VirginMobile MiFi - then I'll give it a rest
OK, one more post on VirginMobile's Broadband2Go and then I'll give it a rest.
I came into a little extra coin this past week - very little, but enough. I took the VirginMobile USB 3G modem I got a week earlier back to WalMart and exchanged it out for the MiFi. The MiFi is a small flat slab, with a footprint smaller than the area of a credit card and about a quarter inch thick. It acts as a 3G modem to connect to the internet over the cell phone data network - in this case Sprint's data network - and also as a wifi router that lets you connect up to five devices. Thus you can share your internet connection as well as set up a local area network through the MiFi to share files between devices locally. When you connect to the MiFi, you have to provide a password, so there is some security.
Pricing for the MiFi at WalMart was $139 or so. Broadband capacity is priced in two tiers - $10 for 100 MB that has to be used within 10 days or $40 for unlimited data used in 30 days. If you are not using this as a primary internet connection, the $10 price point is great for those times when you are going to be out and about or travelling and not sure if you will have an internet connection available. The $40-all-you-can-eat plan is almost good enough to be your primary internet connection. The speed was pretty good. I was seeing connections with a download speed between 1 and 2 Mb/sec. That's probably good enough to do most of what you want to do on the Internet short of watching hi-def video. Here's a shot from one of the speed tests I did:
After charging the battery for several hours, set-up was pretty straightforward. I will say VirginMobile could do a bit better job in defining some of the terms they use. I already had an account set up from my previous USB 3G modem and was able to use that. The set up was asking for a password or PIN. I had about three of those from the last go-round - an admin password, a device password (I guess that's the right term) and another password that was stuck to back of the MiFi. Rather than go through the headache of trying to figure it out myself, I called VirginMobile's support line and got through to a person. He took my account info and set me up while I waited on the phone. I had also left behind about 68 MB of the 100 MB I had purchased for the USB 3G modem. I figured that was probably gone and the price I paid for my fetish of instant gratification - still, I asked the support person if that could be moved over to this device. Tap-tap-tap, and he came back and said that was done. Kudos to VirginMobile for doing that - I don't know if that is company policy, but it went a long ways to making a satisfied customer. So thanks to that support person.
I've been using the MiFi for my internet connection all morning and its been running well. Not sure how long the battery is supposed to last, but I'm going on two hours straight at this point. Read my mail, read the news, read my RSS feeds, edited a couple of pics for this post using Picnik and I really couldn't tell that I was not on my home wifi broadband connection. (I'm not - I've checked the control panel several times)
If I sound like a fanboy, I probably am going to turn into one. VirginMobile has brought mobile broadband to the masses with this type of device and pricing. It will definitely find a place in my gadget bag and its nice that I now have internet for any wifi device that comes along down the road. If you're picking up an iPad under Verizon's new deal or looking at a laptop with built in mobile broadband, consider the option of getting your device without the built-in 3G modem and pick up one of these little goodies instead of locking yourself into a service provider's expensive contract for two years.
