greg-c - on the go....

Having a ubiquitous internet connection - beyond that of a cell phone - always seemed to be kind of fascinating to me.  I knew that Verizon, Sprint and AT&T had offerings, all of which were designed to separate another $60 from your wallet each month for at least a two year time period. That was too much of an expense for me to try and justify for what I would use it for. Then I heard of Virgin Mobile's Broadband2Go offerings from Katie Floyd on a MacPowerUsers podcast. While her experience seemed to be less than satisfactory, I filed it away in the back of my mind as something I wanted to look into.

Mobile broadband is a way to connect a computer to the internet through the cell phone company's 3G "high speed" data network.  Its always been a pricey proposition, geared more for those who can write it off on an expense account instead of for the common man.  But it didn't seem to have to be that way.  My first experience was helping a friend who lived out in the sticks get connected to the net where there was no cable or DSL options.  At the time, they picked up a mobile broadband USB modem from Cricket and signed up.  Cricket's pricing was a bit higher than what I pay for my cable internet access, but it did not require a contract. You paid for the months that you wanted connectivity (although they did have a service charge to re-connect if you let it lapse) That was a step in the right direction.  But now it looks like Virgin Mobile has pretty well nailed it for use by everyday folks. With Virgin, you buy a USB Broadband2Go modem for about $75. Then you have several options for how much data you buy.  They are currently offering two plans - one for $10 for 100 megabytes of data that has a 10 day life. The other option is $40 for unlimited data for a 30 day period. You can buy access for either time frame for just those times you want to use it.  Don't need it this month? Don't buy anything.  Going away on vacation next month and don't want to have to deal with coffee shop access or expensive hotel connections, pick up a $40 "top-up" card and you are set. Virgin Mobile is running this on Sprint's 3G network and that was another unknown for me - I was not familiar with Sprint's data performance.

I took the plunge this week when my wife was going into the hospital for surgery. I figured I was going to be hanging around the waiting room for most of the day and then at the hospital for most of the weekend.  So I splurged and got the USB modem at Walmart along with a $10 "top-up" card.  I figured if this thing didn't work out, I could return the modem and chalk up the $10 to the experience of satisfying my curiosity.

Setting the thing up was not as smooth as the literature indicated.  I plugged the modem in and it proceeded to install the software and drivers.  Then it tried to connect to the Virgin Mobile website to setup my account and take my money.  No Joy. After several attempts, I called the 800 number and talked to a guy who set up an account for me, took the "top-up" card info and got me going.  That took all of probably 10 minutes. Then I was off to check the mail and read the news.  I could tell this thing was not exactly a speed demon, but it wasn't bad for most web sites that weren't too heavy on images. I stopped by SpeedTest.net to get a read on just how fast we were going.  Several tests later, it seemed like this thing was running around 250-300 kbits/sec.

I am probably going to pick up a $40 card when this one expires, if for no other reason to see if "unlimited" really means.... well, unlimited. Other carriers seem to cap their unlimited plans at 5 gigabytes, which is probably more than enough for most people.  I looked at the terms of service for Virgin Mobile and could not find any specific cap, but they do have some weasly catch all language about improper use, excessive downloads, and so on.  Still at these speeds, you're probably not going to be downloading torrents or watching TV via Hulu.

If you have another $70 burning a hole in your pocket, Virgin Mobile is also offering a "MiFi" device for about $140. This device is a 3G modem on one end and a wireless router on the other, allowing up to five devices to connect wirelessly. Data rates are the same as above.  Stick the MiFi in your pocket and you have your very own personal internet cloud surrounding you. Use it to connect your laptop, your iPod Touch, your wifi enabled camera, your iPad, just about anything with a wifi connection. No USB port required - important if you are dealing with an iPad or iPod Touch.

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with the job Virgin Mobile has done.  It would be nice to have it run a bit faster, but it would be nice to have a Ferrari instead of my mini-van as well.

Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go

Pros:
Reasonably priced
flexible terms - no contract

Con:
Set up not as described - plan on calling tech support
Nice if it was faster, but good enough for the price.