Verizon 3G vs Millenicom

Joshie · #1 09/21/10, 03:36 PM

We have millenicom.com 3G internet. This is on the Sprint network. We're at the very edge of their coverage area. We have an antenna and it works fine at home. Not anywhere close to DSL but it works well most of the time. On the highway it's wonderful.

DH had to kill some time between appointments and, unfortunately, went to Best Buy. He talked with the people there about internet. They were selling Verizon 3G. Their coverage is much, much better than Sprint's. But....

Millenicom Pros: Unlimited use, has not contract, works very well when traveling, and works fine at home.

Cons: Costs $70/month, updates are slow

Verizon Pros: Costs $60/month, good coverage at home

Cons: 2 year contract, 5 gigabyte monthly limit, 5¢/megabyte overage fee, $175 early termination fee, and $35 activation fee.

DH is a photographer and uploads photographs. I'm in bed most of the time and play facebook games much of the day. We have no way to tell how much we're currently using.

So... anybody have Verizon? What do you think of it?

Txrider · #2 09/21/10, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

We have millenicom.com 3G internet. This is on the Sprint network. We're at the very edge of their coverage area. We have an antenna and it works fine at home. Not anywhere close to DSL but it works well most of the time. On the highway it's wonderful.

DH had to kill some time between appointments and, unfortunately, went to Best Buy. He talked with the people there about internet. They were selling Verizon 3G. Their coverage is much, much better than Sprint's. But....

Millenicom Pros: Unlimited use, has not contract, works very well when traveling, and works fine at home.

Cons: Costs $70/month, updates are slow

Verizon Pros: Costs $60/month, good coverage at home

Cons: 2 year contract, 5 gigabyte monthly limit, 5¢/megabyte overage fee, $175 early termination fee, and $35 activation fee.

DH is a photographer and uploads photographs. I'm in bed most of the time and play facebook games much of the day. We have no way to tell how much we're currently using.

So... anybody have Verizon? What do you think of it?

If your uploading and downloading a lot of photos you'll likely burn through 5GB pretty fast...

I would look at getting an amplifier to connect to your antenna if you don't have one, or a more powerful one if you do.

kendall j · #3 09/21/10, 09:32 PM

Does Millenicom not offer a plan using the verizon network? We have millenicom and it uses Verizon here.

vicki in NW OH · #4 09/21/10, 09:34 PM

My Millenicom uses Verizon also.

Joshie · #5 09/21/10, 10:14 PM

Hmmm. I'm going to have to ask my hubby about that. They told us that they used Sprint. Sprint coverage is spotty. Seems to follow highways mostly. If we could get millenicom via Verizon, that'd be wonderful.

Common Tator · #6 09/22/10, 06:46 AM

I don't know what the difference is between a millinicom and a mifi. We have a mifi with Verizon for the ranch. No DSL out there yet. We have DSL at the house in the burbs and love it. The mifi is slower, but better than dialup. We can both be online at the same time. We can use it on the road and that is nice.

Rick · #7 09/22/10, 07:33 AM

I'm just guessing but could hubby zip or compress the photos before uploading?

FarmerRob · #8 09/22/10, 10:20 AM

I agree with Txrider. Photos, especially with today's high megapixel counts will eat up their limit quickly. For a professional photographer (or even a serious amateur,) an unlimited usage plan makes much more sense.

Illini · #9 09/22/10, 01:58 PM

Hi, Joshie.

I just bought a VirginMobile MiFi at WMart for approximately $160.00 with tax. UNLIMITED bandwith is $40.00 per month, with no contract.

I'm very pleased. No, I'm actually giddy! I can use Skype now. I watched a season premier show this morning on Hulu that I missed while I was at work last night

No more HughesNet and their draconian FAP! Yay!

Joshie · #10 09/22/10, 05:05 PM

What's MiFi?

Illini · #11 09/22/10, 08:09 PM

Hi, again.

MiFi is a small, wireless router. You can connect up to five devices to it, but it does not broadcast very far. It works great in the house, but I doubt that I'd get a signal, say, in the barn.

Here's a review from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/te...ref=technology

Hope this helps!

Joshie · #12 09/23/10, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendall j

Does Millenicom not offer a plan using the verizon network? We have millenicom and it uses Verizon here.

DH went in town to get the Verizon 3G. We have 3 days to try it out and get all our money back. He wanted to do this to see if Verizon worked out here. If it did, we planned to contact Millenicom and change the Sprint plan to a Verizon plan. The store showed that Verizon covered our area very solidly.

Well..... I'm thinking that the store's map that showed very solid Verizon coverage was very misleading. I'm thinking that that map included Verizon home phones, cell phones, and 3G 'cause we couldn't connect at all out here. So.... the Verizon 3G is going back to the store and we're not going to ask Millenicom to switch from Sprint to Verizon. Oh, well, we gave it a try.

Joshie · #13 09/23/10, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illini

Hi, again.

MiFi is a small, wireless router. You can connect up to five devices to it, but it does not broadcast very far. It works great in the house, but I doubt that I'd get a signal, say, in the barn.

So it's just a router, not the internet itself? We have a wireless router with our millenicom and we can have several computers on at the same time.

Hmmm, I went back and read that article. I'll have to ask DH if we'd have 3G coverage for that. Verizon isn't out here. I'm not sure if that 3G is.

SolarGary · #14 09/23/10, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

So it's just a router, not the internet itself? We have a wireless router with our millenicom and we can have several computers on at the same time.

Hmmm, I went back and read that article. I'll have to ask DH if we'd have 3G coverage for that. Verizon isn't out here. I'm not sure if that 3G is.

We were using the Mi-Fi up until about a month ago.
It is a wireless router, but hooks up to and comes with the Verizon 3G internet connection.
We found the 5gb limit to be livable, and we do use the internet quite a bit. We only went over the limit in one month by a 200 mb. But, the 5G limit is something you have to keep an eye -- the cost per mb goes up dramatically if you go over the limit. For reasons known only to Verizon, there is no cost effective way to buy service about the 5 gb limit -- the rates just become prohibitive.

Found the speed to be "OK" -- not exceptional, but adequate -- somewhere between a dial up and DSL. The reliability was fair.
A nice bonus was that the service works anywhere Verizon is -- you can use it from the car, motels, ...

We replaced the Mi-Fi with a wireles radio connection that they offer now in our location. This is something you might look into. The way it works here is the company providing the service sets up an antenna that services most of our valley. You get an antenna on your house and the two talk to each other -- they look like small microwave antennas.
We have found this to be faster and less subject to ups and downs both in speed and service that we had on the Mi-Fi. Price is about the same -- expensive.

Gary

Joshie · #15 09/23/10, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolarGary

We were using the Mi-Fi up until about a month ago.
It is a wireless router, but hooks up to and comes with the Verizon 3G internet connection.

We replaced the Mi-Fi with a wireles radio connection that they offer now in our location. This is something you might look into.

Gary, DH asked about MiFi. They told us that if our current service is not perfect, we wouldn't want MiFi. The customer rep said that MiFi runs on a secondary service and is slower and it's easier to get kicked off.

I've tried to google about the radio internet. Can't really find anything. We're in IL. I've asked about the wireless radio but nobody around here has even heard of it.

SolarGary · #16 09/24/10, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

Gary, DH asked about MiFi. They told us that if our current service is not perfect, we wouldn't want MiFi. The customer rep said that MiFi runs on a secondary service and is slower and it's easier to get kicked off.

I've tried to google about the radio internet. Can't really find anything. We're in IL. I've asked about the wireless radio but nobody around here has even heard of it.

Hi,
This is one of the companies that offers the radio wireless in our area:
http://www.littleappletech.com/internetAccess.php

It gives a pretty good description of how they provide the service.

I doubt if they operate where you are, but the description might give you some better stuff to google on.

We have actually been with 3 of the radio internet services over time, and the one we are on now (Transaria) has been the best one -- point being that they do vary in quality, speed and reliability.

Gary