Verizon Wireless (VZW) is updating the radios in their cellular sites to support EVDO (cellular broadband) at an impressive rate. My experience with EVDO is that I routinely get download speeds higher than 1 megabit per second and upload speeds of 400-600 kilobits per second (both better than basic DSL). Why they’re not advertising this more is beyond me. I’m giving them a plug here because they are at least a short-term fix for many people in rural areas who, up until now, had no option but satellite (which is a very poor option) for broadband coverage.
Updated interactive coverage maps are available here on the VZW site. If you last looked at these maps a few months ago and didn’t find yourself on them, take another look. BTW, these maps are very granular and so far I’ve found them accurate.
My VZW phone first started showing the presence of EVDO about six months ago both here on nerd hill and at friends’ houses in places as remote as Bear Swamp. But my EVDO card (which has worked well in cities for years) was only connecting at “National Access” speeds here – faster than dialup but not much faster. Tech support assured me that EVDO is here; certainly the map showed our location as blue (covered).
After a while I began to suspect that the problem was the EVDO card I’m using for access. I’ve had it for at least four years; I was a very early EVDO adaptor. So, despite the fact that the card worked in cities and despite tech support telling me that it should then work in Stowe, I ordered a new USB EVDO device – the high end AC595U which has an internal battery to boost its signal strength and a port for an external antenna which I also ordered. The device turned out to be free if I renewed my contract for two years which I did. Also would’ve been free with a new contract.
Installed the device and new Verizon software that came with it and wham! EVDO Rev. A (a newer version of the protocol which apparently my old card couldn’t cope with). Speeds at least as good as I used to get in the city. And I didn’t need the antenna – at least it doesn’t seem to make any difference.
I’ve been doing a little travelling testing. When Mary and I were doing a broadband census at the High School on Town Meeting day, EVDO gave us the Internet access we needed. Bought my laptop to Bear Swamp yesterday and got blazing speed. I think I’m auditioning to replace the nerd in the VZW commercial who goes around asking “Can you hear me now?” although, of course, I’d ask “Can I connect now?”.
Also have been comparing the VZW coverage map to the map we got when we took our census. Good news and bad news there. Immediately below is some good news. Note that on the census maps the black (satellite) and white (dialup) pins in the Sterling Valley area without any red (DSL) or blue (cable) pins indicate that no broadband coverage is available there.
But note from the blue on the VZW coverage map that there apparently IS coverage there although the white does indicate that some areas are blocked by something.
The news is not good in Nebraska Notch. As you can see below, apparently even satellite doesn’t work with the ridge to the south and VZW does not cover there.
The service isn’t cheap. There used to be an unlimited data plan which threatened to reduce your speed if you did more than 5 gigabytes a month of data communication. The plan now allows five gig for the fixed price of $60/month and then charges .49/megabyte (which is expensive) after that. However, if up to now all you had available was dialup or satellite, it’s extremely unlikely you’re doing anything like 5 gig a month or will even want to soon. But don’t try to use this service for looking at full length high-def videos. That’ll cost you an arm and a leg; an occasional YouTube is just fine.
If you already have VZW data access, by all means bring your laptop to Vermont when you come skiing or visiting for any other reason. Very good chance you’ll get connectivity.
There are devices available which let you use one VZW access card and account to provide WiFi coverage to your whole house (or at least a good part of it) so all of your computers can be online without having a separate account for each one of them. I’ll write more about them after I’ve tested.
An earlier post on cellular data access including what other carriers are doing is here.