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Review by mrbrown23 
Posted: 4 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
 Paris,Lamar,TX
 $60 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "works better when your in evdo range."
 "just as slow as dial up if not in evdo range."
 "don't waste your money if you don't have evdo service."
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When I originally purchased this from alltel they had an agreement with sprint that they could use their 3g towers. Now that verizon purcahsed alltel sprint kick them off and it is not worth 20 a month. IMO This is in Paris Texas when you see verizons commercials and you see the the little white spot along the Oklahoma and N.E. Texas border thats us.
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Review by infomas
Posted: 14 days ago
member for 3.4 years, 7 visits, last login: 14 days ago
Tustin,Orange,CA
 Business customer
$60 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"fast, great coverage, easy to use, multpile users"
"no password on router, could always be cheaper, 5 gig limit"
"internet everywhere, if you can afford it"
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I walked out of the Verizon store with a working Myfi. We took a 2 hour trip up north the next day and my wife used her laptop most of the way with no interruptions.With the ability to support 5 devices, there are all sorts of possibilities here. We are planning a company retreat with 5 of us taking a limo out of town. We will be able to work in the limo (maybe this isn't a good thing) and pretty much anywhere we go that has signal. I installed Skype on my ITouch and I now have a second phone. I put on my bluetooth headphones, put my internet radio station on the the ITouch and threw the myfi and ITouch in my gym bag. Played racquetball while listening to music. Can you tell I'm a happy geek? I am no where near using up the bandwidth for the month and am easily getting my money's worth. I considered the Sprint version of this, but decided that Verizon was going to have the better coverage. They both use the same hardware and have similar pricing. If you have the money ($60 a month plus tax) it is a great alternative to a phone card.
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 Review by We No Speak
UPDATED: 33 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 48 visits, last login: 13 days ago
Nevada City,Nevada,CA
$60 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Signal strength varies, but can always connect"
"Speeds are never consistent and waiting for Gmail can cause rapid aging"
"Sure beats Dial-Up, but don't expect much more"
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I'm a long-time cable customer and recently moved to the sticks. Strictly Dial-up or Satellite country. I tried to get Satellite, but the startup costs [because of my specific issues with location and housing structure] would have been enormous.
One day I strolled into the local Verizon Store [Nevada City] and spoke with a sales rep. Within 20 minutes I walked out with a USB760, a two year contract, and was connected to the internet 10 minutes after getting home [which takes about half an hour from town]. It couldn't have been easier.
I've noticed that the location of the modem is absolutely critical to getting a decent signal [sometimes by inches and rotation of the device] and by using a USB extension cable was able to find a spot that lit up all the bars. However, even with the modem never being moved, the signal strength can vary significantly. (Maybe it has something to do with the extension cable as I move that quite a bit between my PC and Mac].
Originally Verizon's usage tracking was ridiculous and I've had to be credited for going over the 5gig cap once already. There were three ways [via Verizon] to track usage and all three showed different results. In my opinion, this is essentially consumer fraud, but I haven't gone over the cap again, so I'm not going to make a big deal out of it [yet].
Next to Dial-up, I can't complain, but there are some nagging issues. Primarily, the speeds are never consistent and only on rare occasion do I see the advertised speeds. The updated software [v7] seems to have some improvements on speed, but nothing significant enough to enjoy surfing the internet anymore. Far too often internet pages fail to load and I have to F5 [refresh] to see them. It will often take about 30 minutes for a 3 minute embedded YouTube video to load enough to watch. Again, this is light years better than Dial-up, but not much fun and I really miss my cable connection.
I haven't had to contact Verizon Tech Support yet so I can't comment on their service. Where I'm located is definitely Verizon country so they are the only game in town and I can't compare them to other WISP's or Satellite companies either.
The new EVDO software [for Windows] is another review and a big disappointment at this time. Also, I have a MacBook Pro and see no software from Verizon or Smith Micro that supports EVDO with the USB760 modem in the Mac environment. I could be wrong, but as of last week [October 20 2009] this was the case.
Overall, I'm very happy to have something a lot better than Dial-up.
P.S. I don't know what 'Days from order to success' means and assume it is how long it took from purchasing the gear to getting on the internet.
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Review by weaseled386
UPDATED: 39 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 360 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Port Orange,Volusia,FL
$60 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Very fast for being cellular!"
"Expensive."
"If you need access on the road don't look anywhere else!"
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I work in the telecom field, and I'm constantly on the road checking jobs & remotely logging into systems for testing. With my job 100% uptime is a absolute must.
I first went to (the former) Cingular since I have my cell phone through them. I won't go into details since this isn't their review, but the experience was poor at best. I returned their card and went straight to Verizon.
I've had this service for a total of 3 years. For the first two years I used one of their PCMCIA cards that was excellent. It wasn't very obtrusive, and it had amazing reception. I then moved to a laptop with an expresscard slot and was forced to move to a USB solution. The USB card is REV-A compatible which added around 20kbs to my UL & DL speeds. In Metro areas I'm consistantly around 125kbs.
The only CON is that they require a 2 year contract for the $60.00 price. If you press hard enough you can get 1 year contracts, but the price of the hardware is higher and your monthly fee is $80.00. However, this is for the UNLIMITED plan. They also offer pay as you go....
My other option was Sprint-Nextel, which I briefly had. While Sprint-Nextel was a little quicker, the coverage and software wasn't nearly as good.
As stated as my "bottom line" if you need quick an constant on the road access I believe Verizon is the way to go.
Update 10/20/2009:
I still have my Verizon service, and it has been nothing less than rock solid. I'm currently using an internal Dell modem, because I got sick of the USB dongle. I'd still recommend this to anyone needing a constant connection while on the road!
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Review by abotnick
UPDATED: 48 days ago
member for 5.5 years, 5 visits, last login: 48 days ago
Raleigh,Wake,NC
$160 per month (24 month contract)
"Nice signs in store, courteous occasionally hot salespeople"
"overpriced, connection delay accessing sites, 5 g/month limit, clueless customer service"
"Avoid this service"
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Technically I have an Alltell HTC Diamond Pro PDA with probably the best plan available and unlimited internet usage, $10 tethering. Alltel merged with Verizon several months ago. Immediately after the merger a connection lag was introduced that gives a 10 second delay accessing websites before every connection. Verizon also has poor planning. A few days after the merger their entire network was down for hours in the afternoon. Another problem is when I get a network unavailable message on my cell phone and I lose the connection. I think Verizon introduced the lag to intentionally get customers to switch to their Verizon phones and plans because the Verizon phones don't have the lag. Anyway, Verizon's plans are more expensive now with tethering being $30. Speed is good, around 1.5 g/s. However Verizon's 5 gig limit is way too small to use this as a primary internet connection yet I have to pay a tethering fee? Ridiculous. Exceed the limit and you're paying enormous overcharges. The service is very overpriced for 5 gig and I don't recommend it. Technical service is terrible concerning the lag, they say they are aware of it but won't/can't fix it. Sprint has better data service, is cheaper and should be picked before Verizon. I'm getting rid of them as soon as my contract is up. I have used the Verizon wireless cards and they have a slow connection time and are nothing to brag about.
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Review by Earl_Wallace
UPDATED: 49 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 24 visits, last login: 49 days ago
Peyton,El Paso,CO
$60 per month (24 month contract)
about 3 days
"Can take the UM150 with you on trips"
"The latency and bandwidth are horrible"
"Avoid if possible."
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Since I couldn't get anything else, I went with the Verizon Mobile Broadband service awhile back. I'm out here in Peyton, Colorado (25 miles northeast of Colorado Springs). When I first signed up for the service, I was getting downloads in the 1,900 to 2,200 kbps range. For the last few months, it's been more like 400-800 kbps at best. Sometimes it's as low as 176 kbps download and 70 kbps upload. I have always used an ampilifer and external antenna pointed at the Calhan Tower with the signal at -51 dbm (100% signal on the Cradlepoint MBR-1000 router).
It's getting so bad these days that I see ping times of over 3500 ms almost daily. I have tried in vain to get VoiP working, but it's hopeless because of the wild ping swings. You can tell this tower is getting overloaded, but Verizon keeps telling me the tower is fine. So I guess Verizon has decided it is not going to spend any more money in the Eastern Plains of Colorado, and you can just plan on the tower getting worst over time.
I personally can not recommend Verizon Mobile Broadband in this area any longer.
UPDATE (Oct 10, 2009): Verizon Wireless Broadband out here in Peyton is so bad that I'm about to drop it and go back to using a modem. If this $60 service was only $10 a month, it might be worth the hassle, but really, 4000 ms ping times? Give me a break.
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Review by SRE_Wolf
UPDATED: 50 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 21 visits, last login: 50 days ago
Jemison,Chilton,AL
$55 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Fairly fast reliable connection"
"Its not an always on connection and your limited in bandwith"
"If the DSL and cable companies dont want your buisness this is the ticket"
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I tried to get DSL or cable as I'm a Gamer. the big companies wouldnt run service out here. or would say were coming your way. That was two years ago. I tried Hughes net and I could have stayed with dial up for all the good that expensive service did me.Its two years later and still no highspeed service. I took a chance on verison wireless and I must say I'm impressed Its not DSL or Cable but its fast enough to play most games. If your a forgotten one who happens to live where the big boys dont wanna play Verison is the ticket.
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 Review by Vtblues
Posted: 51 days ago
member for 3.5 years, 1797 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Brookfield,Orange,VT
$30 per month
"Quite reliable"
"The cap"
"Works better than HughesNet but the 5 gig cap is too low"
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I've been a HughesNet user for 8 years and that is my primary connection for a network of up to 5 computers at times, This is no replacement for that due to the 5 gig cap and brutal overage charges. That said, it is a much more stable and reliable connection that I use tethered from a Blackberry to my laptop when out of range of my network.
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 Review by Hazy Arc
UPDATED: 60 days ago
member for 3.6 years, 1040 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Greenwood,Greenwood,SC
$60 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Gives quasi-broadband speeds on the go"
"Quite pricey, fairly slow speeds, high latency"
"Better than satellite if you have no access to broadband"
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Prior to Embarq bringing DSL to my remote location, I used Verizon's USB modem to connect to the internet. Luckily I didn't have to pay for it...my employer foot the bill. Good thing too...no way I would've shelled out 70 bucks a month for this. The 24 month contract was as laughable as the monthly price. Then again, if you are without broadband, it is a better choice than satellite (as long as you have a decent cell signal and have access to EVDO).
Speaking of which, my area (luckily) had EVDO Rev A, so speeds were decent (1.5mbps or so). Latency was rough (150-200ms), but much better than satellite. I was able to connect to Xbox Live successfully through my PC's internet connection sharing feature, but the latency made gameplay a little difficult.
The 5GB caps are a joke...one ISO or a few heavy YouTube sessions and you're done. Verizon needs to take care of this, especially since many people use these cards as their primary internet connection.
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 Review by screavic
UPDATED: 73 days ago
member for 3.3 years, 356 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Paron,Saline,AR
$65 per month (12 month contract)
"Faster than dialup at times"
"Disconnects, Latency spikes"
"Not worth the time / money I have put into the service now"
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You can't do hardly anything besides do basic web browsing on this piece of crap. Contacting support as many "alltel" refugee's have found out is worthless.
I don't play on xbox live anymore because their connection latency is so skiddish. I DO try to use it to download new content to get more out of the game but that doesn't even happen anymore. Everytime I connect to Xbox live this service disconnects me.
I dislike this company, they ruined a decent company's network. At least with Alltel after I got my connection fine tuned it would stay connected more.
9/16/09
As the 2nd commenter said about my review, I don't have any other options at this time. As soon as I get another option that will work (satellite not an option, T1 too expensive) I am going to give them a shot and give them a fair chance just as I am doing Verizon.
Also on another note: I have talked to a Verizon rep that agreed with Alltel on the part of me being in the "fringe" of service and that is where the majority of my problems come from. Weekends I don't even try to use the net cause it don't work the majority of the time.
Followup comments:  
olearda
@myvzw.com
| Verizon Wireless Broadband Dude... I have to tell you, if your using a wireless connection to play xbox, you need help. Take the $65 and pay for a real broadband connection from the phone or cable company. It's just not bright to use a wireless connection which goes dormant and is subject to "sharing" of spectrum, which affects speed, for gaming. | |
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ssanders2k7
@myvzw.com
| Mobile Broadband well, since you live in Paron, I go up there sometimes because I live in Ferndale, I know that that is the only broadband connection you can get up there, no DSL and no cable internet, Alltel was the only carrier that provided decent service there, I personally don't like the merger either, but give it a few more months, and see what happens, you should not have as many issues once they get everything finished
and btw, I have an Alltel aircard and I never intend to change it to Verizon, because of the 5GB cap thing | |
| Earl_Wallace
join:2004-04-11
Peyton, CO
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
| Insane I think it is INSANE to go with Wireless Internet if you have access to DSL or Cable. I have been bouncing between Wireless and Wired connections for the past 10+ years and in EVERY SINGLE CASE, the Wired connections were faster and had less problems. I don't know why we can't have good wireless internet connections in the country, but I have given up and will never use wireless if I can get a wired connection instead. | |
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Also use Verizon cellular exclusively for personal and business. Only negative is Verizon is not partnered with anyone in Trinidad & Tobago for roaming so have to have local cell (Digicel) and internet (Flow Trinidad cable) when I am there. 
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