[Daniel Bayer]

I am about to take a long term photojournalism project out on the road for at least a year, possibly up to 4. I am looking to use other than wireless hot spots like T-mobile to gain internet access with using my MacBook Pro.

I saw an ad for a USB wireless card for broadband from Sprint and this spawned the idea of not relying on high population density cities for internet access. This is ideal since most of the project will be in rural or semi-urban areas.

Any thoughts on this? Experiences of a technical or fiscal nature would be greatly appreciated.

[Nivag]

I've used on this 3G USB dongle in the UK and it works well when in the 3G coverage area, otherwise it'll drop to the slower GPRS speeds elsewhere, which is ok for getting emails but can be slow for web browsing.
In the UK it's not cheap to use.

Otherwise if your existing mobile can be used as a modem you might be able to link it via Bluetooth. I've done this various Sony Ericsson phones.

[ghporter]

I would caution that data coverage will NOT be the same as basic cell coverage. In other words, in rural and semi-urban areas you may not find ANY cell coverage, and that you do find may not include data coverage.

I'd check with Sprint for their coverage map before buying anything from them; better to be disappointed than disappointed and out a bunch of money.