The answer depends largely on what kind or travel, your speed demands,
and your coverage demands.
If you only wanted occasional access, and had no requirement for
coverage when you are out in the boondocks, I would say the way to go
would be just to use the free access at coffee shops.
About half the specialty coffe shops provide free access to their
customers - the rest charge a modest fee which can be paid on a daily,
monthly, annual or per minute basis - it varies from shop to shop.
If you want the widest possible coverage - including the Apple Valley
area - I would recommend Verizon Wireless' Broadband service.
To set realistic expectations, there is no wireless provider that can
offer cable speeds, nor absolute coverage. I can tell you that Verizon
has the largest Wifi/Broadband coverage. It will give you a
connection comparable to an average dsl connection in most
metropolitan areas - including your home zip. It will also fall back
to a connection speed equivalent to single channel isdn in other
areas, and dialup speeds just about anywhere. The biggest holes you
would find would be Nevada outside the major cities, and various
sparesely populated areas like rural Idaho and eastern Montana.
Cost would $50 and up for the PC card, plus about $80/month for unlimited data.
This does require a 2 yr contract, but I wouldn't get too hung up on
that. The ETF is $175 if you terminate the contract early. If you go
this route, make the purchase 2 or 3 days before your next weeklong
trip. They have a 15 day trial period. This gives you a couple of days
at home to try the service - then a week on the road before the trial
expires. If it doesn't work, just turn it back in at the VZW store and
pay for the week or two you used - no etf. If 6 months later you
decide to sell the RV and move to Florida and don't need the service -
you have an etf. There is also a 1 yr option - but the equipment cost
goes up by $100.
You can also go prepaid - just not with Verizon, and the carriers that
do offer prepaid data are less than stellar in coverage.
Also, I'd make a pitch for spending extra upfront and getting the
Kyocera KPC650 PC card. It has a connector for an external antenna,
which at the very least can be combined with an antenna on the RV to
pull in a lot better signal. If you've done a fair amount of RV'ing,
you already know what a difference it makes to shove the antenna up
above the superstructure of your rig - whether its cell, cb or TV.
It's not cheap at about $180 for the card and another $40 for an
antenna, but it will make a vast difference in fringe areas. |
