04-30-2004, 01:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Verizon To Criss-Cross USA With Speedy Data Service
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040408.html
"True wireless broadband is coming to the U.S. this year and next. By the end of 2005, courtesy of Verizon Wireless, you should be able to wirelessly connect a laptop, PDA or cellphone to the Internet at real broadband speeds from almost any location in every major U.S. metropolitan area. I'm not talking about the spread of more Wi-Fi "hot spots" in airports, coffee shops and similar places. I'm talking about wireless high-speed Internet service that you can use just about anywhere -- even on the street or in a car."
Speeds will be in the 300-500kpbs range. Man, GPRS is cool, but it is so slow sometimes.
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04-30-2004, 01:36 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 11
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Nextel is testing something similar in Raliegh, NC right now. They are claiming 1.5 mbs. It is supposed to be rolled out later this year.
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04-30-2004, 01:44 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 75
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The most interesting thing about this article to me (besides the fact that I want it, NOW, for $20 a month please  ) is his mention of a few phones and PDAs enabled for it...
EVDO enabled Treo 600 anyone?
TM
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04-30-2004, 01:50 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 651
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I have access to an EVDO card but I nee to goto DC to test it out. I'll see if I can get to DC soon and see how well it works, wow this would work wonders for me using snapstream. I could increase the bitrate of the stream and get a much nicer picture  .
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04-30-2004, 02:15 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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AND still no Bluetooth enabled phone to make it easy for us to use the service. :roll:
First off, this sounds like an awesome type of service for heavy travellers. I would gladly pay $80.00/month for unlimited data access - if it's widely available, can achieve these broadband type speeds, and is easy to use. However, something tells me that Verizon won't let me just have an EVO enable phone with Bluetooth that can act as a modem for my PDA and laptop. I'm either going to have to hope to find some sort of cable (unlikely for my PDA) or purchase a separate flash/PCMCIA card to actually use the service.
I't seems companies like to advertise great services, but aren't always real excited when you actually want to use them-- think ATT Wireless' new "unlimited" data access that really isn't.
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04-30-2004, 02:50 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 97
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When this service was released back in October I jumped on the opportunity, and had my company buy me one to test out. And the service really did work great! I live in DC, and rarely had a problem. in fact I really didn�t notice to big of a difference between my office connection and this one, in terms of real usability for email and mostly non multimedia web browsing and often just left the card in and used the wireless connection all day. However, at this point I have canceled the service (although I still have the card). The $80.00 a month on top of everything else that we deploy starts to add up, especial when we are trying to cut as many costs as possible, and having GPRS data services and then EV-DO as well for the same people get costly. I also found that I really didn�t use it all that often out of the office or meetings (I would attribute this to testing the service in the winter, and we got a cold winter this year in DC, so no one wanted to spend much time outside (although now that it is nice I almost wish I still had service) and second, I rarely need laptop access outside of the office here in DC. if I carry my laptop (which is middle weight 14", so sort of a pain to carry around) I will normally be going somewhere there is wireline or wi-fi access, so there wasn�t much of a use. It was a blast to use in my tablet in most places, so for me one of issues is the portability of the machine I am using. We are keeping the cards so once VZW has better roll out in their network we can redeploy them, it would be great to travel with if the coverage area is large enough, and at that point it would be worth the $80.00/mo, it may also be possible to cut users wi-fi subscriptions (TMO hotspots) with this service.
Overall the service is amazing, when I was testing there fewer users on the network so hopefully with they will keep the load to a reasonable amount so as not to affect speed to much. If you are in coverage and are out a lot with your laptop it is a great service.
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04-30-2004, 02:53 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 980
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did they mention the price?
That service will cost a fortune. One of the reason why I still dont have DSL at home is the price, 40 $/month is more than what I'm willing to pay for any Internet service (currently I'm paying just 9 dollars to my local telephone cia for a dialup connection  )
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04-30-2004, 03:03 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 31
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ctitanic
did they mention the price?
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Yeah, in the article it said $80/month. Actually, that's not a bad price when you consider it...
1. NEW TECHNOLOGY IS EXPENSIVE!!!
2. Verizon has a LOT of capital $$$ to make back. $80/month is a good way to start.
3. WIRED broadband will cost you $40 to $50 (not counting "special deals"). This technology is a premium now. Expect the price to drop or the features to increase. Look at mobile phones now compared to 5 years ago in terms of pricing and features.
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04-30-2004, 03:18 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 97
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It is pricy, but they are targeting business users that are higher revenue customer and will normally pay more then the customer. But I agree with Mossberg the price should come down. And I am sure that it will. They do have a premium product that no one else has right now, that is worth charging more. And in one of VZW's press releases they will be spending more then $1 Billion in this EV-Do roll out through 2005, so they have to generate a return.
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04-30-2004, 03:23 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 298
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ctitanic
40 $/month is more than what I'm willing to pay for any Internet service (currently I'm paying just 9 dollars to my local telephone cia for a dialup connection ) |
I once thought that way, too. $9 is a lot nicer sounding than $40, but good lord is dial up unbearable! I can take the 3 less times a month of eating out and put that cash to my net connection.
As to this $80/month thing, I really don't see anyone other than corporate accounts rolling this out for employees. As a home user? To pay more than my cable connection AND my GPRS combined just to have faster wireless on my PDA? No, suh.
I'll happily wait the extra year or two for the prices to come down to earth. :mrgreen:
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