Verizon Wireless Broadband

for those of you that dont know, Verizon just rolled out their broadband service over cell network. using the EVDO standard, you can access the internet using cell towers by purchasing an air card (type 2 or 3 pcmia slot) for a laptop for the ultimate in wireless internet connectivity.

contrary to official statements by verizon, Macs are supported. for Tiger 10.4 or newer, drivers are built in for the PC 5220 card. ($99) for the other cards offered a simple file edit is necessary but even for the novice, it can be done in just a few minutes.

for earlier OS versions, a download is necessary and links and great instructions are available at www.EVDOinfo.com (they also have a link where you can buy aircard for less than what verizon sells them for. and will call you and walk you through the setup if you have problems)

now unlimited broadband access is 79.99 a month (a bit steep i know, but its only 79.99 since its not telephone service, its not swamped with surcharges and other crap.) and for me, it was worth the wait, since it enables me to eliminate the $25 a month for home telephone service (it was only used for my dialup connection anyway)

the coverage areas for broadband (2 Mbps burst down and 144 Kbps up. my benchmarks are running between 500-930 kbps) are from north of everett to south of tumwater along I-5 mostly then Portland to Salem in Oregon. if wandering outside that area you drop down to National Access speed automatically. Its coverage is very broad and for the most part covers the same area as the digital coverage area of Americas choice (nat access is 270 million verses 283 million for AC) its speed is 144 kbps burst with 40-90 kbps on the benchmarks.

the best part is that im running it on my Mac, and it was a 30 second setup procedure to plug in access to my Windows home network. now i have broadband all the time and it is SWEET!!