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Wireless Data Plans Reviewed
prostoalex writes "The New York Times Technology section runs a review of available wireless data plans that provide a PCMCIA card for wireless Internet connections. Cingular BroadbandConnect seems to have won the comparison as far as quality, but the service is only available in 16 major metropolitan areas. Sprint Mobile Broadband has wider coverage for $80 a month. Verizon Wireless sells BroadbandAccess for $80 a month or $60 if you decide to commit to a 2-year contract, and this one has the widest coverage of 181 metropolitan areas."
Their reps don't know a damn thing about how it works, or how to sell it, so getting signed up for it could be a challenge.
I assume they give away the information on your wireless activities as well?
Sign me up.
A blog about stuff.
Wireless? These don't appear to be 802.11... you mean cellular.
If they are not going to really go all out about T-Mobile. But without any doubt, T-Mobile is where it is AT. Sas
How can we offer free WiFi to so many people? Volume.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
It doesn't compare which has the better speed. I use Sprint now and I get 400Kbs.
plantronics headset
So this is completely useless to me. That being said, why I am posting this? I am not even sure why I am here. Anyway, I'll see you guys later. Maybe we could catch a movie or something...
I was talking to my Sprint rep about these...
;)
She said that by the end of the year, downstream speeds should be 2Mbit.
She also mentioned a couple of neat devices... essentially you plug the PCMCIA card into this device, which allows other network connectivity. One acted as a WAP, the other simply had an ethernet port.
The upstream speeds aren't going to replace standard network connections, but it makes for an interesting disaster recovery option.
Redundant internet connections aren't much good when all the the local pairs are damaged, as happened to me just a few months ago.
She said the price would remain relatively the same when the speed upgrade happens, too
Can I run VoIP over this wireless connection, thus screwing these same companies out of any cellular revenue?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
All these services have the typical CYA in them which forbids doing anything other than browsing web pages. They specifically forbid running anything server-like and also forbid streaming media.
It's all about protecting the revenue stream.
-EvilMagnus
Verizon and Sprint use EV-DO cards. EV-DO is pretty widely deployed and growing fast. Make sure you get an EV-DO Revision A compatibile card. DOrA has even faster downlink and much faster uplink capabilities, as well as low-latency support so stuff like VoIP works better. EV-DO will fall back to normal 1x data... which is pretty fast. I get 100-200kbps just about everywhere on my cheapo 1x phone on Verizon. There are EV-DO networks in some Asian countries like Korea. And in my experience Verizon is the best wireless provider here in the USA.
I have a cheapo Verizon phone and find the normal 1xRTT to be pretty good for web browsing. SSH is a bit high latency but not bad. And it just costs airtime minutes. I wouldn't want to dist-upgrade debian with the link, but it's pretty good for what I need. Several folks in the office have the EV-DO cards and they work great in most cities.
If you are on a GSM network you also might find out that your phone does EDGE for free. Most phones -- even the cheap ones -- have data features. Find out and you might have a fun solution for an occasional need for wireless connectivity.
PS. Linux connectivity for the LG VX3200 was a snap... but I can't get it to work in Windows... does anyone have this working? I got a cheapo cable that comes up as a serial device...
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
I've had Verizon's service for about a year and am pretty happy with it. They could do A LOT better though.
... blah) and use the phone as a modem. Works pretty well, though I wish there was a card for it. Of course the verizon morons at the store don't really know what they are selling, so they also had me buy the stupid USB wire to the phone (that doesn't even charge the battery!) that doesn't because, according to them, you can't share the data connection over bluetooth (but you can!).
I orginally had a Novatel V620 PCMCIA card connection to my powerbook, but when I got my Mac Book Pro, it became instantly useless. As of a few months ago, there are no ExpressCard/32 adaptors available for any of the service providers.
The solution I went with was to get a bluetooth cell phone (and voice service
So ya, overall i'm happy with it because it works. I'm surprised that i usually have a latency of under 500ms. I can play World of Warcraft from pretty much anywhere =)
Will the cards work with Linux?
I've been using the Verizon EV-DO service for almost a year now. I get 50 kilobytes/sec on downloads consistently and haven't had any problems using streaming media or downloading music.
My advice: use the service with the strongest signal where you will be using your laptop. That may not be the service with the highest published data rate, or the lowest cost plan. Unfortunately, I have no advice for determining the service with the strongest signal other than testing each service.
As with a cell phone, the signal strength can be very fickle. If your move you laptop to a different desk, your signal strength could plummet.
You need a strong signal to make wireless broadband work. The published data rates are useless unless you get a perfect signal. What kills the data transfer rate is retries cause by weak signals. With a weak voice signal you can still go about your business, just with a little frustration. Not so with a weak wireless broadband signal. Your connection will slow to uselessness.
Most all of the broadband wireless cards can be used with a larger antenna. My next bit of advice is to replace the cute little tiny antenna with something that has a higher gain. I've seen antennas that mount on the laptop monitor, table top, or car roof. Use whatever size antenna that you can manage.
And my favorite story. Before SBC bought them out Pacific Bell was actually laying fiberoptic cable in my neighborhood (downtown San Jose, CA) so we could have *real* broadband. After SBC bought them the first thing they did was cancel the project and dig the fiber out so no one could use it.
That's not a typo, that says "kilobyte".
It's cheaper to get an American data plan and pay the roaming fees than it is to buy locally. I'd love to be able to just plug my cell into my laptop and go, but there's just no way.
Mike Hoye
"from the carrier-pidgeons dept"
don't you mean pigeons?
The article focuses on pc-cards but doesnt mention bluetooth tethering to a cellphone. Using your cellphone as a wireless modem over bluetooth has some advantages over pc-cards. One big advantage of tethering is that you share one account and one bill with fewer fees. Since you probably already carry your cellphone around (with its built in bluetooth hardware), there is a weight/bulk advantage with tethering because you dont need the extra pccard and antennae. Another secret is that the cellphone operates on its own battery so the laptop battery life is effectively extended. These benefits really stand out when you are using a pocket sized computer like the sony 750p; tethering is the difference between an internet computer in your pocket and a computer in a suitcase.
When I moved across town, SBC told me in advance it would be no problem to move my DSL; they then proceeded to cut off my service at the old address two weeks earlier than we had agreed, when I called them, they said that if they restored it, they wouldn't be able to cut-over on the day I wanted it activated. They also told me that I'd have to install their new co-branded Yahoo! software when I got set up at the new location. I grumbled, and said "okay, fine" and suffered with dialup for a while. When I moved, the DSL was not live. After a couple weeks of back-and-forth with them with different excuses at the problem, they said that the new address was too far from the central office and DSL wasn't available at that location, no way, no how, and we don't know who told you it was. Within a month, I had DSL from a local ISP on SBC's lines, without any co-branded bloat cluttering up my system. And happy paid the upgrade for higher than base speed service. I really don't understand SBC at all.
At best, you get 56k, if you're getting all four of four possible time slices allocated to you. But in practice, I often apparently get just one time slice, making it about 1/4th the speed of a 56k modem.
On the upside, it was only $20/month, three years ago, so it wasn't bad cnsidering the price for critical, non-data intensive internet aps (like email).
Conversely, on my Verizon service, I often get better speeds than my cable modem at home, although my latency at home is obviously better. The other nice thing about Verizon is even if you're NOT in one of the 181 metro areas with the full broadband connection, you can still get a good 120 kpbs most anywhere else. For example, I use the Verizon on the road for business, but if my cable connection at home in Chippewa Falls WI (definitely not a metro area) craps out, I can still get on Verizon's network at better-than-dialup speeds from my living room. (I can also run the whole house off it by setting up a network bridge.)
paintball
I wonder if it is a softwar thing. I remember a few years ago SBC was not supporting Macs. The only thing I could figure is that on a Mac you did not have to install the SBC software, which was basically a PPOE driver and some other stuff that was very close to spyware. SInce the Mac already has a PPOE driver and would automagically connect most of the time, I think SBC would lose money on whatever ad schemes they were pulling. I just put in a Router so I would not have to mess with the software config at all.
So, does this software that has to be installed limit use, or insure that license agreement is complied with? Is it, like SBC, some sort of cross marketing thing? Do the cards actually work on any machine, but is not just not supported?
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I've been using the Verizon service for about 2 years. What is EXTREMELY odd is that the published rates are CONSERVATIVE - I frequently exceed them by 4 times or more (downloading at 300 megaBYTES per second, for example, when the published rate is apparently 400-700 megabits.)
The biggest issue I've found with quality of connection is network contention with cell phones. If I use the Verizon service at 2 AM, it's virtually indisinguishable from my home cable service. In the middle of the day though, it gets much slower and tends to drop connection fairly frequently, maybe once an hour depending on what's going on.
paintball
Not a very interesting, informative, or complete article.
I've had T-mobile's $19/mo GPRS service for 2.5 years, and while it's about 1/2 the speed of Verizon's card, my experience is that it's quite reliable. Rural Louisiana, Seattle, the sticks of Idaho, Juneau, London, north shore of Iceland... no problem, 4-5 bars, 56k-ish. My Verizon & Sprint card buddies have faster throughput, but lose signal in the middle of metro downtown areas occasionally.
I'm sticking with Tmobile. Oh, and one note: T-mo is now selling the $19 unlimited GPRS service as the "Blackberry Option" for your handheld. Same service, new marketing name. If you want a separate card for your laptop, it's gone up from $29 to $39, at least in my market. That's still 1/2 the price of the competitors, for 1/2 the speed and 2x the reliability.
I think in reality the heaviest bandwidth users will just get disconnected and everybody else will totally ignore the TOS.
Interestingly, Skype is working to help you beat the TOS. Although it was already cracked, one of the unannounced features of the new 2.5 beta was to make Skype harder to detect.
What's wrong with T-mobile's EDGE service?
1. Get a T-mobile phone with bluetooth and EDGE
2. Get a laptop with bluetooth.
3. Enjoy unlimited wireless internet access with (the good) ~120 kbps real-world throughput and (the bad) ~800-1200 ms roundtrip latency, for $19.99 a month.
I know that EV-DO has better latency, but I didn't think that Cingular's HSDSPA or whatever alphabet soup it is was that much better. T-mobile's EDGE service is acceptable over an NX connection, and works while in the car up to about 60 mph.
For an addition $10.00, you can get the "T-mobile Total Internet" package, which gives you unlimited T-Mobile hotspots, which are all over the place, and significantly faster than any of the 2.5G-3G data services.
*shrug*---- I've been tempted by Verizon's EV-DO service, but at 4x the cost, with availability of the high-speed component in metropolitan areas only (my northshort Chicago suburb, near O'Hare airport, at the world's largest industrial park, is NOT served by EV-DO) just doesn't seem worth it.
Much of the world still lives on dialup. I can get used to using 2x dialup (with 2x the latency, har har) while on the road; and the price cannot be beat (I average 30-50 megs of usage per month, and I get the added side benefit of browsing on either my phone or laptop whenever I want).
Go T-Mobile. I highly recommend it.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
I took a shortcut, for $24.95 a month I got Verizon DSL to my house. Oddly enough, using my Verizon DSL username/password, I could connect to the Verizon wifi network in New York City where I live. I'm currently deployed to Iraq, but here's to hoping this still works when I get back.
Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. - Benjamin Franklin
if work is paying for it, it's easy to go with the best service. but if you are paying out of pocket, t-mobile is a real bargain. for $30/month you get decent edge/gprs service (i average 130kbps/1-2s lat) and unlimited access to their hotspots. and there is no extra charge for tethering. you can tether via usb or bluetooth, tmobile doesn't cripple their bluetooth phones. though it's not the fastest, i like the idea of a company that lets you tether for free, doesn't cripple your phone, and even will give you the unlock code after 90 days. more flies with honey..
sorry, it's $30 if you have a voice plan, otherwise $50 in which case they throw in 300 text messages.
For $3/month, you can add a "Dial up & Fax" option to your current Cingular phone service plan. This lets you use your cell phone as a plain old fashioned Bluetooth Modem, dialing into one of your ISP's dialup numbers.
The catches:
- You have to already have an ISP with dialup numbers.
- You spend your voice minutes on internet access.
- It's slow as hell. 9600bps = 1.2KBps. Enough for email and instant messaging, not quite enough to happily browse today's graphics-heavy www.
I've tested this, successfully, on a 12" Powerbook, a RAZR V3, and one of Yahoo's dialup numbers.
>shrugs maybe i'm just a pescimist, but I have absolutely no difficulty seeing Verizon trying something like this.
/dev/random
Anyone know if it's possible with any of the carriers to use more than one card on a single plan--ie, buy three cards, put them in three seperate computers and then use them (independently or at the same time) on a single plan? I'm trying to find a way to push small amounts of data (500k per day) from multiple client sites that don't always have internet or even POTS access. This could be ideal, unless I need a seperate plan for every client site, then it becomes a bit cost prohibitive.
I switched to a MVNO that operates using Sprint's network. I get unlimited 1x data for a flat rate of 19 cents a day. No contracts. My whole cell phone bill has gone down to like $10 a month. I still have my old phone number, and keep it as long as I remember to make at least one phone call every 2 months. I have a $10 USB cable for my sweet new camera phone that lets me use this unlimited data function with my laptop wherever I go.
..to give to a sympathetic congressman when "net neutrality" is being discussed in congress. Evidence about how they have the mindset to intentionally cripple good quality broadband potential in order to insure vendor lockin and guaranteed pricing, etc. I mean, digging up and trashing already laid but unlight fiber? Oh man I would like to see their reps squirming in front of a senate committe over that one. That's also a good vid to show your states public service commission, they guys who regulate their public right of way access and tax breaks and whatnot they get.
Unlimited Broadband laptop plans that are limited and not allowed to be used for broadband content. Come on... Verizon's plan is like selling somone a gun and then saying they can't use bullets with it and they are only allowed to point it at other folks and yell 'bang'.
An Unlimited data plan should by definition mean 24/7/365 access at the obtainable data rates of the technology. If that is not what they can offer then they should not be allowed to call the plans 'Unlimited'.
Would they be allowed to sell 'unlimited' voice plans so long as you didn't talk over 500 minutes in a billing period ? Why are they allowed to sell 'unlimited' data plans when if you access over X amount of data they charge you for it ? If X amount represents the threshold then what does it matter what it consists of ? IE ones and zero's are ones and zeros. If I have unlimited access (or even limited to X amount) then what does it matter what they consist of? Its time truth in advertising had some traction for reigning in some of these absurd plans.
Ahh well cell phone companies had best squeeze every nickle out of these archaic pricing schemes that they can. Because once wi-max reaches critical mass for coverage then wireless communications prices are going to be in one hell of a race to the bottom. At least if the teired crap doesn't get through.
You know its strikes me that the promise of broadband is finally becoming legit. Streaming music, micro video and legitimate tv and movie downloads are all starting to hit. VOIP is getting more popular by the day. Not to mention there are devices which are begining to allow people access this content wherever they are rather than in designated, defined areas like tv rooms or computer desks. Now its Coffee shops and in the park... anywhere you have a good signal (cell or wi-fi) you now have the possibility of combining Phone, internet, TV and computing all in one where ever you are. And you know who is sitting on the single largest reserve of bandwidth capacity ? Yep everyones favorit do no evil search giant. Jeeebus... you know I have been thinking there stock had to come back to reality pretty soon. But if they manage to ride the surge for demand in broadband then frankly we may not have seen anything yet as far as generation of wealth by google.... and if they hold to do no evil they may even manage to do it without milking the public for all it is worth along the way.
I don't ask you to be me. I only ask you not expect me to be you.
In Finland the law changed 1.4.2006 allowing operators to bundle cheap phones together with locked SIM cards and 2year contracts.
This brought quite a few nice 3G wireless broadband offers to the market.
You can get unlimited 1mb/1mb access for 50/month, 2 year contract, and you get a free pcmcia card. Where there is no 3G coverage, you'll be using EDGE or GPRS tho. 512/512 is going for 40/month.
Since i'm a laptop user i'm quite tempted to disconnect my ADSL connection and get a pcmcia card instead. I was wondering though if someone knows any large drawbacks when using 3G instead of ADSL?
For $30, I get unlimited data, 500 mins, unlimited nights/wkends/mobile. I can tether my laptop at evdo speeds but I usually just read the news/e-mail on my ppc-6700 phone so need. Can even use VOIP on the ppc-6700 phone over evdo but it's kind of choppy.
You can get a mobile 3G/GPRS/GSM pcmcia card and 1Gb/month traffic from Tele2Comviq for 195SEK/month that is about 16$.
In India, there is a company called Reliance that offers 144 Kbps (CDMA) itnernet access at Rs.1500 (~$30) per month. http://www.relianceinfo.com/Infocomm/rconnect_card .html and http://www.relianceinfo.com/Infocomm/Rim/rconnect_ tariffs.html. I've heard that their service is good and works practically all over India.
I had Verizon unlimited service for about 10 months, using it as my primary internet access. Then I received a letter from them saying that I was using too much bandwidth and canceling my service at the end of the month. This was without any warning whatsoever. I'd have called them up and complained but I WAS violating the fine print on the contract that forbids using the service for all sorts of things including being the primary internet access, playing online games, etc., not to mention banning VOIP. I bit the bullet and signed up for cable, as much as I hated doing it.