Cell data plans for laptops

[navychop]

I have an AT&T family plan with 3 phones. I am considering getting a data plan of some sort for use with a laptop. At home, we have 3G (said to be the fastest 3G in the country, but no speed listed). Don't need it there, I have broadband. Soon, Fios. Where we camp, which is where I would mostly use it, there is only EDGE. This is supposedly about twice as fast as a modem. I would use it for checking email, light googling, and SatGuys. The map shows EDGE service there, and voice service rated good, not best. And my experience has been that it works fairly well, with a few lost or no connections.

Anyone have any experience using a data card/laptop combo & AT&T EDGE? Is it agony? Any of the cards any better than any other? Is this approach better than an iPhone or similar?

Of course, if AT&T doesn't fix up a certain customer service error they made at my workplace, I may be moving to Verizon when my contract ends around Halloween. But going to the Verizon Wireless site and entering the zip code (25419) of the campground yields "no service" but the map says there is, for voice. For "broadband" it's light green, which I gather is next to "no service." So they might not be an option anyway.

 

[hdtvtechno]

I guess only way is to try it out.. i think you have a 30 day trial cancel period..

 

[navychop]

Thanks. I'm hoping somebody knows something about the different brands of cards. There are different Sierra, Option GT & AT&T branded cards, several model choices in each brand. And the "laptop" plans seem to be twice the cost of the "PDA" plans.

 

[VinceT3]

I don't use the laptop cards.. I just slap my windows mobile PDA onto the system.. vista it hooks up very easily.. xp youneed to lookup the modem stuff but still works..

EDGE isn't just bad.. it's REALLY bad.. it works.. but I haven't been on anything slower than 3mb in serveral years.. it'll take a few minutes to get a page up.. but when in a pinch it works.. 3G works very well.. you can even stream video on it..

 

[topcats69]

my suggestion is to check with sprint PCS there data only plans are 39.99 and EDVO is 1.5meg service and EDVO-A is 3meg. And SprintPCS has the best coverage of all.

I have sprint and it works well. Just my opinion.

 

[hendrix04]

My dad had an ATT wireless card and had issues with it not working outside of 3g... As topsats said, Evdo is much more wide spread (Verizon in my area, not sprint, but same technology) and has worked great just about everywhere I have seen it.

 

[navychop]

Sprint shows that area as "Sprint Network" no broadband. I guess I'm hoping for too much.

 

[Van]

Have you looked at the tmobile site? The monthly plan runs about $50 unlimited and you have 30 days to try it out, the csr can run a check of the zip code for quality of service.

 

[navychop]

I'll have to look into that. But since tMobile uses GSM, I'll bet it's the same towers. But that price sounds good.

 

[Van]

Yea the price is what really interested me for what I was going to be doing through the cable contractor here in Georgia but that little fiasco came to an end last week, only thing I dont like about tmobile is the cancellation fee of $200 once your fully into a contract.

 

[Bogy]

Have you looked at the tmobile site? The monthly plan runs about $50 unlimited and you have 30 days to try it out, the csr can run a check of the zip code for quality of service.

I've been looking around and especially if you switch everything over and have the broadband with a voice plan the cost is $20 a month, unlimited. My current contract with U.S. Cellular is up next spring, and while I haven't had any big complaints, when I moved here it was the only choice, and in 3 years a lot has changed, and I now have a number of choices.

 

[TheForce]

This is with my laptop with a verizon EVDO rev A card. I always get this speed here in Jacksonville, at my office. I have seen as high as 1.8 down and 256 up in NYC and Las Vegas during CES week. It seems your Verizon connect speed is dependent on your location. Jacksonville has never been very good, but the service is reliable and I don't ever worry any more if I'll have high speed internet when I'm traveling. I even had it in central Nevada in the middle of nowhere. It seems rare anymore that I connect with the old 14,400 speed. EVDO is everywhere which is the main advantage if you travel. It's not the cheapest wireless service but for a few extra bucks amonth I don't worry if I'll be able to watch my sling box in full screen anywhere I go.

 

[LER]

beware of data transfer caps. Sprint's cards are now limited to 5gb / month.

 

[navychop]

That concerns me. Just not sure where I'd hit the wall. Prev ISPs would show me how many GB I've used in a month, but I don't know that I can get that now. Certainly 5GB would not allow me to sling a movie, but how much surfing would be dependent upon so many different things.

And EVDO isn't everywhere. Take a look at 25419 and select for the broadband coverage on their map. Looks like there's no broadband there. Not sure what you'd call it, but it looks like it would be about as slow there as AT&T's EDGE. Maybe they use the term "EVDO" for all data connectivity, I don't know, but I think they mean 3G. But it's not high speed everywhere, sadly.

 

[LER]

Sprints site shows the usage now.

 

[navychop]

I mean I'd like to have a feel for how much I'm using on my cable modem, to get a feel for how much I could use a wireless laptop connection.

 

[Van]

I couldnt find anything on tmobiles site about a cap and it does say that its unlimited but if you have the time you could call them to find out if there is actually a cap.

 

[navychop]

I was told I'd get the USB data card a day after I ordered it. Ordered it yesterday, Thursday. Told it will show up next Tuesday.

I'll post results after testing it in town and in the boonies.

 

[mikew]

I tether my 8525 to my laptop to use the Slingbox. It works great in a 3G area, next to non-functional in Edge.

Here's a few results using a WinMobile device on AT&T

 

[navychop]

Thank you. I gather those are all from 3G areas, and are quite nice. Any figures for EDGE? I'm not expecting much, but we will need some connectivity.

Hmmm. You're using a PDA (to grab the signal) which is connected to a sling which connects to the laptop? The laptop is for viewing? This is a PDA data plan, or DataConnect?