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Viability of Mobile Broadband For Home Use?

Posted by timothy on from the does-the-question-answer-itself dept.

mighty7sd writes "I am about to be released from my contract with Time Warner for my home internet service, and I am evaluating alternatives to my current cable modem setup. I would love to use AT&T U-Verse or Verizon Fios, but they are not available in my area. I have a good idea of the costs and limitations of Cable and DSL service, so I am considering using mobile broadband for my home internet connection. Most providers seems to cap the connection at 5 GB of data transfer per month. I am a relatively heavy internet user using streaming video and a web server, so I need decent down/upload speeds and a large data transfer cap. Has anyone in the /. community had a good experience using mobile broadband cards at their home, specifically with lots of streaming video or a home server? What has happened if you have gone over your data transfer limit? Cricket Wireless is available in my area for $40 per month with 'unlimited' service, but I am skeptical that it is truly reliable and unlimited. I also found products that act as a WiFi router for mobile broadband services, but it seems that this is against most carriers TOS. Can they really detect these, and are they comparable to a wired broadband router?"

8 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Signal strength check by NewmanKU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First thing to check is to make sure you get a decent mobile signal at and inside your home. If the tower is too far away you'll get horrible throughput rates.

    1. Re:Signal strength check by sopssa · · Score: 5, Informative

      I used my phone company's 3g connection for inet access after I moved apartments and had to wait 3 weeks for the adsl to be installed.

      Unlimited 5mbit costed 30e/month and worked quite well, tho pings in online games were around 250-400ms (usually 50ms or so). After the 3 weeks period I had used 48GB of bandwidth.

      The only issue is prolly the latency, which isnt so nice in multiplayer games. I live in scandinavia, so I dont know how its in USA tho. But for people in here, its a great alternative.

  2. Works for some by avm · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did it for a number of months using Sprint and a USB Sierra Wireless Compass dongle (not sure of the model number, but it did work in Linux).

    It worked for me, but there is a 5Gb/mo cap and would probably not fit your usage. Reliable, reasonably fast for what it is, worked flawlessly in XP and Ubuntu, and really gave me nothing to complain about.

  3. No by chill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has anyone in the /. community had a good experience using mobile broadband cards at their home, specifically with lots of streaming video or a home server?

    I'm almost certain that running a server would be against the ToS, and yes it is fairly easy to detect. Hmmm...incoming Port 80/443 traffic...

    I know a couple people who've switched to mobile broadband for their main link, but they are not heavy users. Checking e-mail, searching Google, general web browsing, yes. Frequent streaming media? Not unless it is postage stamp sized.

    And Cricket's data plan isn't 3G so it would be a dog.

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  4. No by dr_strang · · Score: 5, Funny

    Terrible idea. Just steal your neighbor's wifi.

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  5. Er, why are you considering this? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While it has its virtues (notably the "mobile" part), mobile "broadband" is otherwise a hell of a mess. Higher latency than wired, generally higher cost than wired, almost definitely lower caps than wired, and, under any but the best conditions, slower than wired(of similar price, I'm not talking netzero dialup).

    If you are on the road most of the time, or need an ISP now, not in three weeks when the cable guy gets off his ass and install, then fine. But why would a self described heavy user even consider going with it for home use?

  6. For ATT by moniker127 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the information for ATT aircards:

    Aircards: Sierra Wireless 885, 881, 881u, Option GT Ultra, Ultra Express, Quicksilver
    5 GB/month
    60 Dollars / Month
    700kbps-1.7 mbps down, ~200 ping to google (on 3g)
    75kbps-125kbps down, ~300 ping to google (on 2g)


    When you go over 5 gigs, data useage is charged at half a cent per KB, but service will be turned off as soon as it is detected by the switch (which can take anywhere from an hour to a week, or forever)

    Coverage map:
    http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/

    Phone support: 1-800-331-0500 (24 hours).

  7. huh??? by massysett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have a good idea of what the costs and limitations of Cable and DSL service,

    So you are...considering getting something even more expensive, even slower, and with even tighter caps than the worse cable caps?

    ???

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