question about internet access OTR...

Ok so I've been looking at air cards and everything for my laptop, but I thought about just using my cell phone for internet. Is there an advantage to using an air card over your cell phone for this purpose? The laptop I have now doesn't have a PCMCIA slot so I would either have to use a usb air card or get a usb to PCMCIA adapter and use the PCMCIA card in that. I'm going to buy a laptop once i get on the road that has a PCMCIA slot in it, so the adapter would be the more logical way to go. My question is this.. are the speeds comparable when using your cell phone as a modem or would the air card be a better way to go? What are the differences? Thanks guys!

 

I am in the same boat that you are and have been looking at getting an air card but I noticed you are only allowed 5mb per month. I would want it for chatting with the wife and kids over skype but am unsure how much bandwidth that would take. I guess as long as I kept it down as much as I could and use the occasional hotspot it would be ok. I just wouldn't want to go over the 5mb and have to pay a huge bill. I suppose though if you had 3G speed on your cell phone it would be quite fast connected to your laptop.

 

Do you have a 3G phone? If not, a cellular broadband card (aircard) would be your best bet. If you're not too worried about the speeds, I believe tethering plans are cheaper than aircard plans. It all depends on what phone/service you have now. And to make it clear, you're allowed 5 GB of transfer per month with most plans, not MB.

 

to be honest, I'm not sure if it's 3G or not.. I have a Samsung Delve and I'm with Alltel (Verizon bought them out and are switching next week i believe) I tried looking it up to see if it's 3G and I couldn't find anywhere that said it is, so I'm assuming it probably isn't. I'll probably end up going with an air card, but I thought if this was effective, it might be something to look into

well i found that it's a smart phone if that makes any difference.. I already have the unlimited data plan with this phone, so the limit wouldn't be an option if i went this route.

 

After reading a little on this forum I found that millenicom has an unlimited air card plan for 69.99 per month. Has pretty good reviews so search for millenicom and read about it as it is probably what I will get.

 

I have Sprint I have a combo plan my cell and my 3G internet card. I pay roughly 90 a month. I never come close to using all my min on the phone and as far as the 3G card never come close to using up all my bandwidth. Your aloted 5GB of upstream/downstream. If you just use it for emails ,surfing websites, streaming news reports, occasional download of music, yahoo messenger using webcam, and the occasional adult site you'll be fine for the month and not go over. I use mine on a daily basis. Highly recommend it. It works almost anywhere too as long as you have a signal it'll work.

 

We're with Sprint as well. They told me that 5GB is the equivalent of something phenomenal like downloading 100,000 songs or 1,000,000 emails per month. I haven't actually tried it yet though.

 

yeah i've read about them too.. if i ended up going the air card route, that is definitely who i'm going through. although I called alltel and they said they have an unlimited plan for the same thing, but you have to get a contract and with millenicom you don't.. Lord knows how much i hate contracts.

 

Awesome!! hahaha I really don't think i'll be using THAT much as I'll be driving the majority of the time, but for $10 more than the 5GB plan for the unlimited plan, i'll still get the unlimited just to be safe.

 

double post.. oops