Internet through your cell phone

Wireless Data Services on your cellphone. (All prices in U.S. dollars)


Verizon's service is 40 to 60 Kbps, and bursts at 144 Kbps. You can pick whether you want to be billed by time or megabyte. For time billing, which allows voice and data services:

150 minutes - $35, additional @ $0.40 a minute
400 minutes - $55, additional @ $0.35 a minute
600 minutes - $75, additional @ $0.35 a minute
900 minutes - $100, additional @ $0.25 a minute
1,500 minutes - $150, additional @ $0.25 a minute
2,000 minutes - $200, additional @ $0.20 a minute
3,000 minutes - $300, additional @ $0.20 a minute

For megabyte billing, which allows only data services (so you have to get a voice package):

20 MB - $40, additional $0.004 per KB ($4 per MB)
60 MB - $60, additional $0.002 per KB ($2 per MB)
unlimited - $80



Sprint's service is also 40 to 60 Kbps, and bursts at 144 Kbps. They only have MB billing:

20 MB - $40
40 MB - $60
70 MB - $80
300 MB - $100

Additional data is $0.002 per KB ($2 per MB).





In Canada:

Telus Mobility offers Velocity service. It also bursts at 144 kbps, and typical throughput is 40 to 60 kbps.

$20 - 5 MB, additional usage $0.007 per KB ($7 per MB)
$35 - 10 MB, additional usage $0.004 per KB ($4 per MB)
$75 - unlimited usage


It seems Telus (Canada) is a bit cheaper than Verizon (Bell) in the States.

This is not cheap. Not cheap at all, but I guess it is very nice to have for convenience purposes. 60 kbps, or about 7 kb/s, isn't that bad either. It is modem speeds really. Sadly, it is unaffordable for me as a student.

Has anyone played with this stuff? How is it?

 

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I actually work for an ATT wireless call center: why haven't you included them? :bugeye:

 

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AT&T uses GPRS, which is a very very very bad system. It is horribly expensive and slow and I don't know why anyone that can pick between GSM (AT&T) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) would pick GSM unless they travel to Europe.

Japan's KDDI just rolled out CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service. 2.4 Mbps through your cellphone. Price is $40 a month for unlimited access.

While CDMA2000 1x is restricted to 144 kbps, GPRS from AT&T is restricted to a laughable 9.6 kbps, and with some magic perhaps 28kbps.

For wireless data services, any GSM based system is unrealistic. Look at the ridiculous prices AT&T charges:

MINI: $3 a month, 0 MB included. $0.02 per KB.
1 MB: $8 a month, 1 MB included, $0.01 per KB extra.
4 MB: $13 a month, 4 MB included, $0.008 per KB extra.
8 MB: $20 a month, 8 MB included, $0.006 per KB extra.


Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

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