Millenicom Wireless: a review and test

For those not familiar, Millenicom is a new service offering nationwide mobile broadband internet. They use existing cell towers, presumably Verizon currently. There is no contract and the cost is $59.99 a month, UNLIMITED. They are truly UNLIMITED, no 5gb cap. I suppose this could always change but they told me on the phone that have no current plans to place a cap.

There is a one-time $49.99 set-up charge, but that includes the wireless device. You don't buy the modem, they send you one and then whenever you cancel you send it back to them. The device I received is a Pantech UM175 USB modem.

I haven't got on the open road with it yet. I will keep a running review on how well it works across the country. As for here in Norman OK, it's very, very, slow. Practically dial-up speed. But I was told to expect this as Norman is outside of broadband coverage. They were reluctant to sell me the service until I told them I was in Norman only a few days a month.

They would not tell me on the phone which cell towers they use, but it's been documented on some other well-known digital forums, that Millenicom is using Verizon's towers. Here is the coverage map for 3g Broadband Coverage through Verizon.

You can still get on the internet in most of the non-coverage areas, but not high speed.

Even so, my initial impression is not good with how slow it is here in Norman, 30 miles south of Okla. City. We'll see how it goes when I get on the road.




Map Legend
Verizon Wireless Broadband EV-DO Rev-A
Verizon Wireless and AT&T Network Overlap
AT&T DataConnect (HSPA)

 

Oklahoma panhandle -- have slow access

Southern Colorado desert -- have slow access

Colorado Springs -- high speed, able to stream video

This is looking fairly good so far. I like to be able to get on the internet almost anywhere and have high speed as many places as possible. I can handle the bad coverage in Oklahoma as I'm not there much. I don't expect to cover a lot of territory before Christmas. So I'll pick up the review with the New Year.

That's what I had with Sprint. I need more than 5gb.