Newbie Needs Direction

Stringer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

Wow that speedtest site is cool!

Im runnig at 3105 down / 482 up !

Stringer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

Yes i see what you're saying about the white now.

But upon closer inspection, i dont think it will be a problem. That is a very obscure portion of the county i dont bother to do any work in. in fact the white spot to the north is actually just over the county line. and the one to the south i never really go there, and its smack dab in the middle of a military bombing range hehehhe.

i zoomed way in on the coverage map and compared it to a yahoo map where all the highways are labeled just to make sure.

Stringer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

so it appears my dsl service is about 6 times faster. thats a slower connection than i thought.

Alex · Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:55 pm Post subject:

Stringer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

I really appreciate the help. this is great. Smile

That giant green monster on the sprint map, representing 1xrtt, is where ill be using this the most. This is a 40-140kbps zone. Whereas the same zone with alltel is 400-1000kbps.

Also, there are no, according to the maps, 1xrtt zones with alltel in this county, just one dead bombing zone/forest spot I would never go anyway.

I think im going to have to go with alltel on this one. And hopefully they will have rev-a soon.

400-1000kbps isnt too slow, do you think? Is that a pretty efficient speed? Also i checked out the 3gstore and no alltel stuff there, sorry Sad

karlyn · Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:15 am Post subject:

hey Stringer,

In short, I think you shouldn't be too hasty to drop the Sprint possibility.

I think Alex missed mentioning an important point -- Sprint and Alltel have a data roaming agreement, so when you're outside of Sprint's EvDO Rev. A coverage you should roam (for free) on Alltel's Rev. 0 EvDO. If neither are available, you would drop down to Sprint's 1x, then Alltel's 1x. So theoretically, if you go with Sprint, you'd still have Alltel's Rev. 0 coverage in the Silver Springs Shores area and only drop to 1x if no EvDO was available. (Alex -- I know Alltel's data card PRLs are already set for this roaming agreement, are Sprint's? And yes, the Alltel maps are absolutely awful!)

The reverse is also true if Alltel is your provider, but only some of Alltel's current/future air cards are Rev. A capable. So when you roam on Sprint with an Alltel card, you'd only be getting Rev. 0. My guess is that the Rev. A firmware for the Alltel cards will not appear until Alltel starts offering Rev. A service (which is too bad for me!*).

Lastly, to the best of my knowledge, Alltel only has two current data card options, not four (unless the sales agent was counting an old card that's no longer available and an upcoming card?!). One is the PC5750 which is a PCMCIA card, Rev. A capable, and has an external antenna jack. The second is option is the Franklin CDU-550AL USB card which I don't think is Rev. A capable, and doesn't have an external antenna jack. I wouldn't recommend it at all. Rumor is that Alltel will be offering the Kyocera KP-680 Express card later this summer and I think this card would be worth waiting for.

You will probably have better card options with Sprint, too. (Alex -- are any of the Sprint cards dual band?) And you will definitely get better support from 3Gstore than you would with either Alltel or Sprint.

karlyn

* Full disclosure -- I'm a very happy Alltel customer, but Sprint EvDO is not available where I live and only available where I'm working about 1% of the time (my situation is similar to yours, I work in a small five-county region). My best download on Alltel was 1958 kbps and my best upload was 111 kbps. My typical/average speeds are more like 1200 down and 80 up. I'd love to have Sprint's Rev. A upload speeds!!!

Stringer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 04 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

Thanks for the help too karlyn!

I did not realize they shared networks like that. I will still consider sprint as i mull all this over. Just a few questions remain.

what is a router for and would i need one?

when u get ur alltel bill for mobile broadband, is it really 59.99? or do they add some communication tax, state tax, sales tax, various fees etc? i already have an alltel 3 line mobile phone contract if that makes any difference.

is a 500mbps connection fairly efficient?

Thanks again! Very Happy

Alex · Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:40 am Post subject:

jfarris · EVDO Junkie Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 207

The router also lets it play nicely with an Xbox 360, too. Very Happy

karlyn · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:09 am Post subject:

mjhampstead · Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:34 am Post subject:

I have the Alltel usb DataLink plan for only $25.00 per month.

THis speedtest.net scores between 550 and 800 kbs down. I am very happy with this especially since I could not afford $60.00 per month for the aircard subscription.

I also like the fact that I can install the software on other computers and use my usb/cell link, too.

Last September, I tried the Sprint aircard, during the 30 day trial they sent three different cards, none got more than twice my dialup speed. So, Sprint highspeed to me is a joke in my area. Lower Michigan.
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mjh

aminor · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject:

You may havee already made a decision, but I live in Northwest Marion County 10 miles west of McIntosh. I subscribed to AllTel EVDO in February 2007 and have been very pleased. Cost is $25.00 per month with unlimited use. I have Macintosh with no card slot, use a razrv3m phone as a USB modem. Being in a very rural area I receive a weak signal, perhaps a booster will help, but it is still about 40 times as fast as dialup. Download is about 700-800, once in a while 900.