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Ask Slashdot: Who Has the Best 3G Coverage In California and Nevada?
New submitter derchris writes "We will be on vacation in the U.S. next month for about 3 weeks. We are going to do a road trip between San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. To not use roaming for data, and get a heart attack once back home looking at the mobile bill, I was looking at so called 'MiFi' devices, portable 3G Wi-Fi hotspots. As far as I know, more or less all of the U.S. carriers have such devices available. But as I'm not from the U.S., I have no idea what would give me the best 3G coverage in the areas we are travelling. Another question would be whether I can buy one of these devices off eBay, and use it with any SIM card. Let's hope there are users available who could give some advice on this topic."
For a question posted on a worldwide forum this is a very geographically specific question. Shall I also ask Slashdot which carrier has the best coverage outside my front door? This isn't even a question that requires the unique expertise of the /. crowd; just go on the 3, maybe 4 carrier websites and check the relevant maps.
For 3 weeks, just learn to look for free WiFi hotspots.
Seriously.
It's 3 weeks. You'll survive if you can't tweet every 5 minutes. If you were talking about 3 months, I could see why it would be worth the trouble and expense to set this up but 3 weeks? No.
If you're set on it, go for pre-paid. You'll have to spend $50-100 on the device, possibly a setup fee of $35-50, and a month's service at $35-80 depending on the carrier. Last time I checked, Millenicom was offering 50 gig plans on Verizon's network (the best, most consistent data network IMHO) for $70 or so. It's far more data than you'll be able to push over Verizon's network for that price on any of Verizon's plans.
Seriously, tho, it's 3 weeks. Every hotel you stay in will have WiFi available for $0-10/night. Many businesses (especially restaurants) offer free WiFi.