 Review by We No Speak 
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 48 visits, last login: 9 days ago
 Nevada City,Nevada,CA
 $60 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Signal strength varies, but can always connect"
 "Speeds are never consistent and waiting for Gmail can cause rapid aging"
 "Sure beats Dial-Up, but don't expect much more"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I'm a long-time cable customer and recently moved to the sticks. Strictly Dial-up or Satellite country. I tried to get Satellite, but the startup costs [because of my specific issues with location and housing structure] would have been enormous.
One day I strolled into the local Verizon Store [Nevada City] and spoke with a sales rep. Within 20 minutes I walked out with a USB760, a two year contract, and was connected to the internet 10 minutes after getting home [which takes about half an hour from town]. It couldn't have been easier.
I've noticed that the location of the modem is absolutely critical to getting a decent signal [sometimes by inches and rotation of the device] and by using a USB extension cable was able to find a spot that lit up all the bars. However, even with the modem never being moved, the signal strength can vary significantly. (Maybe it has something to do with the extension cable as I move that quite a bit between my PC and Mac].
Originally Verizon's usage tracking was ridiculous and I've had to be credited for going over the 5gig cap once already. There were three ways [via Verizon] to track usage and all three showed different results. In my opinion, this is essentially consumer fraud, but I haven't gone over the cap again, so I'm not going to make a big deal out of it [yet].
Next to Dial-up, I can't complain, but there are some nagging issues. Primarily, the speeds are never consistent and only on rare occasion do I see the advertised speeds. The updated software [v7] seems to have some improvements on speed, but nothing significant enough to enjoy surfing the internet anymore. Far too often internet pages fail to load and I have to F5 [refresh] to see them. It will often take about 30 minutes for a 3 minute embedded YouTube video to load enough to watch. Again, this is light years better than Dial-up, but not much fun and I really miss my cable connection.
I haven't had to contact Verizon Tech Support yet so I can't comment on their service. Where I'm located is definitely Verizon country so they are the only game in town and I can't compare them to other WISP's or Satellite companies either.
The new EVDO software [for Windows] is another review and a big disappointment at this time. Also, I have a MacBook Pro and see no software from Verizon or Smith Micro that supports EVDO with the USB760 modem in the Mac environment. I could be wrong, but as of last week [October 20 2009] this was the case.
Overall, I'm very happy to have something a lot better than Dial-up.
P.S. I don't know what 'Days from order to success' means and assume it is how long it took from purchasing the gear to getting on the internet.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Verizon Wireless Broadband |
|
Verizon Wireless Broadband
(20)
(17)
(15)