Review by jameswade 
UPDATED: 123 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 1841 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Marshall,Madison,NC
 $60 per month (24 month contract)
 "Available in most places in the US"
 "High latency, slow, expensive, no recourse to poor service if roaming"
 "See if US Cellular EVDO is now available in your area..."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Original review:
We are located a little North of Hot Springs, NC. Only choices for Internet access are dialup (except dialup in this area is very limited, it's usually a long distance call, and only runs at about 21k), satellite (POOR service, unreliable, latency makes VOIP and VPN unworkable), and cell phone.
We are using cell phone. Until recently we had to climb up the side of a mountain and plug in a high gain Yagi antenna to make a call or get Internet access (1xRTT - slow) . Barely! This only worked with Verizon or US Cellular. After years of requests Verizon still isn't covering the area, but US Cellular put a site in Hot Springs last year.
Fortunately Verizon roams on US Cellular because Verizon won't put in a site and US Cellular wouldn't sell me a data plan.
So now we can make phone calls and get Internet access in the cabin. Unfortunately the latency is worse than satellite Internet access! It's at about .9 to 1 second! This kills VPN and VOIP.
If you read the Terms Of Service VOIP, streaming audio or video, almost anything but email and light web surfing seems to be forbidden in the TOS.
I can only get about 80kbps up and down, I could actually live with that, but not the latency.
I can't call and complain to US Cellular because I'm with Verizon and Verizon won't cause US Cellular to fix the problem.
There are other problems:
I'm paying for EVDO, but it's not available.
While I'm using Internet access I can't use the phone, nor will it ring. I could do this with a card, but then I would have to pay another $45 for email on my phone.
While traveling I can get EVDO, but it's not all that great either - I can get around 120k, but the latency is still high.
I'm using a tethered Palm Treo 700w. Verizon told me that I could tether the phone until I bought it. Then they told me that I couldn't . I had to buy third party software to make tethering work. The phone crashes and locks up often, forcing reboots and multiple attempts to troubleshoot.
In summary, this works, but just barely, and it's expensive...
2009.03.16
I switched to a wireless data card and installed a yagi high on the roof about a year ago. It sort of worked barely - we just don't get a good signal from Verizon and their roaming partner here (US Cellular) just can't seem to get with EVDO.
For a couple of months we got usable Internet access, but the signal would just go away occasionally. Since Verizon Wireless claims that they don't cover this area they won't do anything about it - but they were glad to sell me service when I signed up!
I'm not really happy with Verizon - they have the local phone service and won't provide DSL. Their telephone service has hum and noise on it so can't really be used for dialup. Their wireless division won't cover the area, charge too much, and have this ridiculous 5 GB per month cap with an even more ridiculous fee if you go over the cap.
Not recommended if you have any other alternatives. (Except satellite, that's even worse!)
Updated 7/2009 In May of 2008 we got one of Verizon's wireless cards and roamed on US Cellular's tower (1X only  ).
I put a high gain Yagi on the roof and hooked it to a cell amplifier then hooked it to the wireless card and got a weak EVDO connection from a Verizon tower. This might work (not well) for a couple of weeks and with no change in weather, sunspots, or any other reason that I could surmise I would lose all signal and have to go back to US Cellular's 1X. I would call Verizon support and be told that I was not in their service area (apparently they've worked out an agreement with US Cellular that they wouldn't compete here!) and there was nothing that they could do. Then magically it would start working again!
A couple of weeks ago I found out that US Cellular got EVDO working here the middle of May 2009. I immediately picked up a card from them and after a lot of miscommunications on their part it started working with EVDO. (Local store said that they had EVDO, but corporate support insisted that they didn't!)
I get a good strong EVDO signal from US Cellular and 1.3 Mbits down and 667 kbits up! Fairly low ping times too, VOIP works great now!
Verizon's solution was to always offer to let me out of my contract, I finally was able to take them up on their offer. Next Verizon loses us as cell phone customers. Then our neighbors... 
Followup comments:  astiyosti
join:2005-11-10
Asheville, NC
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| why every one knows that u cant run an voip over wireless or satellite connection due to the latency before you put down an isp you need to review the product and what it capability's are before you buy.From the location you are at you will have to live with what you can get. | |
|  | jameswade
join:2001-12-09
Hot Springs, NC
 ·US Cellular
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: why Actually, not everyone knows these things. I happen to know that with the high latency of satellite VOIP is difficult, but there are people doing it.
But we're discussing terrestrial wireless here - there's not a physical reason why the latency can't be lower - the cell site is not in space - it's close by.
My experience with Verizon Wireless has been less that stellar and less than I'm even paying for. Before defending them maybe you should try them out yourself.
I wrote a review of my experience with the product, I'm not asking you for your opinions about how I shop for an ISP. | |
| 
Jayp0411
@amlaw.com
| re: notin but trouble started an acct w/ Verizon since March. was not too bad except that its very slow. then comes April, started to get dropped constantly... been calling Tech Support at least once a month. W/ the same bull shit every time. But i thought, its temporary. Until last month, the service just went dead.
Called again, and finally scheduled a tech guy to come check out my line. Only to find out (from their own tech) that at my location, i can only get the worse than slower speed which they never bother to let me know. Anyway, after he "fixed" it, w/ everything supposedly working fine. comes later in the evening, the dsl doesn't work again!!!
Wasted half a day of my time, my pay, and all they can say is perhaps we can schedule another appointment for a tech guy to check out your line. I wonder if these people can only say whats they were told to say. After that, i just canceled the service. If i knew this is how Verizon is in the first place, i would've never bothered with it even if they only charge $5.00 per month.
Not able to provide service they promise is bad enough, having your customer call to complain for no less than 10 times and say that there is nothing they can do and there is nothing anyone else in the company can help you! man, I've got to say, they got some "top class" Customer Rep. working for them. | |
| cwire
join:2007-06-07
Bedford, KY | why is this review on dsl? your review is on verizon wireless cell service, why did you put it in as a dsl review? | |
| ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Rensselaer, IN
2 edits | ... Where exactly is your logic behind posting this review? You're roaming on US Celluar, what part of Verizon's network are you reviewing? lol | |
| | jameswade
join:2001-12-09
Hot Springs, NC
·US Cellular
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: ... Pay close attention now...
My complaint is that Verizon did not build a cell site where US Cellular did.
Since US Cellular built the site and Verizon roams on US Cellular Verizon no longer needs to build a site.
Still with me?
The problem is now that Verizon can say that they service this area, and they do - for voice, nobody cares that they are roaming.
The problem is that I paid for data. Verizon finally brought EVDO close to this area, but they won't overlap with US Cellular.
US Cellular only supplies 1xRTT. Not that 1xRTT is that bad, it's just that they have a problem with it - it runs at about 80kb/s, not so bad, the real problem is the latency - it jumps around between .9 and 4 seconds - worse than satellite Internet. Unusable for remote desktop and VPN.
Now who do I complain to about this? Verizon? Not their network. US Cellular? They don't even offer data to their customers last time I checked. I can't complain to them since I don't have service with them.
I do have service with Verizon and they are not making me happy.
That's my complaint and I'm entitled to my own complaints.
Others read these posts and may be trying to deal with a similar problem or may want to make purchase decisions based on other's experiences.
To bad if you don't understand... | |
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