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Wireless Broadband

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by thechas

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Hi all,

Looking for experience and opinions here.

My extended family lives in a rural area that does not have any cable or DSL broadband access. One option that I have found for them is Verizon Wireless broadband.

According to the coverage maps, they should have good access to signals.

My questions include:

Have any of you used wireless broadband?

How was the speed?

Any significant issues?

All in all, it sounds like a better option than satellite or multiple phone lines.

While I have not seriously looked into it, I suspect Verizon would be less expensive than an ISDN or T1 line to the farm.

1 more thing, my sister has the option to work from home if she can get fast enough and secure broadband.

Chas

3 replies

by michael kassner

I have a Sprint PC card data plan and would be completely lost without it. Both Sprint and Verizon average download speeds of 600 Kbps ? 1.4 Mbps and at average upload speeds of 500 Kbps ? 800 Kbps. It is not the greatest, but you have access anywhere there are cell towers and that is critical in my world. Also most wireless data providers have or will have new 3G or EV-DO plans with better data rates.

Your sister would have to check with her employer's broadband requirements to see if the data plans would be sufficient. Also wireless data plans are not the cheapest ISP, but in many cases is is not the critical deal-breaker.

Finally this access is a great deal more secure than normal Ethernet or Wi-Fi access.

by nicknielsen

It's a corporate account at (I think) $69.95 unlimited access. As has been said, speeds aren't the greatest and will very depending on network load. Currently, at my house in a small town in SC, I'm getting, at best, indicated download speeds of 65-70 kbps.

But I can pull off the Interstate almost anywhere in the boon-toolies and connect. Can't beat that.

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