Verizon Wireless Broadband?

[d10]

MicroBob,

WTF I wish I had known about that a week ago. I spent 24 hours straight at work playing freecell because the Verizon rep told me the closest service I can get would be in Atlanta. Thanks for the info.

[Ron Burgundy]

[ QUOTE ]
MicroBob,

WTF I wish I had known about that a week ago. I spent 24 hours straight at work playing freecell because the Verizon rep told me the closest service I can get would be in Atlanta. Thanks for the info.

[/ QUOTE ]

ADFOC?

[AA Suited]

"$59.99 monthly access w/ 2-yr customer agreement and qualifying voice plan.

*Other data services (Quick 2 Net) at $0.25 per minute. Roaming in Canada at $.002/KB on the National Access Rate and Coverage Area. Unlimited BroadBandAccess $59.99 plan is not available with prepay calling plans."

Wireless Cards:
Kyocera KPC650
Price: $59.99 with 1yr agreement
Price: $29.99 with 2yr agreement

Verizon Wireless PC 5740
Price: $19.99 with 1yr agreement
Price: $0.00 with 2yr agreement

Verizon Wireless V620
Price: $39.99 with 1yr agreement
Price: $9.99 with 2yr agreement

Link


You need a voice plan?! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

<font color="red"> Anyone know if Tmobile offers something similiar? </font> (ie: Not Tmobile Hotspot)

edit:
Unlimited NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess $79.99

BroadbandAccess= Verizon Wireless Internet

What's NationalAccess?

[d10]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
MicroBob,

WTF I wish I had known about that a week ago. I spent 24 hours straight at work playing freecell because the Verizon rep told me the closest service I can get would be in Atlanta. Thanks for the info.

[/ QUOTE ]

ADFOC?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no idea what ADFOC is.

[MicroBob]

I already answered that.


Broadband Access = Broadband speed in major markets
National Access = 2x dial-up speed in smaller markets and on the highway.


Looks like the plan is pretty much exactly the same as when I got it a year ago.

For $59 + voice-plan (means getting your cell-phone changed to Verizon) you get BOTH Broadband Access AND National Access. Meaning that you will be getting the 2x dial-up speed when you are out of the major-markets.

Only difference from when I signed-up for it was that I had to pay $130 or so for my card.


Also - when I did this they allowed me to change to the voice-plan any time I wanted to switch to the discounted price.
So I kind of stalled to make sure I liked it and finally changed my cell-phone over a few months later.


my bill from Verizon for cell-phone and internet combined is about $110/mth.

[Nate_Dogg]

From the Wall Street Journal...

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG






DOW JONES REPRINTS


This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit:
www.djreprints.com.

• See a sample reprint in PDF format.
• Order a reprint of this article now.

Novatel Laptop Cards
Can Access Internet,
But Services Vary
August 31, 2006; Page B1

For traveling laptop users who rely on the Internet, one of the best developments in recent years has been the emergence of high-speed wireless data networks offered by cellphone companies. Unlike commercial public Wi-Fi services, which require users to be near a "hot spot," these services can be used anywhere in a metro area, even in a moving car or train.

And the cellular broadband services, such as Verizon Wireless's BroadbandAccess, can operate at speeds roughly equivalent to, and sometimes well beyond, the speed of basic wired home DSL service. That means you can surf the Web, and get email and large attachments pretty efficiently.


The card for the Verizon network
A small percentage of users hook up to these cellular broadband networks using laptops that have the necessary gear built in. Another small group uses a cellphone as a modem. But most users of these networks use external cellular-modem cards that plug into a standard slot on the side of their laptops. Therein lies a problem.

The computer industry is in the process of dumping that standard slot, called a PC Card slot, for a new, incompatible slot called ExpressCard. So, buyers of many new laptops are finding their cellphone modems are obsolete.

Now, Novatel, a leading maker of these cards, has come out with a couple of new ExpressCard versions for cellular broadband networks. One, which works on Verizon Wireless's network, is already on the market, sold by Verizon and by Dell. The second, which works on Cingular's BroadbandConnect high-speed network, will go on sale from Dell and possibly Cingular later this year, likely late November.

I have been testing the Verizon version of the card, called the V640, as well as a pre-release model of the version that works with Cingular, which Novatel calls the Merlin XU870. The tests not only gave me a chance to evaluate the cards themselves, but also to compare the Verizon and Cingular high-speed networks.

My verdict: The cards were easy to set up and use, and worked well. But the two high-speed networks are very different. While Cingular gave me higher speeds than Verizon in a couple of locations, the Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess network crushed Cingular's BroadbandConnect in most places I compared them.

This wasn't a rigorous scientific test. I used two different laptops, an Apple MacBook Pro and a Dell Latitude D820. The Cingular tests were all conducted on the Dell, because the Mac software for the Cingular card won't be ready until the card goes on sale. The Verizon tests were all conducted on the Mac. On both machines, I used the test service at speakeasy.net, accessed via the Firefox Web browser.

Also, I tested the cards in only Washington and New York City, and on Amtrak's Acela Express trains in between. That is a heavily populated region; it's also Verizon's home territory, and Cingular might have done better in other parts of the country. Verizon has been rolling out its high-speed network since 2003; Cingular is well behind. Verizon offers the service in 185 metro areas; Cingular is in just 75.

Both cellphone carriers charge $60 a month for unlimited data service using the cards, if you have a voice plan with them. The new Verizon card costs $180. The new Cingular-compatible card is likely to cost $50 more.

The cards look nearly identical, and each works on both Windows and Macintosh computers. On Windows, you must connect using special software. On the Mac, you can simply use integrated software from Apple, if you choose. Both cards have small flip-up antennas and indicator lights. Both worked fine.

Verizon's high-speed service is often called EVDO, for its underlying technology. Cingular's service uses a technology called HSDPA.

In my tests, which involved about 20 head-to-head comparisons, the Verizon card and network averaged 818 kilobits per second "downstream" (to get Web pages, and to receive email and attachments) and 113 kbps "upstream" (to send email and files).

By contrast, the Cingular-compatible card averaged just 463 kbps downstream and 77 kbps upstream. Plus, during the three-hour train trip, Cingular disconnected me, or simply had no coverage at all, eight times. Verizon did so only once. Verizon has a deal with Amtrak that supplies data service inside the trains, which helped, but this in-train signal doesn't include the high-speed EVDO service.

Cingular did beat Verizon in two places: my hotel in New York's financial district and my office in downtown Washington. In the hotel, the Cingular service got a downstream speed of 1753 kbps -- its highest in my tests -- versus 888 kbps for Verizon and just 747 kbps for the hotel's expensive wired Internet service. In my office, Cingular got 1133 kbps downstream versus 644 kbps for Verizon.

But the downstream speeds varied wildly. In Trenton, N.J., the Cingular service managed just 16 kbps. The best for Verizon was 1366 kbps in New York's Penn Station, while its worst was 132 kbps between big cities in New Jersey.

I recommend both new cards. But unless you live, work and travel in very strong Cingular coverage areas, Verizon is the better choice for high-speed wireless data, at least today.

Email me at mossberg@wsj.com1.

[Mendacious]

I've been playing poker on mine for slightly more than a year. It completely kicks-a$$

[AA Suited]

cross country road trip here i come [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[kcheel]

[ QUOTE ]
MicroBob,

So it works outside the miniscule listed coverage area for Broadband?

Just at slower speeds?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't really call it miniscule. Here are currently covered markets. Keep in mind that this is usually all the surrounding areas, not just the city thats listed. For example, for NC it lists Raleigh/Durham but that also includes Cary/Apex/Chapel Hill/Burlington/etc.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/m...veragearea.jsp

Will cover 2/3 of the entire US population by January. As Microbob has stated, the service is great. I am a little biased though, I am a VZW agent.

[MicroBob]

hi verizon rep:

d10 indicated that he did talk to an agent and that agent told him he wouldn't be able to get any service because the closest to him was Atlanta.
He needs to be informed that he still gets the NationalAccess plan in a lot of places when outside the BroadbandAccess package.

I get the impression that it was the Verizon agent who gave d10 the impression that it was a miniscule coverage area for broadband.

I liked the different agents I worked with there.
Very courteous and professional. But there are some problems there with consistency (I guess unexpected).

I learned about this quite a lot because I spent hours and hours on the phone with various reps and tech people trying to figure out why it wasn't working for me at first turned out to be a defective card). I must have worked/talked with 10 different people there.


Also - Memphis didn't even have broadbandaccess at the time and the agent told me of no plans to get it in the near future. He mentioned that Nashville has it.
That's pretty silly as Nashville is 3+ hours away.

Memphis got it a couple months later and I was thrilled.
But it just started picking up broadband in Memphis. No announcement that it was coming or anything.

If the cust-serv rep had guaranteed that Memphis was getting it soon then I would have signed-up right-away.
As it was, since he sounded like there weren't any plans for Memphis (at least that was the impression I got) I almost turned it down deciding it might not be worth it.


Between my experience where they didn't even tell me broadband was coming to Memphis soon...and d10's experience where they pretty much told him, "Unless you are in Atlanta, it's not worth it" (and completely failed to tell him that national-access exists) I think some of the reps there could do a better job 'selling' their product a little bit.


These are just some constructive omments.
Overall, I thought the professionalism of the Verizon reps was outstanding and the knowledge was pretty good. After my hours and hours trying to figure out my card's problem I eventually felt I was one of you guys.