# CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS



## d&amp;ptrike (Mar 7, 2008)

GOOD MORNIN ALL.....GOT ANOTHER QUESTION, GOING TO GET A CELLULAR WIRELESS CARD 4 OUR LAPTOP. ANYONE GOT ANY IDEA WHICH ONE IS THE BEST ALL AROUND??? SPRINt,VIRISON,est. planing on useing it at home & on the road.... :question:


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## utmtman (Mar 7, 2008)

Re: CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS

Good grief its hard to say which is best.  Each one has its own advantage/disadvantage.  Do so research of cost as compared to what you get and go from there.


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## JamieB (Mar 7, 2008)

RE: CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS

Some things to consider with aircards are where you are going to be, and how much you will need them.  

Sprint seems to be more aggressive about opening new markets that Verizon is not interested in. Verizon seems to be content with offering service in the major metropolitan areas, and along the major interstates.  Sprint, while they have service in those areas as well, is expanding their network even into less populated areas.  Also, Verizon has put a 5Gb limit on their "unlimited" plan and you will pay an extra fee for going over that amount.  Sprint as of yet hasn't done that. 

That being said, Sprint basically offers 1 plan for $60 per month, and Verizon now offers a couple of plans, one for $60 and one for $39 (I think) for users that might use the service very little.  Very few people will really be affected by the 5Gb limit.  You would have to be downloading movies or excessive amounts of information everyday.  Where it might get you in trouble is if you have a cellular router and are sharing the connection with multiple users.  Then you might exceed that limit.

A lot of people prefer Sprint, other prefer Verizon.  Which you choose really depends on whether you like the company or not.  They are both good companies, and the service is only getting better.

For more information, go to evdoinfo.com

One other thing to think about is the card you choose.  I would recommend a USB style card.  They will work with most any computer.  The PCMCIA Type II card will only work with older computers, and the Express card will only work with newer computers, but most any computer you have or are likely to use will have a USB connection available.

I imagine that someone else will have a different opinion on this matter, but this is mine.

Jamie Billingsley
Satellite Internet Solutions
MotoSAT XF2/iDirect/Viper VoIP


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## d&amp;ptrike (Mar 7, 2008)

Re: CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS

OK,THANKS FOR THE INFO, GUESS I NEED TO DO SOME HOMEWORK...............THANKS AGAIN........SAFE TRAVELS ALL..........................


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## elkhartjim (Mar 7, 2008)

Re: CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS

I tried Verizon for 30 days and returned it.  As the earlier post eluded, Verizon is more into metro areas and I go more to back woods.  I ended up with Alltel after driving from Las Vegas to Dallas and never lost connection.  I can't say that about my DSL at home.  Most companies will let you try thier servoce for 30 days and return.  That's what I did.  Good luck


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## hlahore (May 9, 2008)

RE: CELLULAR INTERNET CARDS

Verizon EVDO may be the best way to surf while traveling in the US

 ********** Should you subscribe to Verizon EVDO broadband? *******************

- Faster and lower cost ($60/month) than satellite surfing.  Verizon does NOT have to be your cell phone provider. EVDO is more expensive than most DSL services.

- Verizon limits your data downloads to 5 GBytes per month â€“ at this time. 5 GBytes should be plenty unless you video or game a lot.  My guess is that Verizon will start allowing unlimited surfing off-hours sometime in 2009 or 2010, similar to unlimited cell phone communication provided by most telecoms during off-hours. Also the other EVDO providers do not seem have limits as of May 2008

- Cingular (AT&T), T-Mobile, Sprint, and others provide EVDO/3G high speed service, but have much less US coverage. Same $60/month.
  Old discussions of Verizon vs. Sprint EVDO: http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/wireless-data-and-internet/13956-sprint-verizon-evdo-compared.html 
    and http://www.evdoforums.com/thread6432.html

- Verizon EVDO is available in about Â¼ of the US as of May 2008, this appears to be better coverage that Sprint, etc.

- Be careful of cell phone/ EVDO coverage maps. Especially maps which show coverage in the middle of deserts and very rugged mountains.
   I think that some telecoms cheat by saying that if there is any coverage in a ZIP code then the entire zip code has coverage - NOT!

- 2 year Verizon contract is virtually required.  Termination fee = $175 - $5/month of usage, thus termination in 1 year = $115.  A one year contract is available from other web sites, but then the Rev-A EVDO modem is very expensive and you must pay $35 for modem activation.

- Can get surf with a USB modem (USB720 is a good and is free on Verizon web site) or smart phone (some are free on Verizon web site, but you will also need a $40 office kit).  You might be able to get an older Rev -0 modem at low cost on the internet since Rev-0 max rate about Â½ of the Rev â€“A.

- You can get a good map of the cell towers and antennas near you at www.antennasearch.com  It seems to require a full street address, not just city and state.

 ****** Things to know if you subscribe to Verizon EVDO *******

- Data rates vary with signal strength, which varies with your distance to the provider, amount of foliage, amount of rain, thickness of building walls, hills in the way, etc.  There are similar reduction in data rates with WiFi, WiMax, and DSL. Verizon claims EVDO download speeds of 600-1400 Kbits/sec. (70-160 KBYTES/sec.) 

- The USB720 modem can plug directly into a single USB computer port, but the modem provides better signal reception and thus data transmission rate if you use the Y USB cable provided â€“ which should allow the modem to draw more power from your computer.  Check your signal strength with and without the adapter to see if it helps.

- Make absolutely sure you do not download more than 5 GByte/month. Click on Usage to check how much the modem has downloaded thus far in the month.  Verizon charges an incredible $490 per GBytes if you download more than 5 G Bytes/month. Based on my experience on exceeding monthly cell phone minutes I doubt that Verizon will announce any overages before your bill hits.

- Use F4 to toggle the EVDO service off and on.

- The only indication of the type of connection being used is near the bottom of the Access Manager: Broadband/NationalAccess = fast/slow.  A graph of instantaneous data rate is also available in Tools/Statistics.

- A USB720 modem can be used on multiple computers.  You can also concurrently access the internet with multiple Windows computers with â€œInternet Connection Sharingâ€ via an Ethernet crossover cable or WiFi. Example link for ICS details http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/ics_xp

- If you move to a new location (as we do all of the time while RVing) you apparently should use the Tools/Wizard to optimize the new configuration.

- Help/About shows two signal strengths: 1xRTT (slow) and 1xEVDO (fast). Numbers above 100db are fairly weak and have slow data rates. You might not get any reception if signals are greater than 110db.  Signal levels below 75db are great. Verizon invisibly and continuously switches between fast and slow connections without informing the user.

- The Verizon web site allows you to order an external antenna with a short 10â€™ cable, which helps some.  When using their small external antenna 2.5 miles from a cell tower I get 100db signal and 400 KBits/sec.  I am ordering for a yagi external antenna which must be pointed at a cell tower which should improve the signal strength by 15 to 20 db (100 db -> 80 db) which might result in 1,000 Kbits/sec. Note: a short 16â€ yagi antenna is sufficient for 1900 MHz EVDO signals, but if traveling, you will probably want to buy a longer antenna so as to also receive 850MHz 1xRTT and cell phone signals.

- Link how to get faster EDVO access: http://www.sprintbroadband.com/speed_guide.html

- Should be able to use Verizon EVDO to get ultra-low cost VoIP telephone service from Skype, etc.  Such service is not possible with communication services with long delays (satellites are 22,000 miles above the Earth). The EVDO Rev-A greatly reduced latency problems, hopefully enough for VoIP service. Link: http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/138/63/

- Free web accelerator software greatly increases effective data rates. I use Google Accelerator  http://webaccelerator.google.com/

- Technical details on EVDO, such as packet data rates, are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evdo

Posted May 4 2008   Updated versions of this file will be posted on one of my web sites www.skyaid.org/rv/VerizonEVDO


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