So I have this new laptop that won’t take my old EvDO card, which I long been using to get on the Net over Verizon’s system. It has it’s own phone number and account, but it treats the cell system as a big wi-fi network, effectively. I use it anywhere in I can’t get on by wire or ‘fi here in the U.S. Which is a lot of places. Not cheap: $60 per month. But worth it.
So I need a new card.
To get one, I went to a Verizon store yesterday afternoon here in Loma Linda, CA. A new card, they told me, was $280. Too much, I said. So, after several calls to somebody over the phone, the young man behind the counter said he could “help me out” by discounting the price of a new card if I agreed to extend my cell phone contract another two years. (It’s due to run out in July.)
I didn’t want to do that. So I asked what it cost to cancel the account. The answer was $170. It runs to September.
So the choice is to pay $170 to cancel or pay $300 until the contract runs out. Pretty sucky.
Never mind that I’ve been a Verizon customer for many years, with a FiOS connection in Boston and a landline connection in Santa Barbara, in addition to the cell phone and the EvDO accounts.
I’m really looking forward to fixing this lopsided system.
-
Doc…I didn’t want to fork over the high cost of the card or sign a new two-year contract either…check in to tethering your phone as a cheaper way around this. I tether a Razr. You pay the same $60/month but there is no contract, just month-to-month. The speed is slightly degraded but not bad. On my Mac, all it took was a USB cable. Didn’t require any new software.
Not quite as convenient as a card but very workable. And, it charges the phone while connected. -
Doc,
Unlocked cell phones are a smal step in the right direction. Maybe we need unlocked EVDO cards next.
Carriers have been deliberately crippling the mobile market in this country for years. What kind of a business strategy is that? Talk about losing sight of the big picture…
– Amy Gahran
-
PXLated, I had both a tethered and a bluetooth setup before I went with the EvDO. I need to go back to that. Thanks.
-
It is time for the iPhone!
-
Great News! Google has the solution to all your mobile Internet needs . . . let’s have a big hand for the ‘WiFi on steroids’ networks!
Check out the Free Press post, which says: Google’s proposal can be expected to generate lots of opposition from the big wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T, which want to protect their massive investments in what are proprietary networks.
Ya think?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/BLOG01/80325035
-
A well crafted and equitably enforced regulatory policy would protect us from the rapacious greed of the oligopoly.
(Also, I gotta know — does the “f” in Carter f Smith stand for “fone?”)
-
hey Frank, the f stands for free, which is how the Internet should be – like radio and, er television (except for cable and PBS) . . .
-
Try buying a USB EVDO modem on eBay then performing an ESN swap on your account. Then you can sell the old modem.
-
Thanks, Wes. I didn’t know until today that the USB option existed. Is it equally fast?
-
Yes, USB is equally fast. If your old modem is Rev0 then a new RevA modem will even be faster than the old one.
-
Another option is this USB to PCMCIA adapter
http://www.elandigitalsystems.com/adapter/u111530.php
It’s $91 here:http://www.synchrotech.com/products-expc/expresscard-pcmcia-pc_cardbus_dueladapter_01.html
Comments are now closed.
11 comments