Best Broadband

$45 a month for two gigs? That's how I see it. The 2 gig plan costs $25 and tethering costs $25 more. That may be enough for some but not for me. They've always had tethering plans though, $60 for 5 gigs, but they didn't make it available for the iPhone. Plus, you don't need a smartphone to tether, my Samsung slider phone tethers 3g quite nicely.

 

Have you ever been off the interstate in South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho? If you have you know your AT&T phone won't even get a signal let alone your wifi device. Get Verizon if you want a signal off the beaten path in any of these states.

 

lets see a year old test and 12 of the largest cities
again the question is who gives the best 3G coverage nationwide and Verizon wins hands down.
next year they will win 4G coverage hands down
ATT is not even planning the 4G upgrade (nationwide) until late 2012

 

It's a long ways from Fargo to Spokane and if you don't have Verizon you ain't covered.

 

Though I've posted our results here previously, it has been about a year so I'll update it (since it is still the topic of many of the tech posts.)

- Background and test methodology: I have an uncapped Verizon USB aircard and (as of yesterday) a Droid X. We speak to an average of 30 to 50 drivers per day who are using all variations of cell and mobile broadband service. In addition I remotely "connect" to driver's laptops pretty much every day to perform a variety of technical support and "fixing" actions and they are almost always using an aircard at the time. Having been doing these things for over a decade has given us a wide-spectrum view of all of the technologies and it is "real-time" as you all get new devices and the cell companies evolve their services. So, for what it is worth, here are our latest opinions. And no, I have no "dog in the hunt" whatsoever with any of these devices or companies.

Coverage: (the ability to connect across the country, even in the "middle of nowhere." Also the percentage of dropped voice calls.)
1. Verizon (their coverage is vast. Period.) I have connected to driver's computers while they've been in extremely remote parts of the country and their voice service rarely drops during a call on this provider.
2. Sprint (these guys seem to have the highest likelihood of device incompatibilities and general "wackiness" issue with Windows. Having to reinstall drivers, and in more than one case, a bad corruption of some Windows files. It is not terribly chronic, but worth mentioning because it has happened on a more alarming percentage than any other brand. However, they do come in second in terms of national coverage and dropped calls.)
3. AT&T (these guys score very well in speed as you will see next, but in nationwide raw coverage and dropped calls, they are considerably lower than Verizon and Sprint. If you drive primarily in their higher strength regions (I-95 in the Northeast for instance) than you will be generally shielded from their converge woes. But if you drive OTR all over, you will experience this shortcoming more often.)
4. T-Mobile (these guys come in last of the big-4 in terms of coverage)

Speed of broadband (on your laptop) and data transfer (on the phone itself.)
1. AT&T (when in their 3G network spots) is very fast. Faster than their competitors by a fair margin. The rather large downside is that the areas where they actually serve up at these speeds are generally in your large urban centers where they have updated their equipment. So again, if your driving career happens to center in their strong areas, then they may be the best choice. But if you go "everywhere" then I don't feel that they are.
2. Verizon (on average, when I am connected to those with the Verizon cards, the connection is plenty fast enough to do support on their computer and for them to do "normal" internet usage. With their coverage being so consistent in most areas, the speed drop below AT&T's seems well worth the trade for coverage. We're talking the difference between 1400 Kbps for AT&T in their limited 3G centers to 800 - 900 Kbps for Verizon in a much wider coverage base.
3. T-Mobile and Sprint (both have average speeds very similar to each other, and very similar to Verizon.)

A note on 4G: Yes, it is the newest buzzword being thrown around in this arena, but don't be convinced to buy a device or provider based on this yet. Though they are all throwing it around, and Sprint is declaring themselves the "first" to have widespread rollout later this year, these companies still have to spend millions in tower upgrades to make it practical and widespread. Just take a look at the current 3G coverage (which is spotty at best) and you will see that 4G is going to take years to go nationwide. And the expression "5G" is already being tossed around in some long-range development meetings.

"But I have full bars" - I hear this all the time. It doesn't mean $%*# in terms of speed. It only indicates your proximity to the provider's towers, but the quality of the broadband service varies GREATLY regardless of "how many bars you have." It is very easy to test your ability to use the internet wherever you stop by doing a speed test. Go to speedtest.org or speakeasy.net/speedtest to check your current connection speed. If you can download at 50 - 100K then you are barely faster than dialup. From 100 - 400K you have usable speed for decent email and site surfing. From 400 - 900K you are in good shape for video or music surfing to a reasonable degree. Above 1Mbps you are getting great mobile speed by today's standards.

On last note: the "Droid X." Got one of these yesterday and it may just be an aircard killer. This unit acts as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. You can connect up to 5 computers or devices wirelessly to it using Verizon's aircard / broadband network. Just turn on the mobile hotspot feature, enter a security code, and anyone who you give that code to gets broadband from it at whatever your current connection speed is. You could literally have several drivers connected at once surfing the web on their laptops through the phone in your pocket. It is $20 per month for 2Gigs and $10 per gig of usage above that. It's kinda like a wireless router or a wireless aircard so to speak. It sucks some serious battery power when you do this though, so best to be plugged into the charger if your are going to be surfing for a while.

- Don

<disclaimer: this is based on our results within the "trucking world." Though much of it agrees with results declared by various "techie" websites and articles, if you find somebody's review or chart differing - this is my story and I'm sticking to it. Do your own speed and coverage testing and report it here. This is your world after all, and data is hard to argue with...>

 

The data plan on the PHONE is unlimited for $29.99.

If you want the phone to tether wirelessly and serve up as a WiFi hotspot for up to 5 laptops, then that is $20 for the first 2 Gigs and $10 per gig of usage after that in any given month.

 

As truckers, we are really a different segment of the tech market in regards to all these devices.

My laptop is front of me almost every waking hour so my need for an advanced smart phone is less. Though I sure would like to have one. The Droid X could be the answer. I could get rid of my wireless card for the laptop, from Millenicom, and use the Droid as a hotspot so I could be online on any device at any given point in time.

Though the problem would be that the data plan for the phone and using it as wi-fi hotspot are probably separate. You probably must have a data plan for the phone separate from what you are charged for data usage under the hot spot usage.

So I would be looking at $30 a month for the phone data plan plus the $20 for 2 gigs with additional $10 for each additional gig I would use from the data going to my laptop. That would end up putting me over the $69 I pay each month for an unlimited plan from Millenicom.

It just means that my phone is just a phone. Though since my laptop is in front of me 90&#37; of the time, it is not such a big deal. Though there are those times when I'm out somewhere and really wish I had something like the Droid X to meet all my needs.

At this point it comes down to money and what I'm willing to pay for these luxuries.