Creeker comes through again.

[Tyler Howell]

Thanks Matt Meiser
I've been following your many contributions on Wireless Broadband Internet.
All the locals said Satellite was the only option.

Talked to the good people at Verizon (No stock holdings) and worked out a system for me.

It is real $$$$ and I am little nervous about sending my private info into the air :obut it works very well. Not as fast but more reliable than DSL.

Thanks again Matt.;)

[Jim Becker]

Better than dial-up, for sure!

I occasionally use my ATT phone to connect my PC to the 'net when I'm traveling and don't have a free WiFi connection available. (Some airports have it, others do not) It's certainly not "swift", but functional for email and browsing SMC. The VZ connection you are getting should be a little faster as my phone is still the older generation access method.

[Matt Meiser]

No problem!

Jim, does your phone use 1xRTT or EV-DO?

I've got a lot of money in hardware between the card (I got mine early enough I had to pay for it,) the router, and an antenna and cabling. But I use it all day, every day for work and it works great. One of my co-workers who lives in suburban St. Louis said my speeds beat his DSL.

[Mike SoRelle]

No problem!

Jim, does your phone use 1xRTT or EV-DO?

I've got a lot of money in hardware between the card (I got mine early enough I had to pay for it,) the router, and an antenna and cabling. But I use it all day, every day for work and it works great. One of my co-workers who lives in suburban St. Louis said my speeds beat his DSL.


Like Jim, I often use my Verizon phone (currently vx6800, before that a 6700) to tether my laptop in places it would otherwise be inconvenient.

I've actually gotten better throughput in alot of hotels via my phone vs the hotel's infrastructure (for a whole lot of reasons, sometimes it's just oversubscription, sometimes it's a few virus ridden machines eating up the pipe for everyone)

In your area Matt have they rolled out EVDO Rev A yet? I'm looking forward to the speed boost when it finally goes nationwide.

Mike

[Matt Meiser]

From my understanding we've been on Rev A for over a year. Looking at Sprints coverage map, its pretty universal now in our region. There's some coverage holes in very rural areas that are a long way from decent sized towns and expressways.

[Jim Becker]

Matt....GPRS. The E62 doesn't support the 3G stuff. (nor does the iPhone...) My next phone will. I got about 400kbs at the airport the other day. Fine for that need, but not ideal for serious access.

[Matt Meiser]

I do about 50% better than that. Here's what its running right now.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/265578474.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

It tends to run a little slower at night than during the day--when I'm probably about the only one connected to the tower closest to me.

[Mike SoRelle]

ahh, you're using one of the sprint dedicated data devices, I'm on verizon and while they claim to have upgraded this area (and most of their network) to Rev A, so far, only the usb/pcmcia devices support it.

My phone (rebadged as verizon but actually an HTC titan) supports rev A in hardware but the Verizon radio firmware cripples it, on my list of things to do is flash it with the recent sprint image that includes the windows mobile 6.1 upgrade as well as the latest and greatest radio code. That should help when I travel, the upside is this phone does 802.11 b/g too and I've got it set up with ICS, so I can use my phone as a wireless access point and piggyback onto EVDO with my laptop which is kind of nice sometimes. Certainly less trouble than tethering it physically.

I don't travel nearly as much as I used to, but it used to be extremely handy to have internet access virtually anywhere while everyone else was rushing for the Laptop Lane area in the airport.

I'm guessing you're in an area still not covered by 'traditional' broadband?

[Matt Meiser]

Ours is a data card in a router with a fixed outdoor antenna.

The closest wire/fiber is cable which is about 2 miles away. If it weren't for township boundaries, I got the impression they would do it. Our phone exchange doesn't have DSL capabilities and even if it did we are pretty much at the end of the wire (wire which is 60 years old and wrapped in tape and plastic bags as explained to me by the Verizon repair guy the 6th time we had them out to try to get our phone line clean enough to carry a conversation.) The cable company with the franchise for our township is a few miles away. My best hope for traditional access is that the small local phone company that serves the next township over will become a competitive local exchange in my township and we'll get them--which mean fiber carrying cable, internet and phone, all for less than my phone and satellite bill now. And better customer service--you call up and talk to the person who does the billing if you have a billing question. If you need service on the weekend, you page the guy with the pager. They've already done this in another neighboring township.

As I mentioned it seems faster during the day. I just ran the test again:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/265721989.png (http://www.speedtest.net)