I was wondering which internet air card is the best for on the road. We have an AT&T card and it is worthless unless you are in the city. Are any of them any better. A lot of the places do not have WIFI and we like to use the laptop if we can.
We have a Sprint aircard. There have been a few places where we got slow service, but by and large we had enough "juice" to pick up email, see what's happenin' here, and post a blog entry or two...
We have Alltel...and have been very happy with the service...and now that Alltel has been bought by Verizon Wireless, it is only going to get better. We have had some trouble connecting when we are down in a canyon surrounded by hills/mountains...but then we can't get cell service there either. We can usually get an internet connection anywhere we have cell service. It's great to be able to check email, etc... I often work while on the road, so that's a big plus for us.
Probably Verizon. If you bring up their service area map you will see it is nothing but a Sea of red,indicating their coverage.
Its a little pricey about 60 bucks a month and I'm not sure of the commitment time. I personally don't own one but I have freinds that do and they swear by them.
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Roger & MaryLou
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My your roads be straight and smooth and may you always have a tailwind!
I was wondering which internet air card is the best for on the road. We have an AT&T card and it is worthless unless you are in the city. Are any of them any better. A lot of the places do not have WIFI and we like to use the laptop if we can.
I have used both Verizon and Sprint with good results. Alltel apparently piggybacks on the Verizon network for their aircards, too bad they don't do that with their crappy phones.
Aaron
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....so many Airstreams....so little time...
WBCCI #2449 AIR #2495
Why are we in this basket...and where are we going
I have AT&T. I find that it depends on where you are at. Some places I can't get a connection to save my life and others, where you couldn't imagine a connection existing, you connect up 3G.
I have crossed the country on Highway 80 on the north side and on Highway 40 on the south side. $0 had connection almost all the way. 80 was bad in states like Nebraska away from the big cities.
We have an A T & T phone and a Verizon wireless. Most of our travel has been in the West and Midwest. Hands down the Verizon aircard works in more places that A T & T. If you've never had one before, expect download speeds to be a bit lower than DSL but way faster than modem.
I had a Sprint card provided by my employer before I retired. It was basically worthless. Only worked in large towns or along the interstate system. Very, very slow. Worse than dial-up. Things may be better now, but the Sprint was terrible.
We have had Verizon for almost 2 years, love it. There are predictable areas where you don't get coverage----dense forest, canyons, Yellowstone, etc.----but otherwise it is very reliable.
I'll "pile on" here and say that I am very impressed with Verizon's coverage. I have used it about two years and have had wideband internet on Fall Lake at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in Bisbee, Arizona a few miles from the Mexican border, and numerous other places I really didn't expect to have broadband coverage.
I bought the USB 720 wireless modem that plugs into a USB port so I can use it with my laptop on the road and my desktop at home. (We are away so much it really doesn't make sense to pay for DSL or cable at home, since you have to pay for it 12 months out of the year even if you are gone for most of them.) I would suggest getting a wireless modem that accepts an outside antenna. I take a Wilson Trucker antenna along in the trailer and it has made the difference between internet and no internet at some locations.
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