Who Wants to be My Mobile Broadband Provider?
I’m once again going to go to the power of my community to hopefully find the answer to this question.
I have a Macbook Pro laptop. I do a lot of business traveling and want the flexibility to work from anywhere I go.
I also have a community of great people around me that I’m more then happy to talk about the positive experiences with and share my bad ones.
Right now I’m having a horrible time with Verizon Wireless. I like their wireless service. It’s the most stable one I’ve ever used to be honest with you and is why I have not switched over to an iPhone and AT&T. But, on the mobile broadband side they are sucking completely.
The first two stores I went into told me I could upgrade the services on my Blackberry 8703e and that would give me access. Tried that and no dice. Third place told me that wouldn’t work with a Mac, only PCs.
Tonight I went into a third store to find out what USB modems they had would work with my mac. I was told that the the USB727 would work for sure. When I asked, “are you sure it will work with Leopard?” they had no idea what I was talking about. I explained that it was the new operating system for the Mac. The reply was “well yeah if it is newer then 10.3 it will certainly work.” I laughed and asked them to find someone else to ask so they went to the manager of the store and he assured me that there would be no problems.
Well, I can safely say that it does NOT work with my Mac. I’m going to return it tommorrow and give them a bit of a reality slap for it all.
So what mobile broadband company DOES work with my Mac? Sprint? T-Mobile? Anyone from any of these companies out there want to chime in and make me their happy customer? Hell at this point whoever does give me connectivity on the road is going to be the “official connector of managing the gray” at this speed because I’ll be that damn happy!
Someone out there please help out. This is getting pathetic and Verizon wireless has lost my business on this now for good.
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Comments(11)
Hey CC,
My friend Judi (judis217 on twitter) or judi [at] momathome [dot] com uses Sprint with her MacBook pro. It’s a Sierra AirCard. She says it works great.
Shalom,
Phillip
CC,
I was going to suggest Sprint as well. They have great EVDO coverage and don’t limit you as to what you can do on mobile broadband unlike AT&T.
Sprint’s your only alternative; I switched to Sprint 6 months ago and have been quite pleased – albeit on (shame) a WinXP PC. tMobile (my preferred voice wireless provider) does not provide higher than Edge speed – which isn’t broadband. I would search for the USB or ExpressCard modem first – then get the service. Word is that the Merlin EX720
is OK.
I haven’t upgraded to Leopard, but my Verizon V740 Rev A ExpressCard works flawlessly in cities, in the sticks, standing still or 70mph.
http://ustream.tv/myvideos/Pz5MYrx9eoJ913yT72zCIg
http://ustream.tv/myvideos/Q03gj25,fcBD8.jUzbGW0Q
I’ll assume you don’t have an expresscard slot, though, since you’re looking at USB solutions.
CC-
It might be well worth the wait for Sprint’s “Metro PCS”.
Best I can tell, this is Xohm technology with a new name, which is _killer_ wireless broadband.
Bill Burke
Http://wirelessspeech.blogspot.com
CC,
I travel frequently and must have continuous access. I have a MacBook Pro and I connect via Bluetooth with my phone. It works everywhere (except one particular beach house – that’s intentional) and it works flawlessly. My phone is an HTC 8525, released by Cingular and have since upgraded to the AT&T software. The 3G speed is incredible. In fact if our network is lagging at the office I’ll sometimes unplug and use my phone. The setup on the Mac took about 5 minutes and I’ve been happy ever since.
I have a MacBook Pro and I use the USB720 from Verizon. It works everywhere. Even in the sticks of Downeast Maine. But I have to confess I have not yet upgraded to Leopard. That’s the only unknown. But honestly I doubt the OS will be an issue–my gut feeling. I’ve been a Verizon air card user for a year and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
My USB720, frustratingly, is not working with Leopard – great service until this moment, with no accountable party for my woes.
I ended up getting a UB727 from Sprint. They had the hardest time getting it to work on the laptop. But, I had a VERY helpful sales rep get on the phone and try to get it fixed. The official word he was told that the modem should be activated on a PC and then plugged into the mac. He couldn’t believe that was the answer.
What I found out that you need to do (and this is NOT said anywhere) is that you have to put in your Sprint e-mail address and password to make it work on the mac. This was actually on my paperwork. No one told me I had a Sprint address, but after my business partner went through the same thing I knew what to do.
So I can confirm that this works great with my Macbook Pro with Leopard installed, but the set up does not work as it is listed in the documentation.
We have been with AT&T for our cell phone needs since the time they were Bellsouth Mobility DCS in this area (upstate SC). They then became Cingular and after that AT&T bought them so now they are AT&T. Service is great, the iPhone comes in very handy and can get online practically anywhere. We do not, however, have our laptops connecting via wireless broadband–we simply use wifi hotspots when traveling.
For wireless broadband for your computer, check out Sprint and T-Mobile.
I’ve tried Sprint, obtained through Millenicom (no taxes, no contract) but Millenicom relied on Sprint’s service maps which are an out-and-out lie. (I’m using this for home service as there is no cable, no DSL, etc. here) They promise EVDO Rev A, but usually I get 1xRTT.
Also the modem supplied is a USB device from Franklin (CDU680) whose performance is less than stellar. To be sure, with the signal levels available, the modem has a difficult chore but the way this thing drops connections and then just sits there without searching is baffling. A dropped connection sometimes requires closing the modem manager and restarting, at which time it connects again, so signal is there, it just doesn’t look for it. (Emails to their tech support have gone unanswered)
Also, laptop users take note. One USB port on my laptop will not power the Franklin modem. They actually supply a “Y” cable to use two ports for power. Not good it you have only one available.
This is no reflection on Millenicom, they have tried very hard to be helpful, but you can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.