This weekend I badly missed my old EV-DO connection. I’ve pretty well decided that I need to bite the bullet and get an EV-DO card. I don’t have a lot of monthly business expenses, and getting stuck without an internet connection is a big problem for a one-man shop.
The question now is how best to set up the service. Oh how I wish I could pay a daily usage fee…
If I buy a card without a plan, I believe I could activate and deactivate service as desired without major penalty. Each activation might have a fee associated with it, has anyone tried this? Tips/pitfalls?
Let us know if you’re able to get a card without a plan. I researched getting an EVDO card a while ago and found it expensive and wasn’t able to get it w/o a plan. I’d like to get it w/o a plan as you say and enable/deactivate at my own pleasure.. just as a backup to our comcast cable line. I can only imagine there would be some type of hefty fee associated with constantly enabling/deactivating it.
Cause for concern, but you might want to make sure it works on Mac OS X, as that page states Windows only. I know Apple has made drivers, but I don’t remember if it’s for the USB version too?
Paul – the Sprint web site offers it without a plan (says “perfect for gifts”).
Jasmeet – thanks, a friend of mine uses this with his MacBook Pro.
Alex, Sprint offers the card in-store without a plan either to give as a “gift”. Unfortunately, from what I have been told, that does not free you from having to activate on a contract later down the road. I think the idea behind giving as a gift is for current customers to utilize for themselves, or entice someone else to sign up for service. Like Paul, I tried to activate on a month-by-month basis and they wouldn’t do it citing rules. I ended up having to get the USB EVDO modem on contract. I’m not disappointed at all. I move between using the EVDO USB modem to my Vaio which has a built-in EVDO modem on a weekly basis with ESN swaps. I know a few other people who tried to activate without contract citing the “give as a gift” option only receive clarification for CSRs that a contract was indeed necessary.
I don’t know though, maybe it’s possible to convince someone in-store to activate without.
I bought the Novatel U720 modem for my little macbook and it’s been great.
I had to get it on a separate contract and i think it’s considered an extra line cuz it’s got it’s own number. I don’t believe you can do pay-as-you-go or month to month.
despite having to use parallels to get it initialized, it’s the best thing i’ve done since i’m travelling or in a remote location so much.
both sprint/verizon allow a user to suspend service for up to half a year, but sprint requires you to have used it for 3mos first, and verizon won’t let you suspend more than 60days at a time.
in both cases, the time your account is suspended, also lengthens your contract.
verizon has been rumored to soon offer daily/weekly/monthly rates without contract, but at ridiculous rates like $15/day!?
Until Parallels supports Blackberries in Windows for EVDO on my MacBook Pro, Mac users are necessarily relegated to standalone EVDO cards in Canada. The cost, I have been assured by ourcompany’s telecom people, is roughly the same for Blackberry EVDO and EVDO PCMCIA cards. However, the greater benefits of having voice, email and EVDO in one, far outweigh the standalone EVDO card. Why will blackberry not support the Mac platform? I haven’t yet seen a cogent response to this question.
I’ve got the Sprint EVDO ExpressCard… I just picked it up about two weeks ago. They wouldn’t let me activate w/o contract, so I’m not sure how that’ll work.
Getting it provisioned requires Windows, I just did it inside of Parallels on my MacBook Pro, but once that’s done, you can use it with the Mac OS’s built in WWAN drivers.
The service is really solid and VERY VERY handy. I was using $50 or so a month of wireless hotspot access, so the jump up to the $59 unlimited plan wasn’t a huge shock. I like to work in odd places while waiting for my wife (coffee shops, bookstores, etc.) and wireless access in Denver is still pretty crap compared to Cali or even here in Austin.
It’s also really come in handy at this conference (SXSW) because the conference wireless (like most conference wireless) is terribly overloaded and slow as molasses in January.
But I highly recommend the Sprint service. I love it.
I’ve placed an order for the Sprint USB card, should be getting it soon. Thanks all!
[…] didn’t waste much time fixing my CD problems. After my post on Sunday resulted in a bunch of “I’ve got the Sprint card and it rocks” comments and […]
[…] – A quick weekend jaunt to Phoenix for some golf, then I take the plunge on an EVDO card. I start a tumblog and release a bunch more plugin updates (including a new one). […]