Comments about Satellite Internet

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by Tom Bray

I was hoping that there was some nifty commercial service that had popped up since the last time I did serious searching two years ago...

hi tom, the point IS that not much really has changed in that time on the sat side...

if u search a little here there are several starter/fishing threads and NOT MUCH biting...

and they almost ALL include folks who've opted for the air cards, mostly from vzw or alltel and a few eyephone...

on the sat side...

monthly fee is a little less, primary equipment is a little less..

and the vendors have consolidated. that's about it.

u might pm gunny, as he uses (and likes the high speed sat "internet in motion" stuff...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/memb...usmc-2251.html

i can do without the tv side too, BUT if u r gonna go sat, might as well add the tele package...

on the cell side, the dark spaces keep shrinking.

several stops i camped at last year had NO coverage and now do...

while the equipment costs AND monthly keep going down...

cheers
2air'

[Tom Bray]

I think I have made my decision. We needed new cell phones and stopped at the Alltel store this week. We now have a couple of Blackberries that we can plug the computer into when on the road and we don't have WIFI. It also has built in maps, that is good enough and if we have cell service we can always look up something on MapQuest.

My only beef with Alltel is that they disabled the WIFI in the Blackberry. The alternative around here is TMobile but the coverage is terrible here. I understand AT&T also disables the WIFI.

Another plus is that I can use my old cell phone repeater for now, I will upgrade to a multi-band one when Alltel switches.

Between the computer, cellphone, ham radio, and the OnStar on the truck I think I have things pretty well covered.

Tom Bray

[SARGE/AF]

Originally Posted by Tom Bray

I think I have made my decision. We needed new cell phones and stopped at the Alltel store this week. We now have a couple of Blackberries that we can plug the computer into when on the road and we don't have WIFI. It also has built in maps, that is good enough and if we have cell service we can always look up something on MapQuest.

My only beef with Alltel is that they disabled the WIFI in the Blackberry. The alternative around here is TMobile but the coverage is terrible here. I understand AT&T also disables the WIFI.

Another plus is that I can use my old cell phone repeater for now, I will upgrade to a multi-band one when Alltel switches.

Between the computer, cellphone, ham radio, and the OnStar on the truck I think I have things pretty well covered.

Tom Bray

Tom,
Are you sure there is no Verizon store near you or maybe in a near city that you can go to? If not you can get everything done online as well, pick your service w/internet, the phone you want, everything and then they will send it to ya by Fedex/UPS ready to go. Pay your bill online, change your service, everyting, Check out Verizon.com.
I can tell you from experience that you would be much happier with Verizon. Larger coverage area, less dead zones, better service, all the things you need to count on.

Sarge

[Tom Bray]

Yes there is Verizon in Montgomery. But ... coverage here is less than stellar to put it in a polite tone of voice.

Everyone around here uses TMobile for their connectivity. Then they complain about no signal. At work they get around it by using WiFi.

I also figure that in the next year or so my Alltel bill will say Verizon anyway. I just hope that Alltel didn't deactivate too much of the Blackberry so that when the time comes to upgrade to the newer standards I don't have to replace the phone.

I will see how it goes with this new service. The interesting item will be what happens when we are roaming outside of Alltel's reach.

Tom Bray