limit here in a similar way as in Bluetooth, which can barely keep up.