Wireless Cellular Data Services?

Swannie asks: "I'm an IT consultant who is on the road a lot. Unfortunately, it's the nature of security in today's enterprise that I rarely have a client that will let me access the internet, and usually not even attach my laptop to their network. Obviously, this leads to a problem in accessing my email... a big problem. Typically, the client will provide dial up lines, but all to often those go through their PBX, which typically limits me to 21.6-28.8k... ugh. Recently, I've been researching cellular data cards, and various services. This seems like the best solution for my problem. I'm looking for something that's reasonably fast, has an 'all-you-can-eat' plan, and inexpensive. Unfortunately, I'm going to probably have to pay for it myself. Since the client does provide a way to access the internet (dialup), it gets seen as a convenience, so cost is a factor. What experience have you had with services from companies like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, NexTel, and Cingular? Are there any other services that I haven't thought off (unfortunately google searches for 'wireless internet' or 'wireless data' just turns up a whole lot of crap)? Any other advice?"

"So far, these are the options I've found:

• Sprint PCS: They have an all you can eat plan for $80 a month on their 'PCS Vision' network. They quote speeds similar to ISDN. Sounds cool, but I've had a sprint phone in the past and wasn't to thrilled with the service, and the price is a bit high.
• Verizon: Their express network plan is similar to Sprint PCS's offering... again, too much money!
• AT&T: They offer data cards on their mLife network (which is their GSM network IIRC). I didn't see anything about their speed, however, and they don't offer an unlimited plan... darn.
• T-Mobile: These guys actually have a decent priced unlimited plan at $29.00 a month. BUT, it looks like their speeds are limited to around 56k. I'd really like more speed, but I suppose that's the trade off for the cheap price.
• NexTel: I currently have a NexTel phone, and I really like it... had it about 2 years. They offer a data cable for it, which I tried, but I only get dialup connections at about 9600bps (yuck). They also offer a data card, and an unlimited plan which IIRC is about $56.00 a month, and limited to 56k... might as well go with T-Mobile then.
• Cingular: I couldn't really find a whole lot on their web site, it doesn't look like they offer a PCMCIA-card based data service...

Some more details, I live in Chicago, and usually my travels take me regional, so it would be nice to have a plan that allowed me to roam (all of the above do). I run Win2K on my work laptop, but I also have a Linux partition so suggestions on cellular PCMCIA cards that work with both, would be appreciated."

Comments

can't cheap out on this one

[hrbrmstr]

first, bravo! to the companies who care enough about security to inconvenience you! i wish we did the same more often.

second, it's the nature of this particular beast that you'll be spending $$$ for the priv. of using the air to access the Net. at least until competition becomes a bit more fierce and the h/w is a tad more accessible. perhaps s/w defined radios will help in the next 2-5 years. the bottom line is that the providers need to make money and a flat rate on data can bite them big time when more folks use VoIP and such.

for my money, verizon's service has good coverage (i'm mainly east coast, however) and decent data rates *most* of the time. it's not a huge chunk of change for a "necessary" service.

while the windows software is integrated well, the linux side of the hard drive will need some configuration and interesting driver downloads/compiles/installes. the best i could do was achieve dialup speeds as it uses the card in a modem-type fashion (which may change your costs a bit). this was 6mos ago, so your new mileage may vary.

i plan on relying on the card and XP (for the record, OS X on the desktop, RH 8 file server, solaris home intranet and multimedia server, an XP gaming box and a work-provided thinkpad) to get me through my Maine vacation *:^)

good luck!

Re:If it's the t-mobile...

[JabberWokky]

I was under the impression (from a subscriber who was showing off about his T-Mobile account) that it's 20 cents for a *voice* call over their data network. I.e., it's free data, and if you want to make a voice call (without a seperate voice plan), then it's 20 cents a minutes. I may well be wrong, YMMV, IANATMC.

--
Evan

Re:T-Mobile Weirdness

[Bonewalker]

I can think of one reason they do this, but it isn't that broad as to explain it in toto.

My sister is deaf. She just bought a T-Mobile Sidekick with all the fixings for $29.99 a month unlimited data. Since she is deaf, she never uses the voice part of the device, but instead instant messages her friends, non-stop, for the flat rate.

All of her deaf friends are going this route because they can be mobile, but remain in contact with friends and family. I think that could be one purpose of the plan.