Satelite vs Cellular internet

[Warbird]

I use a WISP here at the house, as I am unable to get DSL nor cable.  When he hasn't over subscribed his line, service is adequate.  Way better than cell/satellite.  Of course, they had to put a 40' pole on the roof of my house to get the line of site required...

[DouginUtah]

I'm not sure if this will be of interest to anyone, but starting tomorrow McDonald's will have free wi-fi access for anyone.

[easymoney]

i use verision air card. have had it for 2 years and amsatisfied with it. one tip unless you are really close to their tower or if you have metal siding on your house put the air card on an extension cable. i put the card in the window at my house and it works fine most of the time. like most systems the speed will vary. i have heard that some of the slowdowns are not verisions fault it varies with how many people are downloading an item at the same time.

[WildDog]

We have had satellite for a couple of years our old dial up was so slow it would drop out out constantly initially it was 14kbs and later got to 32, as we have poor telephone landlines and no cell/mobile phone coverage the Govt paid for installation of satelite. i live in a high rainfall, wind frost area and this all plays havock with it, the satelite was out for a month from 10th Dec and the company supplied dial up, sure glad to get back to satellite. My wife said I had to give up Austar TV to afford the satellite, but that was O.K.

The company will be installing a bracket on our dish next to stop it moving, the technician said it has to hit an object 35000km's away the size of a VW bug with a lazer beam, if the satellite moves 1inch it can be out heaps over that distance. I would like to get a small lap top with the cell conection so I can take it with me of a day to muck about on the stock market during my rest breaks....Hope extra time on the stock market doesn't brake me financially and send me back to dial up.

[brdmkr]

We would have 3g through Verizon.  The signal will likely not be that strong and I am already planning of getting a 65 dB booster.  Hopefully, I will be able to time it all that I can return every bit within 30 d if it does not work. 

[Engineer]

I have been using Verizon's 3G network with a Verizon USB727 cellular modem attached to a Cradlepoint MBR1000 cellular & wireless-N router, for a little over two years now.  It's a far sight better than dialup but nowhere near cable.  I used to be on Comcast cable but we can't get it here, so the cell internet took some getting used to (speed-wise) but we've adapted.  There is a 5GB limit per month on downloads, although my bill and contract says I'm unlimited, they slow you WAY down if you exceed it.  I've never taken the modem out of the router for a laptop, we have four desktops and an iPod accessing the wireless network at any given time.  It works fairly well but things like song downloads and YouTube are a crapshoot, and forget streming video or something like Netflix.  I do have an add-on antenna but am at the fringe of the area and only get two bars.  Service rarely goes down, things just tend to get slow.  Supposedly AT&T now has 3G on nearby towers, my brother says he gets five bars and full 3G in my basement with his iPhone, and so we are likely going to switch to AT&T in the very near future.  I won't be grandfathered into the 5GB limit anymore, but they slow me down anyway so I don't really care.  It's kind of a 'soft' limit anyway, depending on regional usage.

[brdmkr]

Thanks Engineer.  It sounds like you have a very similar situation to me.  I am hopeful that we will get a good signal with the booster.  I was told that we will need a dual frequency booster as data is transmitted at 1900 MHz but voice is at 800.

I will have to check on that booster today,

[D._Frederick]

What does it cost where you are?

I called Verizon today and got the following prices:  $60 for cellular modem, 5GB for $60 per month, and requires a 2 year contract. There was a couple other charges added up to $50.

This is about the same price as Hughs Satelite.

[SwampDonkey]

There putting up towers around the rural areas for line of sight type internet connections. I don't think it's cellular it's the other that some of you mentioned (WISP). I think they said 160 towers will be in place by June this year. We'll see. In all likelihood, none will be installed here. Royalton is on a back side of a long ridge, you make the crest of that ridge and you look down into Knoxford and across the river valley. So, unless I see towers on that ridge line, I'll be stuck will dialup.

[Jeff]

What does it cost where you are?

I called Verizon today and got the following prices:  $60 for cellular modem, 5GB for $60 per month, and requires a 2 year contract. There was a couple other charges added up to $50.

This is about the same price as Hughs Satelite.

Its the same here in Michigan. I just checked into the aircard for Lou the first week in December and Verizon quoted about the same thing as I recall

[ErikC]

  Hey SD, don't give up yet. We live out in the sticks, and there are a couple of line of sight towers. Sounds like we are as far or farther from a major population center than you are there. 

[brdmkr]

We will be changing cell companies and will have our phone sevice through them as well.  Based on my understanding of their plan (may be wrong as it is less than 'transparent'), it will cost us about 150.00/month for three phones, unlimited text, unlimited data, and 5 Gigs/month internet using a tethered phone as a modem.  It would add another 15/month for a USB or card modem.  Right now, we pay 80 for 2 phones with no text or data and 25 for a land line.  So, I figure going the Verizon route (if it will work where we live) will provide a third phone for my soon-to-be teenager, text (which is all he would use) and internet for another 45 bucks.