Ugh, cell phone companies

[altivo]

Gary got antsy and went and signed a contract with Verizon for 3G/EVDO service. His brother was here at New Year's with a laptop and a similar connection that apparently worked. That overrode all my cautious advice, I guess.

So they gave him a USB modem (USB760) and 5GB per month for $60 a month on a 24 month contract. I have no idea how fast he'll eat that up, but I suspect if he starts diddling with Google Earth and you-boob it won't take long. The instructions for installing the thing stink. The specs are nonexistent. Linux is not only unsupported, but not even mentioned. Likewise, connection sharing, unless possibly if you buy a wireless router (we do not use wi-fi in the house and I don't want to start.)

Worse, if he is connected via Verizon with this thing, any activity on the local ethernet LAN by my PC seems to cause it to disconnect from Verizon. I suspect this has to do with the way his Windows XP was configured for ICS using an ordinary dialup modem, but who knows. Microsoft is singularly obtuse about these things.

Since the USB760 is essentially a cell phone, and has provisions for sending and receiving text or connecting a voice handset of some sort. it seems at least possible that ICS could be activated for it by linking Windows' own dial up networking to the 3G modem in the device, and bypassing Verizon's VZAccess software (which is brain dead anyway) but I'm not sure how to begin. As for borrowing the device and connecting it to my Linux workstation, that's probably hopeless in the extreme.

He's got three days in which he can cancel and get a full refund, and 30 days in which he can cancel by paying $70. After that the impossible cell phone contract kicks in and we're stuck with the thing for two years.

I'm irritated because it only gets one bar out of four for signal strength. Even my cheap VM cell phone gets two here. I have no idea whether he could have done better with Sprint/Nextel or AT&T, and neither does he. Sigh.

Comments

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

Hard for me to say Tivo. If I was living there then I would certainly crave for a fast connection so I can probably see why someone would sign up for something like this.

At a guess I would say Verizon has the best coverage for this stuff but I have no proof of that.

If he is happy with it and it works for his needs then keep it. If you both are already frustrated then can it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think the equipment is probably workable, and the software can be altered to meet our needs. The data cap is the big worry, and apparently they have no unlimited or larger plan available. Fortunately, we don't play games. But he has no control over what his school expects him to do, and they are utterly insensitive to bandwidth usage.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

I would be concerned about the cap but then again we are heavy users. I seriously doubt you will find an unlimited plan. Verizon canned that some time ago. The only reason Kevin's mom has not altered her service is that she is grandfathered in.

Good luck with it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Sprint has unlimited available but only in certain geographic areas. Not here, of course, but in the large cities where people can choose between dozens of options for broadband.

You can also get unlimited on some "corporate" type plans, but the price runs $250 a month or so. I didn't think the cell network would be a good option, but he's convinced he has to have something. I'm going to try to talk him into a new notebook or laptop computer with wi-fi. It will cost less than two years on this limited plan, and he can take it to any number of hot spots in the area, like public libraries or Starbucks. He can also take it to school with him. I hate laptop computers, but this might be a better approach for him.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

For some reason I thought he already had a laptop. At any rate, if he does not have one now then this might be the better option. Laptops are not my favorite but they do serve a purpose.

Is WiFi free at Starbucks? I know when I was traveling A LOT I signed up with Boingo for like $10/month which gave me WiFi at the airports and a lot of other places.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Wi-fi is free at Starbucks at least if you have a Starbucks cash card. They limit the number of hours per day, though. At least that's what I understand. My dentist gave me a card before Christmas with $5 on it. I don't frequent Starbucks and I hate their coffee so I haven't used it. But when I registered the card to activate it, there was an option to register for the wi-fi and get a password to it. That was my understanding, that you could have two hours a day at no charge. I'm sure they assume you will buy something and probably most everyone will.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

Starbucks is the devil. They have convinced half the world to buy their swill which is nothing more than burnt beans no matter what fancy-smancy name they market it under. *deep breath* Sorry...no more ranting.

Speaking of coffee. Have you ever tried "Community Coffee"? There are two of us in the office that refuse to drink the generic coffee they buy for the office and tried this on a whim since we were out of 'Dunkin Donuts' brand. It was not bad but we were not impressed.

Where were we? Oh yeah, wifi.

I think given the option of the two I would probably go for laptop and a wifi signal at a hotspot. Surely he could download what he needs away from home and then cope with dialup at home if he needed something else.

*snickers* If it is was me though...I would be figuring out some way to sell my soul to the devil and get high speed net service at home in return but that's just me. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I don't think the devil is the least bit interested in my soul, it's much too boring. Gary's is no better.

No one seems to believe me when I say that there really IS no high speed net service here. Like about 35% of US residences, it simply is not available for any price. Well, I suppose if you paid AT&T the full cost of running T-1 here from somewhere and then committed to their monthly charge of $700 or so, you could get it. It would take several months to get it installed and the installation would run many thousands. There is no DSL here. They have no plans to upgrade the lines so they could provide it. There is no line of site on satellite or terrestrial broadband from a local provider. There is no cable television line. You can have dialup or you can pay a cell phone company for an unreliable service (again, no good line of sight, so service is flaky and weak) at their exhorbitant rate.

Your typical user of online games, music and video downloads would run up monthly charges of $1200 and up at the cell phone rate. I wouldn't even pay that on a mortgage, certainly not just for internet access.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I have a dark side and am surely not as pure and innocent as the unicorn persona I wear. I'm sure I could negotiate some high speed access from the devil in a pinch. ;)

I have heard you complain enough about how your area is growing and gaining population. One would think that eventually better access would come to the area due to more people living there.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I imagine it will get here eventually, but I may well be dead first. When they can extract money at the rates they get for cell phone data plans, why would they spend millions to provide better service at a lower rate? Wireless broadband or satellite work for perhaps 60 to 70% of residences here because they are farmhouses out in the open surrounded by cornfields. There is no obstruction to the line on a tower or satellite.

We live in a dense oak grove though. I like it that way, and frankly, I'm quite willing to forgo high speed internet for it. The trees and birds are worth it and more.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

Ah! I was wondering how that worked. I bought some Starbucks cards at Costco and never got around to registering them. They worked just fine without it, and I usually only visit Starbucks that are inside another store, which don't have WiFi.