 Review by tubbynet 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.8 years, 1018 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Mesa,Maricopa,AZ
 $60 per month (24 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Great for mobile travelers, high speeds, consistent connections"
 "I would like to see the price drop , B/W caps are a little low"
 "Worthwhile for a traveler, still wouldn't recommend as primary connection"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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[EDIT 7/2008]
It appears that while I was wrong about the caps originally, the message has come through that a 5GB/month cap will be put in place on the data services. This only lessens my pull towards Sprint's offering. While I feel that they are very strong in the data market, their EVDO coverage is sorely lacking behind Verizon in my area. I will be sticking with the service (only because I'm not paying for it) though if it were up to me, I'd be using VZW's service simply for coverage reasons since Sprint no longer has the data advantage.
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[EDIT - 2/2008]
Reviewed Sprints ToS. No mention of cap in their contract. Have been looking to see if they do enforce some cap at a point of time. Will update when more is known.
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I use the Sprint Mobile Broadband service through my office when I travel to deployments, etc. I am always surprised at how responsive the service is, even when riding shuttles, etc. to and from an airport or carpooling. I use the Novatel 720 PCMCIA card with EVDO Rev A, and I have never been disappointed by the service that I am provided. Download speeds are in the 1.5meg range, uploads hover around 400K, though in larger cities this can get as high as 600-650K (steady).
While I recommend this solution for people on the go, it has several drawbacks. I would like to see the price drop a little, especially if you already have a Sprint voice plan, $60 is expensive, especially for a travel or backup connection (as most people have). I do meet people who use this as their primary connection, and if the shoe fits, I suppose this would work. Generally, it has been my experience that if someone is in an EVDO area, they can be offered DSL or cable with higher speeds and lower prices. But, as with most ISPs, YMMV.
Bottom Line:
Great secondary connection for travel/backup (especially if you can expense it). High mobile speeds keep me amazed, as well as the GPS feature and how that can be tied in to most map programs. While I am not ready to have this as my primary connection, I will be waiting to see if policy changes/price drops will make this a more attractive offer.
Followup comments:  |  | | | | ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Rensselaer, IN
 ·Embarq
 ·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
4 edits | Re: ??? said by tubbynet :"We reserve the right to restrict usage if it adversely affects network performance" Things have changed since the last time I had actually read the terms and conditions. I believe at one time this had mention of a cap. The other thing that bothers me is the ambiguous wording of this sentence. However, it works for you. YMMV. At no point did they ever have any cap mentioned in their TOS. Again, you're probably mistaken for Verizon.
Every single ISP in existence has a similar line in their TOS. It's there just to cover their asses in case they do decide to drop someone from their network for whatever abuse they might be causing. The fact is, i've yet to hear of ANYONE that's been capped or kicked off of Sprint's network for any kind of "abuse." You can look all you want, but you won't find anything. Head over to either the forums here or evdoforums.com and do some reading. Sprint does not enforce any kind of cap or bandwidth limitations. The most they do is block a few ports (80, for example) to prevent using your connection as a webserver, etc.
I've been using 10 - 15 GB per month for the last year, and some of it has been p2p. I know of people that do a LOT more without issue as well.
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Asrock 4CoreDual-Sata2|E4500|1 GB PC3200|7600GT|Audigy + Front Bay|Hauppauge PVR-150MCE|Vista Ultimate + XP Pro SP2 dual boot|Sony Vaio VGN-CR290|Sprint Mobile Broadband|Netgear WGR614v8 | |
| | | | xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Re: ??? True that every cable/dsl has such ambiguous statements - all of them. The truth is, Sprint really is unlimited. 100%. Sprint doesn't cancel users, reduce performance or have overcharges. You can confirm this with thousands of users over at evdoforums.com.
It is Verizon that has a very specific 5GB/month limit. Verizon has canceled over 13,000 users in the past for going over 5GB/month. Sprint has canceled zero for this reason. Now Verizon reduces performance to 200Kbps if going over 5GB/month to months in a row or 10GB in one month. Starting in March, Verizon will apparently have overcharges of 50 cents/MB over 5GB. If you go to 6GB on Verizon, it's an extra $500 - wow!
Sprint doesn't have limits because they intend to compete with cable/dsl and they have more capacity than Verizon. And yes, Sprint EVDO can replace cable/dsl for casual users. I've replaced my cable modem using EVDO exclusively, and now I often go over 5GB/month with no issues. | |
| Jack_in_VA
Premium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA | No alternative I'm in the middle of nowhere. First had dialup, then Hughesnet. Sprint and Verizon wireless the only available broadband. No cable, no DSL.
So far performance has been great. 1.2 meg down, 300 up. | |
| mitchmiami
join:2008-02-15
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| dowload limit My contract (signed in march 08) says for unlimited use. I often download more than a gig a day, let alone 5 gigs a month and have never been charged additional fees.
As far as coverage goes, I recently drove from Miami to Orlando with my family (visit my son who goes to UCF) and my 12 year old daughter used her chat program, with microphone and earphone to speak to her friends the entire trip, even when driving through isolated areas that are just basically swampland, her utube videos and chat programs both worked perfectly the whole trip.
I guess I'm just lucky, I have never had a dropped call in six months until my 595u modem died, they sent me a 597 in the mail which I received in 3 days.
I wish the service was this good on my home dsl. The sprint gives me about 1.1 megs down and 650k down. I have bellsouth 6 meg ultra plus service and am lucky to get half that, even though I live less than 1/4 mile from the dslam.
Sprint service and customer service have been great to me with only one exception. When my modem started cutting in and out (while on my Orlando trip) the local Sprint company owned store that advertises itself as a service center said I had to turn in the bad modem first and wait "a week or so" for the replacement. My office building does not have internet access so I elected to keep the intermittently operational modem. When I called customer service on Monday they said" no problem" just mail us back the old modem when the new one arrives. | |
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