[LEStudios]

Depends on your city. I'm Houston and we have two carriers, Sprint and Clearwire that currently have 4G networks that have Unlimited Data Plans and within a couple months Comcast will be the third.

On May 7, 2008, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel's wireless broadband unit Xohm announced their intent to merge, combining Sprint's 4G WiMax network (Xohm) with Clearwire's existing pre-Wimax broadband network. Sprint will own 51% of the firm, with ex-Clearwire shareholders owning 27% — a consortium of Comcast, Time Warner, Intel, Google, and Bright House Networks will invest $3.2 billion and own the balance. (excerpt from Wikipedia)

Now this may heat things up for AT&T especially since they cut their Unlimited Data Plan on 3G but you local service provider above may be launching 4G in your area from the investors above. Check my blog out for more info and let me know what you feel because AT&T kinda gave everybody the shaft.

[ghporter]

Sprint barely covers anything outside Katy; can you get 3G from them in Tomball? In Navasota? Can you get cell service there? I get 2G service in Todd Mission, as well as decent cell service there, though AT&T is really swamped from October through November in that area.

I made a very careful examination of coverage from Sprint (including the big bump in coverage they got from buying Nextel), Verizon, and T-Mobile, and they could not show me they had more coverage in areas I wanted to go than AT&T does. And while the other guys have focused on extra coverage where there were few thin spots, like Houston's Medical Center (tall buildings meant everybody needed rooftop cell sites), only AT&T seems to have done much outside big cities and along major highways.

Further, I got service in Enid, OK, in Columbus, MS, and in the woods north of Little Rock with AT&T, but my companions were high and dry in all those places.

If only they weren't such a huge company, they might actually have some sort of "corporate personality." But they do provide me with the service I need, where I need it.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Sprint barely covers anything outside Katy; can you get 3G from them in Tomball? In Navasota? Can you get cell service there? I get 2G service in Todd Mission, as well as decent cell service there, though AT&T is really swamped from October through November in that area.

I made a very careful examination of coverage from Sprint (including the big bump in coverage they got from buying Nextel), Verizon, and T-Mobile, and they could not show me they had more coverage in areas I wanted to go than AT&T does. And while the other guys have focused on extra coverage where there were few thin spots, like Houston's Medical Center (tall buildings meant everybody needed rooftop cell sites), only AT&T seems to have done much outside big cities and along major highways.

Further, I got service in Enid, OK, in Columbus, MS, and in the woods north of Little Rock with AT&T, but my companions were high and dry in all those places.

If only they weren't such a huge company, they might actually have some sort of "corporate personality." But they do provide me with the service I need, where I need it.

Well said! You don't have to love ATT, you don't have to like their customer service record, you just have to have coverage in those areas that are relevant to you.

In other places in the US, other folks will make different decisions on the exact same points that you made above.

[mduell]

How to get your iPad online using a Sprint 4G MiFi or similar:

• Power on the MiFi
• Wait for it to acquire the network (20 seconds, in my absolute-best-case experience - usually much, much worse)
• Turn on the WiFi radio - another 10 second operation
• Turn on the 3G radio - 10 seconds to turn on, another 10 to get to 3G status
• Unlock the iPad, get it associated with the MiFi, get an IP address - another 10-15 seconds

How to get a 3G iPad online:

• Unlock it

(source)

[LEStudios]

Well in Alaska they don't have seem like two other choices that's T-Mobile and Sprint. There's no 4G there yet either. You got to look at that area. That 3G Unlimited Data is the best option since there are a weak broadband service provider such as AT&T DSL and their cable service is GCI Cmmunications that charge $104.99 a month for 10Mbps Download and 2Mbps Uploads plus it has a 40GB Cap! For AT&T doing Unlimited Data was like blessing! Now they taking it away is like a curse. Like I say check my blog and tell me what you think.

[ghporter]

Alaska's pretty big. Just where specifically are you that you don't have AT&T cell service? When I visited Juneau and Skagway, I had great cell service via AT&T, and though I didn't use it I did have data connections (I had a RAZR at the time).

[JMan09]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Sprint barely covers anything outside Katy; can you get 3G from them in Tomball? In Navasota? Can you get cell service there? I get 2G service in Todd Mission, as well as decent cell service there, though AT&T is really swamped from October through November in that area.

I made a very careful examination of coverage from Sprint (including the big bump in coverage they got from buying Nextel), Verizon, and T-Mobile, and they could not show me they had more coverage in areas I wanted to go than AT&T does. And while the other guys have focused on extra coverage where there were few thin spots, like Houston's Medical Center (tall buildings meant everybody needed rooftop cell sites), only AT&T seems to have done much outside big cities and along major highways.

Further, I got service in Enid, OK, in Columbus, MS, and in the woods north of Little Rock with AT&T, but my companions were high and dry in all those places.

If only they weren't such a huge company, they might actually have some sort of "corporate personality." But they do provide me with the service I need, where I need it.

Yeah I have Verizon and when I go with my girlfriend to her Grandma's house in North Louisiana I hardly get service on HWY 96 up past Jasper and onto 103 towards Louisiana. But my GF with AT&T and her iPhone gets about twice as good of service as me. But there are also some parts where she doesn't get service like me, it's the middle of nowhere though.

[LEStudios]

Yeah the sad part is that when Hurricane Ike came in 2008 AT&T was still 5 bars where everyone else was down especially Boost Mobile, Cricket, Sprint and I think Verizon too.

[asxless]

Originally Posted by LEStudios 

Depends on your city. ...

Actually it depends on your location. 'City folks' with lots of options tend to forget that they are SPOILED ROTTEN

At our house in the boonies:
Verizon cellular - ZERO bars
Sprint cellular - ZERO bars
T-Mobile cellular - ZERO bars
Verizon DSL -any day now, for the last 5 years
Cable -20 grand up front to pull wire from the nearest connection
Fiber - In our dreams
AT&T cellular - FIVE bars anywhere on our property

Guess who we use for Internet access and cell phone service - DUH

asxless in iLand

[macaddict0001]

Can you get DSL from anyone? I assume you have a landline. You can get satellite as long as you can see the sky as well, I know quite a few people who use that.

[LEStudios]

Wow! Are we talking DSL or Dial-up? Also you need tho check out my blog. Click on the link below.

[asxless]

Originally Posted by macaddict0001 

Can you get DSL from anyone? I assume you have a landline. You can get satellite as long as you can see the sky as well, I know quite a few people who use that.

Yes we have a Verizon land line. And every month Verizon includes a sales flier for "High Speed DSL" in our bill. But every time I check availability, their online system (and phone help) tell me that DSL is not currently available in our area.

The truth is that that despite all the hype about fiber, 4G, etc., people that live outside of the immediate vicinity of densely populated (e.g. major metro) areas have VERY LIMITED choices for internet access beyond dial-up. And compared to major metro areas, those choices are often more expensive or bandwidth/data-volume limited or both.

FWIW we had WildBlue Satellite Internet for 2 years. The latency makes "satellite internet" an oxymoron. And WildBlue has draconian bandwidth limits, exacerbated by their horrendously inefficient pre-caching of links on any page you view, in their feeble attempt to speed things up a bit. Using a secure site (e.g. banking, etc.) is down right painfully slow. After the 2nd LNB failed and Wildblue told us it would be $95 for the 'service call' + parts (estimated at $200+), we switched to AT&T cellular internet service even though the AT&T tower nearest us was still EDGE. Our internet experience improved dramatically on everything except downloads of large files. When the tower was upgraded to 3G we thought we had died and gone to heaven.

asxless in iLand

[LEStudios]

Yeah I got a friend in Louisiana. I think there are Parishes (aka County) still have Dial-Up. That state government is so corrupted if the US government gave them any money for programs the people will never see it.

[asxless]

Originally Posted by LEStudios 

Wow! Are we talking DSL or Dial-up? Also you need tho check out my blog. Click on the link below.

Here's a hint.

Some forum members with band limited internet access turn off all bandwidth hogging options like Avatars, Signatures etc. And now the AT&T data plans are band limited I suspect those numbers may grow

asxless in iLand