I know Tim Kosier was going to check, but I thought I would report my findings also. I spent a frustrating time yesterday at two of our local Verizon offices. I liked their coverage area for data using an aircard that I had borrowed from my daughter and attached to my laptop this past summer. I was now very interested in doing this using the new Verizon month to month plan. At the first office, I explained that I was really just interested in having full coverage at the approx $60 per month for April through August and then ‘turning off’ the account until the following April or even in the middle of the season. “You bet” says the nice manager, we can do that, but you don’t need an aircard. You can tether using your LG VX5300 cell phone that you already have, but you would have to purchase the cable and software with the drivers and such for about $50. Naturally, this excited me and I told him that I would be back next March to get this going.
Thinking about all of this when I got home, I checked EBay to see if I could find something cheaper for the cable. It started to look promising, but something tipped me off that I needed an EV-DO capable phone. That was good for about an hour and a half of searching to find out that my current cell phone wasn’t really rated for that. It would work, but the results would be somewhat slower than dialup speeds.
I decided to go to the second Verizon outlet rather than embarrass myself any more at the first place. I got a nice fellow that confirmed what I found out about my current phone. But, for only another $129 I could upgrade to one that would work on the month to month plan. This model would require an additional $70 for the cable and drivers. I was less than thrilled about that. The biggest surprise was when he told me that EACH time you started or re-started the month to month plan; there was a $35 activation fee. The dream of just getting data cheaply for chasing has once again become a mental mess with what to do. As most everyone has found out, “the big print giveth and the small print taketh away”. Each salesperson has a different interpretation of the rules and costs even within the same store as I found out during a ‘heated discussion’ among three of the staff at the second place.
I’m sure this thread or a similar one will get fired up again next spring and I hope there are some better plans and more open answers by then. I thought I would pass my findings along to the group as a few more things to be aware of during your search. I’m becoming more envious of the original chasers who would start out armed with a: map, camera, sandwich and the old Buick. Technology is becoming a drag.
