Laptop GPS World

While we were in the UK recently I researched mobile internet for use in the UK and Europe.

I visited the high street stores of all the major mobile phone companies.

What I found out was that most:

* will only sell to EU citizens
* will only sell if you have a UK chip and PIN credit card
* only have 24 month plans
* only work in one country at the advertised rate. If you roam internationally you get hit by horrendous rates.

The only one I found that was reasonable was 3.

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/prod...plans_payg.omp

They have a pay as you go plan where you pay GBP50 for the USB modem and GBP20 for 3GB of data that lasts for 3 months. It works in UK, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong. I used it in all countries listed. Unfortunately, even though 3 is in Australia it doesn't work here and I still have 30 days and 2GB to go.

They won't accept a non-UK credit card so I had to pay by cash and I would have to top up in a supermarket in the UK, not over the Internet.

It is a HSDPA modem so you get theoretical speeds of 3.6Mb/s.

I will be visiting the east coast of the USA and Canada for 2 months from next month. I would like to access mobile internet while I am travelling. Can someone please recommend a carrier and plan?

If possible I would like it to:

* be pre-pay, ie no long term contract
* work across the entire country and in Canada. I understand that many mobile phone companies in the USA are regional only.
* be high speed, not slow GPRS or CDMA-EVDO
* be SIM card based so I can use my existing USB modem (not high on list of preferences or likelihoods)

I intend to use it for general Internet access to research accommodation and book it online and for email. I also want to use it for access to Google Earth while on the road. While we were in Europe I found it very useful to be able to check for example where there was river access for a picnic lunch.

While we were driving through Italy I ran GE with GooPS to track our position in real time.

I hope someone can recommend a suitable plan that meets some of my requirements.


Andrew Watson

As for Canada, I can't help at all there.

For the US, there are only a few cell phone companies with AirCards. Sprint, AT & T, Verizon and TMobile. All of these will work anywhere in the country. I use Sprint. I pay $59.95/mo with a 2 year contract. Whether you can get access with your own card and no contract, I don't know.

As for high-speed - that depends on where you are. Some areas are slow speed, some areas are high speed. Right now I'm sitting in the middle of North Carolina about 60 miles from the closest "large" city and have a high-speed connection. But, when I drive another 30 miles, I'll have no connection at all (unless they've changed it in the last 3 months). There's been very few places where I didn't have some sort of connection.

Your best bet would be to call the cell phone companies and ask them your questions. I've listed the major carriers that carry mobile internet. All of them are easy to find on the internet.

You should go to a smartphone board for the most expertise on this topic.

To my knowledge, AT&T GoPhone is just about the only game in town in terms of prepaid data plans in the US. Until a year ago, even that wasn't available.

In Canada the major cell phone companies are Rogers, Bell and Telus.

As for which one is better and if they offer what you want I have no idea. Best way to find out is to call them up and ask yourself.

Something worth being aware of is that Rogers is the only one who has a GSM network. Bell and Telus (and all the rest of the Canadian wireless phone providers) are CDMA.

If you decide to get a pay-as-you-go card be careful to check that it is usable everywhere you intend to go in Canada. Rogers has the only truly national network so you can use one of their cards and GSM phones anywhere you can get coverage. Unfortunately they don't have a lot of coverage once you get away from the high population centres and main travel corridors of the country.

Bell and Telus advertise that they have national coverage but it is a combination of their own networks in their own territories plus rented capacity on networks in their competitors' territories and/or roaming agreements with their competitors.

If you have a contract with any of the members of the "Mobility" network (Bell, Telus, SaskTel, MTS, NorthwestTel, Aliant, etc.) you have the very best coverage in Canada (albeit CDMA) due to their roaming agreements. You can get phone coverage in places you wouldn't believe (and won't get from Rogers). But their pay-as-you-go cards usually don't work for roaming outside the home territory of the company (Bell, Telus, etc.) of the company you bought it from.

...ken...

Well, what you could do is get a pay-as-you-go plan with a data plan, then tether your cell phone to your laptop. Most of those plans are capped so you have to be careful with the amount of data you send/receive. However, if you are doing quick surfing for information, that might work.

Hi Andrew,

I have used AT&T and Verizon for mobile internet. Both company's have unlimited usage in the us for a fixed price, I am not sure about what short term plans are offered.
AT&T is sim card based and seams to be more user friendly than Verizon.

In Canada I have found very expensive roaming fees for data(my AT&T roams on Rodgers network in Canada)
I simply don't use it there anymore. (most hotels have wifi and many are unsecured so you can get access in there parking lots)

As for speed, closer to a big city, the faster it is. I do use a external antenna and a booster (repeater) from Wilson Electronics, both help speed up data, the repeater is the difference between making a call or not from remote areas.

I hope this aids in your search, and wish you good luck!

George