Cell Phone Service as High Speed Internet Link? 461
Gorm the DBA asks: "I live out in the boonies, where Cable is just another word for what the telegraph guy delivers and the nearest Central Office is over 27,000 feet away, so DSL is at best a (fat) Pipe Dream, and dialup speeds top out at 17,700baud on a good day. Currently we have satellite internet via DirecWay, but it's expensive ($60/month) and VPNlike applications are not supported, never mind gaming (high latency), which reduces it's utility dramatically. At the same time, I've been looking at getting a new cell phone. I see that Sprint, Cingular, and others all have cards that you can plug into your computer and use the cellular network to get data. The claim is 'wireless online surfing as fast as DSL'. I've confirmed I'm in the coverage areas, but is this really as good as they're making it sound? It's pricey ($79.99/month, plus the cost of the card), but it would be portable as well. Does anybody have experience with this sort of technology? Is it ready for prime time? Does it really work? Is it worth it? Is the internet access real, or a filtered 'You get what we want you to get' sort of thing?"
well... (Score:0, Insightful)
Sprint tops out around 144kbps
Verizon EVDO speeds I've heard can go up to a mbit, IF you live in a EVDO coverage area... which isn't likely.
You can purchase a normal/average EDGE GSM phone (make sure it is class 10 EDGE) and and get Cingulars 24$/mo unlimited data plan and purchase a data cable for your phone -> computer and do it that way... screw their 79$/mo edge data card prices.
dont forget ISDN (Score:3, Insightful)
>Work out an agreement with them and then have them setup a line-of-sight wireless (wifi) link to your place.
Err, how practical is this? Sure its possible, but if the AP is a couple miles away youre going to have to pay for some professional radio people to point these things at each other. I see this suggestion all the time and I doubt anyone can just do it. Considering the FCC limitations on ISM band he cant just set up two towers, but haveto build a very, very tight line-of-sight channel which I'm assuming requires some significant radio experience to pull off. A mile is a long way away, and if he's too far for DSL we're talking multi-miles here.