Data Decision SUCKS!!

[Mike Parker]

I am frustrated beyond belief. Just got off the phone with Sprint, well actually some lady near the Indian Ocean, and was told that I could not activate the Sprint USB Stick that I want to buy off of ebay without signing a 2 year contract. Damn her. And according to Verizon's website, none of their USB Sticks are compatible with Windows 7???? I don't want a contract. I just want a data plan that I can pay for a few months and not have to pay all year on it.

I am willing to buy a stick and pay monthly for the data just like everyone else I just don't want a contract.

Any suggestions? Sorry for the rant but I really do need some help here.

Is anybody using a Verizon USB stick with Windows 7?

 

[Jeremy Jones]

I use AT&T. I bought the Card outright, for a couple hundred bucks, to avoid any contract. I use it month to month. Not sure if your wanting to switch providers....

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.millenicom.com/nmb.htm

They have a bring your own device option but it is $70/month but no contract.

What I recently did was do their buy their device route which gave me 10 gigs/month instead of the 5 otherwise, for $60 a month. This doubles as my home internet so $60 total isn't bad. Been with them for around a month now and no real problems. Using the panatech USB device. The upload speed has been smoking what I used to get on a tethered Razr on EVDO. It actually seems to be matching the damn download speed for some reason. Sending some images up for print the other day I think it was reading around 100 kilobytes a second up. I know I was shocked at how fast it finished compared to before.

But yeah if you haven't actually bought the device yet you might want to do the route I did. $99 for the USB device but like $50 for a start up fee. Not sure about that fee if you stop and start later. No contract. They'll sell you for whatever is in your area. Like I got Verizon stuff, even the connection manager is VZAccess. Beats the heck out of $60/month to Verizon itself for only 5 gigs going this way for 10 gigs and no contract to boot. Also they don't charge crazy overages if you did go over, they will just throttle you down to no more than 200k if you go over. But sounds like if you do that more than a few times they might then kick you off. Probably still sort of pricey if it's not going to double as your home internet as well. No idea on Windows 7 either.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Sorry, but as far as I know, Sprint doesn't allow month-to-month even if you purchase your own device. Only Verizon and ATT allow it.

Definitely go the route Mike H. mentioned, Millenicom is a Sprint reseller and have great prices and have a higher cap without the 300 MB roaming.

 

[Jeff Banter]

A friend of mine told me about this.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband

have not tried it but its worth a look at.

 

[David Goines]

I bought a USB 727 from Ebay and just went in today to the store to activate it.
I figured it would be pretty simple because I've done it before with Alltel. When I went in there, the guy told me that the person that used to own the card never deactivated the device from their plan. They cancelled the service just didn't activate the device I guess..?
But he said they can go ahead and try to activate it onto my account but he couldn't guarantee it will work. (this was after he offered me to buy a new card with a 2-year contract multiple times). I ended up just telling him to try it and if it doesn't work then I'll be back. With Verizon, you have a three day grace period to cancel the service before your charged an activation fee so I figured I would just cancel it before then if it didnt work. Well, lo and behold, it worked perfectly. No problems at all.
All of this to say that most of the people at wireless companies will lie up and down to sell something so they'll make their commission.
Get on ebay, buy a USB 727 for Verizon, and activate it for $60/month with a $30 activation fee (which I was told was $20 at one point). And don't take any crap from the salesmen, tell them to just get it done.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
Dave

 

[jgmlg]

I just got a verizon usb760 on a monthly deal. it was $129.00 because no contract and i went with the 5g for $50. tried it on my new laptop with windows 7 and it works.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Millenicom FTW. I signed up for the Sprint $70/mo. unlimited plan Mike mentioned using my own card with no problems. Haven't had many opportunities to test out coverage yet, but on March 10, I was never without coverage in NE OK or SE KS (including Osage Co.).

You should be able to use your existing USB modem if it's Sprint-compatible. Plus, I think $70/mo. unlimited is a much better deal than the $60/mo. 5 GB service Sprint sells directly.

 

[Mike Parker]

Sweet, Millenicon it is! Just got off the phone with them and all their devices are compatible with Windows 7. He told me they just haven't updated their site yet.

I am going with the unlimited for $69.99.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Dave Marshall]

My Verizon card works just fine with Windows 7. I use the USB720 on 3 different Windows machines. In general, Vista drivers will usually function on Windows 7, and I believe thats the driver I'm using with this one. They're selling netbooks with Windows 7 installed on them, I should hope their cards support it.

 

[Skip Talbot]

none of their USB Sticks are compatible with Windows 7????

Check out this cradlepoint router and see if the USB devices are compatible with it:
http://www.wirelessnwifi.com/Cradlepoint-MBR1000

You plug your USB data card into the router and it creates a wifi access point for you to connect to. Windows version compatibility is no longer an issue with one of these. You shouldn't just get it for that, though. These routers take all of the work out of connecting and maintaining your connection, allow multiple devices to be connected, and allow you to share the connection with others. I have a Kyocera model and its one of the best additions I've made to my gear.

 

[DMMoore]

I can also confirm that a USB727 works fine with Verizon on Windows 7, regardless of what Verizon's own site may say. I use one, and so do several of my friends, and we've had no problems at all.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

There is no reason Verizon can't 'deactivate' it on the person who owned it before you account. That sales person was really giving you the run around, which is annoying.

Sprint won't let you activate anything without a 2 year contract, which is why I am still a Verizon customer.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

I can also confirm that a USB727 works fine with Verizon on Windows 7, regardless of what Verizon's own site may say. I use one, and so do several of my friends, and we've had no problems at all.

I just used a USB727 from Verizon as well on my laptop running Windows 7 (32-bit) and it worked right away after downloading Verizon's access manager software.

 

[David Goines]

One problem I've had with my USB modem is while using GPS Gate at the same time.
GPS Gate would occasionally grab the modem instead of my GPS puck for some reason.
The only way to get around this was to plug in my gps puck and setup the input and output on GPS Gate how I liked it before plugging in the modem. If I plug in the modem first, GPS gate grabs it as an input and the VZ Access Manager would not recognize it because of another application using the signal. Kind of annoying but not really that big of a deal. GPS Gate has really been giving me problems lately anyway...
Dave