As someone who spends a lot of time in hotels, I’ve noticed that the quality of their wireless networks seems to be degrading. Originally each hotel got some sort of broadband connection and then a few wireless hubs and every guest surfed the Web and life was great. Now guests consume streaming video, streaming audio, and BitTorrent and the networks become unusable.
I’m thinking that it is time to move to a wireless data network such as AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. My only experience with these services was from a couple of years ago, using Verizon. I didn’t like it because (a) it was very slow to connect after a laptop was opened, (b) the coverage was spotty, and (c) it was bursty. I’m wondering if things have improved now. This magazine test claims that the AT&T network is the fastest, but they bitch-slap you if you transfer more than 5 GB per month. It would seem that this limit precludes use by photographers and audio/video lovers. One batch of RAW files from a digital SLR could eat up most of that 5 GB. Listening to streaming audio in the background 24×7 works out to something like 40 GB per month (at 128 Kbits/second).
What are you all using and how do you like it?
[Side note: It continues to amaze me that we Americans think that we can develop economically without a comprehensive and very capable wireless Internet (free for short message; charged for video streaming and the like).]
A friend who claims to have researched this thoroughly says that though Sprint’s cell phone service is bad and lacks coverage, their data setup is the best and the only one that comes close to delivering on what they promise.
That article has sprint as slowest, and their customer service does suck, but they have prices that are a lot lower than the others, which matters if you are value shopping.
If you get sprint, get it via the SERO program, sprint.com/sero, and it’s $50 for the laptop data service.
I have the SERO program for my phone, which is $30/month for unlimited data, and more voice than I can use, and unlimited text. And you can tether your laptop via your phone (over bluetooth, usb or wifi) but it violates the contract. Sprint reps have told me that mild use won’t get slapped down but heavy will, such as your photo uploads. Not that I would do it, but with an evdo rev A phone it is really quite good, better than the magazine article’s figures.
http://www.millenicom.com/ has been great for me the last 2 months. They charge $50/mo for unlimited EVDO, and have NO contract so you can leave any time. They piggyback the Sprint network so you are basically buying Sprint EVDO without a contract.
Some new technologies like Wimax/4G will be coming online in the next year or so, so committing to a 2 yr plan at this point (with a paltry 5GB/mo cap with Verizon/ATT) is not a good idea.
I believe Millenicom is rolling out new hardware in the next couple wks so their signup form might still be disabled. Put off your decision for a month.
Note: can’t use outside the US or you will get hit with big charges.
I use Sprint data card and it is well worth the money. I get 1-1.2Mbit down consistently. I, too, have found that hotels are flaky and/or expensive, so the Sprint card is a nice option. As Brad says, do the SERO thing. You can also get good deals on cell phones that way. I have a 2-line plan with 1000 minutes shared, 500 txts/month/line, and unlimited Internet w/tethering on both phones for $60/month. I split the cost with my boyfriend. It’s the cheapest national cell phone plan I’ve ever seen.
-Erica
I had a Verizon data card for about a year and moved to Sprint about two years ago. In my experience, both cards have the same throughput and low (~50ms) latencies. However, the Verizon card often feels significantly slower because they set the dormancy timer with a low value. The radio modem takes about a second or two to wake up from the dormant state, so for normal web browsing where you click, wait a minute or two, and then click again, there’s an extra pause that can be annoying. You can get around this with a keep-alive (say a command window with ‘ping -t [gateway]’ running in the background or by streaming a radio station), but it’s probably better to avoid this and just go with Sprint.
An additional benefit of Sprint is that they work in Canada and Mexico (in larger cities). For an extra $40/month you get unlimited roaming in these countries, but the roaming rates are not atrocious (or, at least, as atrocious as the GSM data cards $18 to $30/megabyte) if you are only using it for email with a compression service like UUPlus (http://www.uuplus.com , I have no affiliation other than being a happy customer (usually over an Iridium modem)). Sprint also has TOS that seem more fair, if very one sided contracts bother you. Also, the Sprint data card lets you use the internal GPS with any application, where as the Verizon one was locked down (this may have changed).
Oh, and as with many ISP’s, both services seem to suffer from poor DNS. So they both benefit from manually overriding their DHCP DNS setting with OpenDNS.
I’ve also seen the AT&T cards in action and have been very impressed with the speed.
I’m happy with my Sprint EV-DO card. It’s fast and reliable.
I am also using Sprint EVDO satisfactorily. What I would add is that using a portable EVDO router adds a whole other layer of flexibility. We essentially had continuous connection from a car from Delaware to Massachusetts allowing access from a notebook and an iPod touch.
If purported blazing speeds are not required, T-Mobile’s EDGE service offers unlimited data, not beautifully fast but fast enough for good streaming audio, for $20/month. I have used this for years and talk of faster speeds does not tempt me away given the cost difference.