AT&T Sierra Wireless AirCard 881

[Scott Weberpal]

Sprint doesn't allow tethering on the SERO plan, they will remove you from it if you do so. Seach on www.howardforums.com for more info about that.

As Gordon said, EVDO Rev A has far better coverage and is far superior to HSDPA (ATT 3G). The sprint/alltel roaming agreement will give you the most seamless continuous data available by any company in the US. The rest of the world may use GSM, and they have for many many years without US companies following suit save ATT switching from TDMA to GSM years ago. As Gordon also said, do what makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, we're just trying to help.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I use the Sierra Wireless 875, Bought it last year when AT&T was still Cingular.

Ive driven from Chicago to Wichita as well as Chicago to Memphis most recently with continuous coverage but like already has been mentioned, coverage goes in and out in western Kansas as well as Nebraska and South Dakota. I have yet to use it in TX or ND.

I also noticed when I first signed up I had a GSM and a Wifi option tab, sometimes if GSM wasnt getting a signal I could switch over to wifi and get data that way, but I now noticed the wifi option has disappeared.

I guess no matter which one you get theres no solid winner for the entire country, so knowing your primary chase area and who offers the best coverage is the way to go, if your an existing AT&T customer you can probably get a monthly plan for a bit cheaper [as was the case for me which is one reason I went with them]

Theres also cell signal boost kits you can buy, theres threads about them on here somewhere, I hear good things about them, so I might be getting one for myself this year as well.

 

[J Kinkaid]

Sprint does not have roaming agreements with Alltel in the deep south and there are plenty of people tethering on Sero with Sprint without any problems. GSM is world wide standard for a reason

 

[Gordon Spencer]

It is a fact that Sprint has Nationwide EVDO Roaming agreement with Alltel . GSM is no more a world wide standard than WCDMA is . They are both used world wide. Please relax , as said before we are just offering the facts . depending where you are they are also on different frequencies so there is hardly anything standard about either one. I am not an employee of any of the National CDMA carrier ( Sprint , Alltel or Verizon) . I work with all carriers customers , period helping them resolve thier reception issues . Our equipment works on all of them.


[QUOTE=J Kinkaid;168896]Sprint does not have roaming agreements with Alltel in the deep south and there are plenty of people tethering on Sero with Sprint without any problems. GSM is world wide standard for a reason[/QUOTE]

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Metric is the worldwide standard for a reason, that doesn't mean the US is going to use it. If I recall, WCDMA is used very much around the world, not sure if it's as widespead as GSM though. CDMA companies are going to continue to expand and will not be switching to GSM anytime soon, if ever. The new sprint/alltel data roaming agreement began in 2006 and is a 10 year agreement. This means if one comapny were to switch to HSDPA they would no longer be able to data roam with there other, which leads me to conclude that EVDO Rev A (and in the future rev B or Wimax) will be around until at least 2016. Sounds like a bright future to me.

 

[J Kinkaid]

Sprint Does not roam on Alltel EVDO in Mobile,AL I am really not sure why you want to argue this with me but I am going to let this go .

 

[Gordon Spencer]

The only reason it would not is if both offer service in said market.When your device cannot find a native Sprint signal it will then roam to Alltel . If your device is not you need to update your roaming parameters on the device . I do work with the carriers especially close with Alltel people and they have assured me it is a nationwide EVDO roaming agreement. Again I am in no way employed by any CDMA carriers . I am unbiased and only offer facts to the good users of this board. I have nothing against ATT even though they should have spent the 26 Billion dollars wasted on Branding Cingular on thier network and they would in deed have better 3G coverage.

Sprint Does not roam on Alltel EVDO in Mobile,AL I am really not sure why you want to argue this with me but I am going to let this go .

 

[John Wetter]

Alltel doesn't provide street level maps, but I've found their state and regional maps to be quite accurate, probably one of the more accurate out there. And yes, the roaming agreement is national with Sprint and Verizon. The verizon agreement doesn't include the Rev. A data though.

Looks like most of the other questions have been already answered...

-John

Anyone have link to street level coverage maps from Alltel or know where I can see them cause I really don't trust there maps on there website. Still not sure I would switch from ATT since 3G is the future and not EVDO .

 

[Gene Moore]

AT&T Partner Agreements

I've discovered something very important in the AT&T TOS agreement and now it's appearing on their map coverage. I did not see this verbiage when it was Cingular.

Map can be found here:
http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/solutions/network/index.jsp
Zooming down on the map we can see the coverage areas, within that the good - better etc coverage in orange colors. For example, on one particular chase last year I drove from south TX to South Dakota with only one coverage break, in northern KS/ S'rn NE....which is good.

Now, here is the issue, looking at the map all of Kansas and Nebraska are in what's called "Partner Agreements." It clearly states in the text that too much usage of these partner agreement areas will result in immediate termination of service.....sounds like a threat to me.

I've used Cingular for years and have been happy with their service, never been threatened, so I don't like this hanging over my head. I successfully used these areas last season without any problems, but what they (AT&T) are saying is pretty clear to me. Anyone considering AT&T better take a long cold look at this issue, because these so called Partner Agreements include almost all of the northern plains!

 

[James Siler]

Now, here is the issue, looking at the map all of Kansas and Nebraska are in what's called "Partner Agreements." It clearly states in the text that too much usage of these partner agreement areas will result in immediate termination of service.....sounds like a threat to me.

I've used Cingular for years and have been happy with their service, never been threatened, so I don't like this hanging over my head. I successfully used these areas last season without any problems, but what they (AT&T) are saying is pretty clear to me. Anyone considering AT&T better take a long cold look at this issue, because these so called Partner Agreements include almost all of the northern plains!

That is the way it has always been even with Cingular, it was in there. Is what it basically means if you live in area where ATT don't have coverage and has a partner agreement there and all your usage is on partner coverage they reserve the right to either cancel your service or get you hooked up with that partner instead of ATT. If your passing through or your in an area for a few days or even a month or so, they don't care. It's just when you are in those area's for over about 60 percent of your usage in a year then they start sweating. ATT has to pay them for using those towers. SO for chasing, I wouldn't even worry about it. They never said anything to me when I was using Dobson's network for data on chases alot last April and May, cause the majority of my data and minute usage was on the ATT network. By the way i work for ATT so I have to explain this frequently.

By the way in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle is almost completly ATT coverage now so you don't have to worry bout if your using a partner service. Roam freely!

 

[Gene Moore]

That is the way it has always been even with Cingular, it was in there. Is what it basically means if you live in area where ATT don't have coverage and has a partner agreement there and all your usage is on partner coverage they reserve the right to either cancel your service or get you hooked up with that partner instead of ATT. If your passing through or your in an area for a few days or even a month or so, they don't care. It's just when you are in those area's for over about 60 percent of your usage in a year then they start sweating......

Thank for the clarification James. I read the TOS before and never saw that, at least in the language I saw it this time. Most of us have been concerned about the so called unlimited usage debacle. Also, I swear it was not so boldly stated on those coverage maps. I carry a set of those in the vehicle and I'm sure I would have seen it. Problem for me is how much is too much, you say 60 percent. I use almost no data for eight months out of the year, then use almost all of it on the road for the four months of chasing.....a high percentage of which is northern plains. As I stated before, I've never had this called to my attention, so not to worry I guess. Also, I'm on a family-plan so they wind up losing three customers, that might matter, maybe not.

AT&T takes a beating here because of their lower speed, but I chase with people that have the other services. No one has the uninterrupted coverage I get with AT&T. Unlike some that just talk about coverage maps, I'm out there from south TX to the Dakotas every year. I've noticed coverage improvements in south TX and Nebraska, although western KS is pretty much locked up with Alltel. If I were uploading video I'm sure I would be disappointed with AT&T's speed, but I'm not a so called "professional chaser," thus the coverage is the most important factor to me.

 

[James Siler]

Gene, if you haven't ever received a letter then i wouldn't worry about it. Usally you will receive a letter with a special number to call. As for the speed issue, yeah EDGE isn't as fast as EDVO and the like but speed isn't a major thing since I am used to EDGE. The unlimited part has us scratching our heads as well. Your limited to 5 Gigs but no overage charges. What we have heard is that for people who consistently go over they may start to slow there speeds down to deter going over. DOn't know how they would do that, above my head but again is what we heard. My thing is why create something then get mad when people want to use the hell out of it. I say the more people who want to use it the more your gonna make so why limit it. Anywho, if you or anyone else has questions I might be able to answer feel free to PM me.
James

 

[Paul Redmond]

Well I did it. I went with sprint with the sierra 595u evdo card. I am hoping the minimize the gaps in texas coverage with a wilson amplifier and an external entenna. I know I am taking a risk in terms of coverage gaps, but I am hoping that sprint will spend the money and fill in those areas. Sorry AT&T, you lost. My biggest fear with AT&T was the notorious bad customer service.

Wish me luck.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

When I used to have ATT, I was flagged once for excessive use, however I didn't have an aircard, I tethered and used one of their MediaMax deals which are intended for data on the phone, not tethering like I did. I called CS and they unfroze the account immediately. I was well over the 5 GB range continuously. I don't know what aircard speeds are for EDGE, but when I tethered they were terribly slow, not much faster than dial up...maybe 70-80k. I'm sure it's faster than that with an aircard, but compared to EVDO Rev A (I've been getting over 1 Mbps constantly) it's like crawling. I switched to sprint for 2 reasons 1) SERO 2) much better (faster) coverage in Wisconsin and also the northern plains.

 

[John Diel]

I'll go ahead and pipe in for this one. I'm a satisfied AT&T user. In fact, I've got one of the old/slow SW 775 cards. So far, it's worked out very well for me.

Of course, I'm not dumping Gigabytes of information everywhere either. I pull whatever GRLevel3 uses per load, the occasional e-mail check and sometimes I'll have a web site or two going on the forecast side.

Sure, it's not blazing fast (faster than dial up though) but it serves the purpose for what I do. Anyway, if I'm that close to a storm, I'm generally not looking at the radar or data at that point, I'm trying to watch the storm!

In the end though.. To each his own. AT&T has great coverage and does what they tell you it does. I have not had any CS issues and I've contacted them a couple of times in the past.

Ok, I think now I'll go hide in my hail cage and wait for the pelting to begin!