Verizon rolls out global laptop data with USB1000 stick
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 18th 2009 10:57AM
posted Jun 18th 2009 10:57AM
[Via Phone Scoop]
posted Jun 18th 2009 10:57AM
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Oh boy I can't wait to start downloading expensive kilobytes!
Yeah, that is pretty crazy:
$1.29/MB for 100MB and $1.09/MB for 200MB.
This is only for corporate employees who are not paying the bills.
Businesses that are using Verizon celebrate!
ATT and T-Mobile have been providing this ability for a good while.
my company is one that primarily uses Verizon, and we've had to buy several AT&T Air cards for users going over seas, so maybe we'll be buying a few of these Verizon cards now.
True, but if you are an company that has users in just about every state in the US, you wouldn't be deploying ATT & T-Mobile due to such a small 3G footprint stateside.
Good God that is expensive as hell. Who the hell in their right mind would pay that. Hmmmm I am going to download a movie from iTunes, o woops there goes my bandwidth for the month.
I seriously doubt that this is really aimed at normal customers to download iTunes when in the middle of nowhere. They are more likely to be marketing this to businesses so that when you send your sales/eng to some customer/jobsite in the middle of nowhere they will still be able to get to their email and pull files from the company servers.
(The 100MB/200MB limit does seem low anyway. I'd expect it to be closer to 500MB-1GB worldwide and 10+GB in US/Canadia)
Just dont download a movie for your kids when roaming...
We had someone at our company downloading a movie for his kids overseas with AT&T. Racked up a $2,000+ bill. He ended up paying for it out of his own pocket.
I can't wait until they make something like this that works in Iraq/Afghanistan for when I'm on an Op Tour. I'd happily shell out quite a bit for one then.
I can't see the point in these? If the stick uploads data to online storage, which can be downloaded elsewhere by someone else, we already have that. If the stick uploads data to online storage, and can only be downloaded by using that particular stick, then we already have that too. It's called a memory stick. I can see the point maybe if it has a password to stop someone stealing the memory stick, but again, we can already get online storage with passwords. I'm assuming it can upload and download data anywhere, in which case, we already have USB sticks that can access the internet anywhere, for cheaper, where online storage can be used.
Engadgeteers enlighten me, what am I missing?
This is a cell phone modem that plugs into your laptop (ie, like tethering, only without the phone).
Ah, I see. Now I get it. Still doesn't make it cheap though.
Cheap.
why doesn't verizon have unlimited data plans? i don't understand that? that's the only thing keeping me and my iphone with att =[
And the fact the Verizon can't allow you to use an iPhone because a different network technology?
The only carrier you can take an iPhone to would be T-Mobile in the US.
I think the $30/month dataplan for the blackberries is unlimited, unless the sales guy lied to me (which is entirely possible).
@ marty said:
"why doesn't verizon have unlimited data plans? i don't understand that? that's the only thing keeping me and my iphone with att"
The Verizon 5 gig cap certainly sux azz. [my Hulu times got smashed] Sprint, the same deal.
I tried the iphone for 30 days, but for coast to coast trucking....there were way too many dead spots. Nothing piss's off
a dispatcher more, than not being able to contact a driver. Now that the iphone has finally adopted tethering, id jump
right on one....but the lack of rural coverage is a deal breaker.
The smartphone plans are unlimited but the data card plans aren't (even though you'd be more likely to use more data on a laptop than on a phone).
Only $220 a month? I'll take two, please.
It's the exact same plan that AT&T has, but actually $10 a month cheaper.
AT&T is $139.99 for 100MB and $229.00 for 200MB. (I assume you will see those prices drop to match VZW's.)
Holy DataRateAssRape Batman! If your not leaving the US/Canada on a regular basis you are basically paying twice as much a month if you only plan on using 100MB outside the home territory. Or over 3 times as much if you think you need 200MB of data outside of the US/Canada.
So you are paying $840 more for 1200MB of data outside of the US/Canada per year or $1920 more for 2400MB of data outside of the US/Canada.
Actually, with Verizon you just add the international plan as you need it.
So you buy the card and pay the normal domestic datacard rate... If you need to go international for a week or so, call VZW and have them add the global data plan. They prorate their features so if you need it for 10 days, you will just pay for 10 days of it.
That's one of the good things VZW does.. you can make plan changes easy peasy.
so, we all know Verizon is a CDMA network, which is primarily a North/South American network. Is this GSM based, buying bandwidth from ATT/TMobile while in the US, or does it have 2 radios, and use CDMA in the States, and GSM abroad?
Seems really pricey either way. I'd get a MiFi for $60 a month, and get a pre-pay "world" GSM USB modem. My .02.
I would be willing to bet that it is dual mode. And it uses bandwidth on Vodaphone/Verizon's network overseas.
I don't know how the GSM wireless modems work, do they have a sim card? If so, you could unlock this and it would still be pretty convenient if you used a prepaid data sim from whatever european country you are visiting.
Both the cell modems I have do have removable SIM cards.
What a brilliant design. A giant appliance sticking out of the USB port waiting to get bumped and destroy your port, the device, or both.