Wireless / Mobile → Sprint Mobile Broadband > Is it worth upgrading my older Sprint wireless equipment?

Is it worth upgrading my older Sprint wireless equipment?

My parents live in rural Michigan (zip 49087). They have no hard-wire broadband options so about 6 years ago I set them up with some Sprint equipment from 3GStore.

They have:
Franklin CDU-680 EVDO Rev A USB modem
CradlePoint CTR-350 EVDO Travel Router
A small booster antenna

This has always worked tenuously at best. Sometimes they will get no signal and when it is working the Speedtest gives about a 0.4 Mbps download and 0.1 Mbps upload. They are paying about $60/month.

Since a few years have passed I am looking at their current options to see if there is anything worth upgrading to.

- Sprint coverage maps don't show any 4G in the area, so I assume the most modern equipment would still just connect to the save EVDO Rev A network they are already on?
- Verizon coverage maps seem to indicate 4G LTE in the area, but I am kind of skeptical of this. Third party coverage map sites show the nearest 4G LTE as being miles away. Plus, I can't find any Verizon option that isn't incredibly expensive.

These are the options I'm considering for them:
- Buying a new Sprint USB modem and a new Cradlepoint router and doing an EIN swap so their account will stay the same, in the hopes that new equipment will get a bit more reliable and speedy connection.
- Getting an unlimited plan from Millenicom or Wireless 'n Wifi for Sprint. Probably same result as the above option, but I don't think their current Sprint plan is unlimited. If the connection IS better, they may want the unlimited.
- Getting Verizon HomeFusion Broadband. If there really is 4G LTE there, this would clearly be the best signal and connection. But I keep hearing horror stories about billing overages. I don't think they want to pay much more than $90-100/month for internet.
- Leaving everything as is

So my question: Are there any options I haven't listed that I should consider? Is it plausible that a new USB modem and new router connecting to what is probably the same network will make a noticeable improvement?

I am also considering a couple of options in order to try out the Verizon network without too much upfront fee or contract, so either:

- Buy the Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 5510L with a month-to-month plan ($99 up front cost, $90/10gb month-to-month plan)
- Try the Millenicom Hotspot plan which runs on Verizon ($165 up front cost, $70/20gb month-to-month plan)

For what it's worth, while they're all terrible deals because of the low speeds and spotty connectivity, I'd say the Millenicom or the WnW are the best bet.

By the way, Millenicom is NOT unlimited; it has a soft cap of 50 gigs. WnW is the better deal if you don't mind the up-front expense: WnW insists that you buy WnW's stuff while Millenicom offers a B(uy) Y(our) O(wn) D(evice) deal. In the case of the latter, you might be able to just turn over the Franklin to Millenicom. That's what I did with my Sprint Overdrive a year ago when I switched from Sprint to Millenicom (I have since upgraded to WnW because the 50 gig cap just wasn't cutting it for me). No degradation in performance (though no improvement either), and thus the process is extraordinarily cheap.

By the way, a word about WnW. Yes, it is unlimited; no, there is no cap. HOWEVER, they frequently drop broad hints to go easy. One person on this forum was directly told to keep it under 100 gigs. When I asked them directly they said flat out "No, we do not cap, soft or hard, at 100 gigs; when we say unlimited, we mean unlimited."

So I figured the rumors were untrue and paid no attention to my data usage for the first month.

I then got a tongue-clicking message the next month, telling me I had used 112 gigs, telling me that was too much, and asking me whether I intended to stay at that high level. In fairness to WnW, they did NOT claim I was violating their TOS, nor did they threaten to disconnect me; but they were clearly unhappy.

The next month (July), I used 93 gigs (and this time I watched my usage closely). I figured that perhaps the rumors were true and 100 gigs was the limit. So I expected that staying below 100 gigs would make them happy and I'd get a pat on the back.

No dice.

AGAIN I got a tongue-clucking message, asking me to try not to use so much data!

The bottom line is that you can go over 50 gigs with WnW, so it remains a less limited deal than Millenicom, SIGNIFICANTLY less limited. However, while they promise unlimited and are grimly determined to keep that promise, they are evidently rather nervous about it. And, for what it's worth, I STILL don't know the amount above which they get nervous. Is it 90? Is it 85? Who knows? They are just as grimly determined not to give me such a figure, probably because they want to remain true to the letter of their promise of "unlimited." Regardless, they remain the best wireless Internet deal around for laptops in terms of available data usage per month, even if they are a bit skittish about it.

By the way, this web site has a discussion forum for Millenicom but none for WnW. I've been proclaiming from the rooftops that this site's owners and moderators should add a discussion forum for WnW but, so far, I've heard neither a no or yes. It seems such an obvious omission that I can't help thinking there might be a reason for it; or it could be just that WnW is a very new entrant on the scene and the DSL Reports has just not gotten around to it.

I can say if you want to test out to see if your folks can get Verizon's 4g signal that you can go to a Verizon store and ask to borrow a mobile hotspot for a day or 2. I would go to a true Verizon store not a reseller.