Mobile Data Questions

[Andrew Revering]

I'll add that you have to look at the strength of the company as well. Financially speaking, right now AllTel is doing the best on the market compared to Sprint and Verizon. I'm not sure about net worth, but I'm betting AllTel is the frontrunner for any progress in the short term. I say that being a Sprint fan personally.

AT&T is a giant. They were the first and therefore are well established. Their technology is the leader worldwide, but it's not in the U.S. They are alone in the GSM market (sans T-Mobile), which may be good or bad for AT&T. They have a huge footprint but few partners in technology.

So I guess it boils down to who has good coverage. ...and actually I think in the last 2 years it's gotten to the point that nobody has 'bad' coverage. Even T-Mobile will roam freely on the old Cingular network (assumably all of AT&T's branded network now). We've beaten to death the CDMA group works together, so really I don't know that any provider would be bad.

Anyone you talk to on various providers say they get good coverage with their network. So price, your personal preference, and your own local coverage perhaps with voice would be the deciding factors.

I'm sure at some point you'll have AT&T on one side of the coin and the other side would be whoever buys the CDMA competitors out... right now I'm guessing that's going to be Alltel.

 

[Dan Cook]

$200 a week? You're almost better off getting a card for half a season, canceling and paying the early termination fee.

Normally I wouldn't use this service if I was going out for more than a few weeks but I'm only out there for around 9-10 days so I think this would be better for me.

 

[Brett Adair]

Well, looking at the Sprint coverage map I don't know if it would be worth it to get data from sprint or not being in the southeast. I don't really need EVDO, but could use it. If I decided to buy a card could I get data without signing some kind of contract? Just to temporarily turn on and off when I needed it?


EDIT: Also, these firmware revisions that you mention....I assume the software updates are only available for a phone correct? If I bought a card this wouldn't help me would it or would I still be able to use there new roaming partners?

 

[Andrew Revering]

Normally I wouldn't use this service if I was going out for more than a few weeks but I'm only out there for around 9-10 days so I think this would be better for me.

That makes sense. If you were to get a cell contract you'd pay the $59 for the month + probably $150 (or maybe its $300) for a termination fee, plus the cost of the card itself, so thats at least $210 plus the cost of the card.

 

[Andrew Revering]

If I decided to buy a card could I get data without signing some kind of contract? Just to temporarily turn on and off when I needed it?

No, I don't think they offer anything without a contract. Someone can maybe speak for Alltel. I think you can turn that on and off at a prorated amount if you have a voice plan and are tethering. Maybe you can do that with sprint too, I don't know. But not with their data cards.

I assume the software updates are only available for a phone correct? If I bought a card this wouldn't help me would it or would I still be able to use there new roaming partners?

No, PRLs are for any cellular device, phone or card. You can more easily manually update the PRL for your data card than you can for your phone. You're at the slow mercy of your provider for phone PRL updates by dialing customer service and requesting a PRL update. But for your data card you can download the latest updates from the cellular underground and update it yourself, months before the automated updates that the software will do for you.

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett Adair
If I decided to buy a card could I get data without signing some kind of contract? Just to temporarily turn on and off when I needed it?


No, I don't think they offer anything without a contract. Someone can maybe speak for Alltel. I think you can turn that on and off at a prorated amount if you have a voice plan and are tethering. Maybe you can do that with sprint too, I don't know. But not with their data cards.

I have a voice plan with Alltel and turn tethering for my phone on and off as I please with no extra charges. I turned it on and off atleast 4 times over the past 2 months and I only received charges for the days I had it turned on, so about a $1.61 for a 24 hour period. As long as they dont start charging me to do that, it could be the cheapest deal around.

 

[Dave Schliepp]

I had alltel with the tether to my cell phone, but didn't find it all that reliable. Last year I picked up the KPC680 ExpressCardTM and have had really good luck with it so far, and I see shortly they will be offering an external antenna for it as well. As someone else mentioned above it's $59.99/month. So far I've only chased in WI with it, but will give it a good test when I head to the plains this spring.

 

[Kirsten Thorpe]

While it's true that CDMA carriers - Sprint, Verizon and Alltel have some roaming agreements in place, that does not mean that coverage on every carrier is the same. You can roam on all of those carriers at 1xRTT (144 kbps max on up and download), but as a Sprint customer, you can not roam at EVDO speeds on Verizon, and vice versa. The one beneficial EVDO roaming agreement is between Sprint and Alltel, but Verizon and Sprint do NOT have roaming agreements to share EVDO.

In addition, some carriers have agreements in place with smaller cell carriers that do not extend to all other large carriers. For example, if Verizon has a roaming agreement in place with SmallCellCo X and Sprint does not have that same agreement with them, when a Sprint customer comes into SmallCellCo X's coverage area, they will not be able to roam on their towers just because they have some kind of roaming agreement with Verizon.

The point is, all carriers coverage is not equal.

So, to Nick Parker, if Verizon really does have stronger EVDO coverage in your area, you may want to stick with them. Their terms of service now say that you can use up to 5GB of data transfer per month - once you go over that though, they could throttle your speeds down to about 200 kbps. While this can be annoying to keep an eye on, 5GB is really quite a lot, and it might be worth it to have consistent EVDO signal, rather than just roaming at 1xRTT.

 

[Gordon Spencer]

Sprint and Alltel have an EVDO roaming agreement . So if using one of those carriers you will get EVDO speeds on either of thier networks . They each have 1xrtt roaming agreements with Verizon ( much slower) . I am told there will be an EVDO roaming agreement between Alltel and Verizon shortly . With All that said the best option would be Alltel if available to you as with thier roaming agreements you would have the most access to EVDO high speed connections

While it's true that CDMA carriers - Sprint, Verizon and Alltel have some roaming agreements in place, that does not mean that coverage on every carrier is the same. You can roam on all of those carriers at 1xRTT (144 kbps max on up and download), but as a Sprint customer, you can not roam at EVDO speeds on Verizon, and vice versa. The one beneficial EVDO roaming agreement is between Sprint and Alltel, but Verizon and Sprint do NOT have roaming agreements to share EVDO.

In addition, some carriers have agreements in place with smaller cell carriers that do not extend to all other large carriers. For example, if Verizon has a roaming agreement in place with SmallCellCo X and Sprint does not have that same agreement with them, when a Sprint customer comes into SmallCellCo X's coverage area, they will not be able to roam on their towers just because they have some kind of roaming agreement with Verizon.

The point is, all carriers coverage is not equal.

So, to Nick Parker, if Verizon really does have stronger EVDO coverage in your area, you may want to stick with them. Their terms of service now say that you can use up to 5GB of data transfer per month - once you go over that though, they could throttle your speeds down to about 200 kbps. While this can be annoying to keep an eye on, 5GB is really quite a lot, and it might be worth it to have consistent EVDO signal, rather than just roaming at 1xRTT.

 

[Nick Parker]

Thanks for the great info all. I'll be going with Verizon. I already get a discount through my pop for being a IDOT worker (10%) so I can actually save a bit over the rest. Got to love being 22, living on my own, and still on the folks phone bill... LMAO. Ah well, I love that discount a little too much.

Thanks again!

Nick

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

Ive been lucky to get away with AMAZING data plans for the 2005-07 chase seasons. Ive gotten by with using my sprint sanyo 7300 phone connected thru USB using Snap Dialer software. Since 05, Sprint has given me unlimited data for 10$ a month. Thats unbeatable if ur a college student. They havent known or really cared that Ive been using my phone as a modem. Unfortunately my phone bit the dust and when I attempted to upgrade to a new phone, i had to sign a new contract which I lost my wonderful data plan. Now they want me to pay 50$ a month and sign a 2 year contract. Now im looking up the cheapest option to provide decent data coverage for next season. Any good suggestions, Id be much appreicative.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Ive been lucky to get away with AMAZING data plans for the 2005-07 chase seasons. Ive gotten by with using my sprint sanyo 7300 phone connected thru USB using Snap Dialer software. Since 05, Sprint has given me unlimited data for 10$ a month. Thats unbeatable if ur a college student. They havent known or really cared that Ive been using my phone as a modem. Unfortunately my phone bit the dust and when I attempted to upgrade to a new phone, i had to sign a new contract which I lost my wonderful data plan. Now they want me to pay 50$ a month and sign a 2 year contract. Now im looking up the cheapest option to provide decent data coverage for next season. Any good suggestions, Id be much appreicative.

Why not just buy a replacement phone just like your old one? Sprint won't change your plan (or, at least, they shouldn't), and this option seems quite a bit cheaper.

 

[Andrew Revering]

Ryan gives good advice... the old phones don't have a way to authenticate or let Sprint know that you're using data tethered. The newer phones do have this ability, and that's how they can justify the extra cost by identifying/preventing tethering to a laptop. Older phones doing this come across on the Sprint side as "well.. maybe he's just using Vision to browse web on his phone" despite having large data transfers, they can't prove otherwise.

 

[Gerard Jebaily]

I already upgraded to my new phone. So unless i were to add another line with a replacement for the Sanyo 7300 would I be able to do this. However sounds like a good idea, i just need to make sure that Internet browsing will be enabled if I were to activate my phone.


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Update: Jus got off the phone with sprint. You guys are awesome! I will be able to add my old phone as another line, no extra charge, and I only have to pay 15$ more a month to add on the "vision package" to have unlimited data capability. Otherwise id jus pay 3 cents per Kilobyte. Either way, to have mobile data again for only 15 bux a month now?!?! Im thrilled!!!