Internet access .....
 

So do you all use the Internet plans at the TS's? Which one is better, what kind of limits do they have?

Sprint, Verizon and I am sure all the others have Air card plans available. Does anybody have a plan with one of these carriers, and what kind of internet access do you get? I already have Sprint with unlimited everything on my Blackberry, but sometimes it is a pain in the *** to use that little keyboard/screen!

The advantage of using the Wifi Internet at truck stops is the cost. I believe it is about $20/month. The down side is that you only have service while you are on the property. Another down side is that the security isn't very good from what I have read. You need to be careful about doing anything involving your personal business. Air cards scramble their signal which makes it more difficult to get personal information, so I have been told.

I use an air card. I a couple of friends who use a different service than me and we all seem to have comparable service anywhere in the country. Between the three of us we use T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. I think most of the air cards are fairly comparable in their coverage areas today. I pay about $60/month plus tax. I believe OOIDA still has a member discount for Sprint phones. You may check with them to see if air cards are covered under the discount program.

I use: Days Inn, Super 8, Motel 6, Holiday Inn express. They all have free WI-FI, so it just depends on which I fell like staying at.:D

Motel 6 charges for their wifi. It's 2.99 for 24hrs.

Well that just sucks. Guess I'll scratch them off my list:lol:

they sell thoes ones you plug in your laptop (wifi) that supposedly get better range then the ones that come pre installed. there on ebay for preaty cheap.
also there is always starbucks ect that have free wifi in there stores. problem is you usualy have to order something. :(

I use a Sprint air card. It is about $70 a month for unlimited use. I try not to use it too much in Canada because thats costs more. Some places in Montana the service is slow but I am overall happy with it.

I rarely ever find a a T/S or motel WIFI that is faster then my sprint. Sprint is by far the fastest of the cellular solutions, but unless you don't use the internet regularly or only do basic email web surfing, all of the cell carriers right now have a 5gb a month limit. Sprint and Verizon both used to offer unlimited, but they got rid of it, those who already had unlimited got grandfathered in, but any new customer will have the 5gb limit. I would wait on getting a cell card, as sprint is supposed to bring back the unlimited plan soon. 5gb in a month is not hard to do at all. Say you have a netflix account and watch a 2 hour movie, that right there is nearly a gb of bandwidth.

Now here are a few tips for you that you can use to get unlimited internet from sprint without paying extra ;)

Most sprint phones support what is called tethering, I.E. using your phone to connect to the internet via your cell. If you have an EVDO phone with sprint, the internet is just as fast as the EVDO data cards. Now sprint charges $30 a month extra for tethering, however there is a way around it.

If you get a windows mobile phone from sprint with WM5 or higher on it, with unlimited data plan on the phone, WM has built in internet sharing, which I find funny because you can plug your phone right into the computer, and hit a button on the phone and instantly get internet without paying sprint any tether fee! Or the second option, get any other EVDO sprint phone that has unlimited data, and tethering as an option, and has a usb cable available to connect to your laptop, and a very simple to do modification to the phone will let you use it for internet without paying sprint the tether charge, that is the method I use right now.

Hey Matcat, I have the Blackberry Pearl and it is on an unlimited plan with Sprint. From what I know, not sure, but I think the Pearl 8130 is EVDO capable. I am not familiar EVDO.
Could you tell me how you get this to work with your phone and laptop?

Yes it is EVDO, EVDO is just the technology that CDMA carriers use for high speed data. As far as getting it to work, I will get back to you on that in a PM after I do some blackberry specific investigating.