Wireless Data Plans Reviewed 105
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."
Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:1)
Re:Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:3, Informative)
All the unlimited plans I've ever seen are soft-capped at 1OO MB, 250MB, or half a gig. Streaming music for any length of time is going to chew through it pretty quick.
I know more than a few people who've had data bills in the thousands. The carriers seem to be pretty reasonable about waiving them for first-timer "OMG I had no idea" types, but I know several people with large monthly data bills.
For high users its far far far far far far
Re:Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Verizon will cancel service (Score:1)
Re:Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:1)
Re:Verizon would be neat, but... (Score:1)
Hmmm (Score:3, Funny)
Sign me up.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
NSA doesn't need your wireless phone company's co-operation for SIGINT.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
Would you kindly please stop referring to RFC1149 [ietf.org] as a "bizarre system"? The NO CARRIER jokes are bad enough, without this kind of FUD. Thank you.
Re:er.... misleading (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, if you have a cellular carrier that still uses wires I would definitely consider switching. It is terribly convenient to not have to carry around them large spools of wire.
Re:er.... misleading (Score:2)
Re:er.... misleading (Score:2)
Re:er.... misleading (Score:2)
When you reach the 1000ft limit you just unplug the cable and switch to the next cell.
Duh!
Re:er.... misleading (Score:2)
Re:er.... misleading (Score:2)
Wireless [wikipedia.org] involves crystals and maybe vacuum tubes. Not IC, VLSI, or m scale processes. If you are going to correct someones usage, do it right!
Re:It does not matter (Score:2)
Re:It does not matter (Score:1)
Re:It does not matter (Score:2)
I just bought a T-Mo smartphone that does GPRS, EDGE, 802.11b. Haven't received it yet, but I'm anxious to see what the $30/mo. unlimited data service (on EDGE and in their T-Mo hotspots) will be like.
Re:It does not matter (Score:2)
I curious why the focus is always on the PCMCIA cards? Using your cellphone as a bluetooth modem I think is the way to go because it works on both desktops, pocket PC's, and laptops.
Re:It does not matter (Score:2)
Re:It does not matter (Score:2)
TMobile SUCKS for data. (Score:2)
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
Re:TMobile SUCKS for data. (Score:1)
Re:TMobile SUCKS for data. (Score:1)
WAR Driving, Inc. (Score:5, Funny)
how about speed (Score:1)
I don't even own a laptop (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't even own a laptop (Score:2)
Re:I don't even own a laptop (Score:1)
Just today... (Score:2)
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 t
Yes, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2, Informative)
Breaking The Terms (Score:5, Interesting)
Laptop Unlimited -- but you can't use a laptop! (Score:2)
It get's better... (Score:2)
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.
SBC horror stories (Score:2)
Re:that would be a great documentary video... (Score:2)
Also, if anyone outside North America is wondering why SBC is getting mentioned here, Cingular is the cellular division of SBC.
Re:Breaking The Terms (Score:2)
Incidentally streaming is a feature in PTunes, the major Palm MP3 player, and yet streaming only works on faster networks like CNG's (or Sprint Vision) -- where it's forbidden.
Yeah, slow as it is, I won't want to migrate to a faster service if I can't use it for faster content.
Matter of fact... This sort of policy keeps the US in the wireless dark ages compared to S.E.A. or probably much of Europe too. Wireless T
Re:Breaking The Terms (Score:1)
Re:Breaking The Terms (Score:2)
Sprint's lower-speed data service is an additional $15 per month (on top of whatever voice plan you use) for unlimited use at about 100-150 kbps both ways. For voice and data, I'm paying about $40 per month. I can browse websites and ssh into my ma
Re:Breaking The Terms (Score:2)
Sure, 3x of 40 kbps isn't much, but 120 kbps IS a noticeable improvement. Sadly, it doesn't help much with the latency.
Read their ToS for a giggle (Score:2)
It's all about protecting the revenue stream.
Re:Read their ToS for a giggle (Score:2)
Re:Read their ToS for a giggle (Score:2)
HSDPA vs. EV-DO (Score:3, Informative)
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...
My experience (Score:5, Informative)
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 =)
Re:My experience (Score:1)
You're lucky that you have one of the non-cripp
Re:My experience (Score:1)
in case anybody wants to take advantage of this knowledge =)
The $25/mo Verizon wireless account.. (Score:2)
Re:The $25/mo Verizon wireless account.. (Score:2)
Sorry, but nope [slashdot.org].
Re:The $25/mo Verizon wireless account.. (Score:2)
Re:The $25/mo Verizon wireless account.. (Score:2)
Yes, but... (Score:1)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:2)
Just in case you do want the details [kenkinder.com]. That's at least how to get my card working with your config.
Re:Yes, but... (Score:1)
The best plan depends on local coverage (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
You're a bit off. (Score:2)
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
Re:You're a bit off. (Score:2)
Re:You're a bit off. (Score:2)
I've been using Verizon EvDO in and around NYC for about 9 months, and I've found that Verizon has been surprisingly honest about their speed. Everything I've read from Verizon said typical speeds of 400-600kbs with bursts up to 2 Mbs. This is pretty much exactly what I get. I did some downloads yesterday of some decent size files in a strong signal location in downtown Brooklyn and got 1.7 Mbs. Typically, however, I average about 500 kbs.
carrier-pidgeons dept (Score:1)
don't you mean pigeons?
Bluetooth tethering for true mobility (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bluetooth tethering for true mobility (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Bluetooth tethering for true mobility (Score:1)
Re:Bluetooth tethering for true mobility (Score:2)
control freaks (Score:2)
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 an
Re:control freaks (Score:1)
I can't speak for other carriers, but Verizon's tetherable phones show up as a USB Serial device and act just like a dialup modem. Their PC cards show up as a USB hub attached to a USB serial device and, again, act like a dialup modem... so anything that support USB serial devices and dialup modems should be able to connect :)
T-mobile (Score:1, Interesting)
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
Go T-mobile! (Score:3, Informative)
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.
tmobile on the cheap (Score:2)
addendum (Score:2)
Cingular: $3/mo gets you bare minimum. Sort of. (Score:1)
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, s
Re:Cingular: $3/mo gets you bare minimum. Sort of. (Score:1)
Hmm.... (Score:2)
Re:Hmm.... (Score:1)
I am curious... Do you have a source for the current percentage of the cellphone networks usage?
It's my understanding that most CDMA (not sure about GSM) networks are underutilized. Hence the reason Sprint is doing MVNO's. It's better to earn some (smaller) revenue off unused bandwidth than letting it sit idle eh?
If your assumption that the cell networks are already overload
Re:Hmm.... (Score:2)
Multiple Cards/Users on One Plan? (Score:1)
Prepaid can be very cheap (Score:1)
In other words..... (Score:2)
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 '
in india (Score:1)