Everyone Needs Internet
In today’s day and age, getting on the internet is a given, if not a downright necessity. From staying in touch, to paying bills, to entertainment needs, the internet has become the driving force of the modern industrial age. The massively huge success of the web has impacted young and old, and you’d be hard pressed to find ANYONE who isn’t taking advantage of its vast resources. Indeed, in modern culture, not having internet is like not having a car; it’s fairly hard to operate and get by without it. It is the ethereal glue that is tying us all together, crossing all borders and boundaries.
The office is everywhere...
A wireless broadband connection can be anything from a great convenience to a real desirable business necessity for the traveling nomad, as I emphasized here: Location Irrelevant Income. Indeed, wireless broadband internet access has become a reality recently, as mobile broadband speeds have continued to increase, and the coverage maps continue to expand. For those considering signing up for a mobile broadband plan, we offer some of our experiences and thoughts after having used cellular broadband “in the field”.
Why We Choose Verizon
We were already fairly new Verizon customers, having had an OK experience with our former carriers, T-Mobile. The reason we switched from T-Mobile largely came down to coverage maps. We found that we were often not covered in places of interest, especially the desirable, obscure 2 lane roads to nowhere. With the Verizon Mobile Broadband plan, you receive both a 5gb date cell allowance, and access to a vast network of Wi-Fi hotspots.
As we began to dream of venturing out into the depths of California, our chosen stomping ground, upon studying the maps of both Verizon and then the only other competitors, AT&T and Sprint, Verizon clearly came out ahead. At&T can be good if you are only in metropolitan areas, which we clearly are NOT interested in. Sprint and Verizon have much wider coverage. Check the coverage maps before you sign up as to where you will be using the service.
Staying Within Mobile Broadband Plan Limits
The in motion office showing netbook, cell phone streaming through bluetooth stereo.
The Verizon broadband data plan comes with a 5 gig limit as far as total data downloaded per month. That may not seem like a lot, and indeed it isn’t. Here’s a handy chart here of typical usage examples: usage. That can mean no regular You Tube’ing, no big downloads etc. In actual real-life usage, if one is conscious of what they are doing, it doesn’t present a problem. We primarily use the Verizon cell data portion of the plan to maintain our websites as far as uploading posts, (text) and photos, check accounts, download the occasional piece of software, drivers and the like.
All in all in works really nice. In the boonies one can always spot the cell towers upon the taller mountains, so it’s almost always easy to get a good signal. A few times we’ve had some trouble in certain canyons. A nice addition would be a cell antenna, which the device has a port for. Being on the internet in a remote campsite approaches the surreal. I also like to listen to Pandora, which although it eats some bandwidth, about 25mb an hour, is nice to have going while in motion from my HP Netbook
Close up of modem plugged in to HP netbook.
Coupled with the fact that you get a huge selection of complimentary Wi-Fi Hotspots as part of the package when you need to do some real download damage, it’s in our opinion, a great package. We are almost always covered in even the most obscure places. It has turned out there are Hotspots in the smallest of towns like at the omni-present Starbucks and others.
Note that you must have your USB modem inserted to connect at hotspots, though once connected, you can pull it out and share it. My partner and I share the connection that way; I connect first, and then hand it off to her and she connects. Note that when connected at Wi-Fi hotspots, you are NOT using your cell data plan quota of 5gb. We find it easy to budget the big data usage at a hotspot, and save the cell use data plan, for when we are in the boonies and need to maintain our websites.
Convenience and Operation
Operation is extremely simple and straightforward. You simply install the software from CD, or go and download it from the Verizon website, appropriate for your operating system and computer. Plug in the USB modem and you are good to go. The modem itself is a little mini cell phone with a retractable USB port that folds up compactly. It swivels in different directions at the USB port joint to accommodate most setups.
Close up of the modem folded up.
Bringing up the VZ Access manager application allows you to choose between Wi-Fi connections, or to use the cell data plan itself. There is also a convenient tab to search for Wi-FI hotspots in a given area. Another tab sports your usage statistics which is handy for monitoring data usage, so avoiding the overage fee’s which amount to $0.05/mb or $50/gb. The data plan resets itself every month.
The modem unfolded with the swiveling USB port showing.
The mobile broadband speeds one can obtain are largely based on the strength of the cell signal. We’ve found that when you have a strong signal, you get really close to DSL speeds. If it were not for the fairly low data usage budget, this would be an all in one solution to fulltime mobile internet, though when you factor in the usage of hotspots, if they are convenient for you, it very well could be. Perhaps they will open up the data allowance gates in the near future as competition builds up.
Costs and Benefits
The cost for the service is $59.99 a month with a onetime activation fee of $35 for a standard 2 year contract. The cancellation fee is $175 less $5 a month for each month of usage. Personally I love this, it has made mobile nomadic internet access a reality for us. With the cell coverage for when we are in the boonies, and the extensive Wi-FI Access when we’re not, enables us to get on the internet practically everywhere with little hassle.
GPS'ing to one of our favorite places.
We have a HP Netbook
Highly recommended for all present and would-be nomads!
Tags: broadband speeds, wireless broadband connection, wireless broadband coverage
Very difficult to read with your choice of font color with the dark background.
If I wanted to print any of this info, it would take up too much ink!
Happy Trails, Penny, TX
Sorry Penny! I grew up in cyberspace and Linux systenms so I’m used to that look. I usually use black backgrounds and green fonts! I’ll take that into consideration, never thought about people printing it out, as I personally never print anything.
Thanks for the info. You have a great site. I like the color scheme. I have made many web sites and some have had black backgrounds too. I remember the old computers before ‘modern’ desktops, laptops, etc. and all we had was a black screen with white or yellow font colors.
As far as printing a web page goes, just go to your browser preferences and look for the check box of “use my colors or let the web page use their own”. You can change it to black text on a white background while you print it out. No problem.
Thanks for the comment Thomas, seems we have similar roots. If I got to many complaints, I would change it but so far so good. I have to live here, so it has to appeal to me, but I don’t want to turn people off!