internet

I’m Back Online With Cricket

We finally have broadband at home again. Yesterday, I purchased a Cricket Broadband modem on the way home, yesterday. It works on CDMA. I don’t know if it’s EVDO, but it got a high download speed over 900 kbps. That’s enough for me.

Just to recap my broadband situation, my family and I moved to an area where DSL and digital cable are not available. Our only other options for broadband are satellite and wireless cards. Satellite is a tad pricey on the equipment purchase and monthly fee side. Most mobile companies (ahem, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon) try to lock you in on a contract. But what if reception isn’t all that great where I live? It would be a hassle to cancel the service and return the equipment.

I recently caught a commercial on TV that advertised the Cricket Broadband service. I liked the entire premise, no contract. We tried it yesterday and we have signal up in the 90% range. It’s perfect. I have installed the dial-up equipment on all the computers at home pending my figuring out how to network them. Call me pleased. This opens up the world of podcasting and video for me as well. You can expect me to have a greater online presence from here on.

Broadband Lemons to Mobile Lemonade



Broadband Lemons to Mobile Lemonade

Originally uploaded by shainelee.

You don’t necessarily have to have a big fat Internet pipe to stay connected with the world. Your phone can do plenty to keep you in touch.A few posts ago, I was lamenting the fact that I now live in an area where there is no broadband. There was supposed to be DSL on the way, but it may be a much longer time than originally expected. I got handed broadband lemons.I have since been learning how to turn my broadband lemon into mobile lemonade. Lack of broadband has actually liberated me and made my Internet use more efficient. I have, since buying my Windows Mobile phone, always looked for ways to connect. I have never, until now, completely relied on my phone for my Internet. Let me share with you some examples of how this is working out.

Efficiency

I have a laptop that I use for work. I batch my uploads and other broadband-necessary tasks for those moments when I have a wifi connection. At home, through my phone’s Internet Conection Sharing, I access light services like email and bill paying. This cuts back on unnecessary Youtube viewing, stats checking, and fantasy shopping.

Mobile Connections

Many websites are turning to the mobile phone as another screen to connect with you. More people have mobile phones than have computers. Even the most basic phones have some WAP functionality. You can use your phone for Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pownce, Netflix, Vitalist, Google Reader, Grand Central, Amazon, Brightkite, Clipmarks, ebay, Flickr, Kyte, Wapedia, Utterli, Tumblr, and many more. Sure, they are stripped down versions, but the core functionality, connecting with people, is still there. SMS adds even another layer of connection to your mobile phone.

Voice Still Works

You’d be surprised to learn that your voice can still do quite a bit in terms of productivity. Phone calls are still quite effective. Your voice can keep notes with Jott. You can schedule Blog Talk Radio shows to create podcasts from anywhere with phone service. Finally, before there was widespread email, there was voice mail. Leave your message instead of playing phone tag. Personally, I prefer you tell me what you want in your message rather than having me call you to find out what you want. Chances are, I won’t.

To help illustrate how lack of broadband has been more of a blessing than a curse, I wrote this post while walking laps around the park. I’m free!

Is Rural America Broadband Deficient?

I recently moved to Madero, Tx, a small unincorporated community South of my hometown, Mission. What’s killing me right now is that there are few options for broad band. At this location, there is no DSL or Cable. Our only options for internet at more than crawling speeds are satellite, microwave, or mobile broadband through one of the major carriers like Sprint or AT&T. My current situation leads me to think about what people in rural areas face with respect to jumping on the latest and greatest websites. The downside to DSL and Cable alternatives is that they charge a pretty steep premium. DSL will be coming around in the next 6 months.

Currently, my Internet access piggybacks on my phone’s internet sharing. I’ve blogged in the past about the speed I can achieve, which is around the old ISDN speed. Back in the day, this would have been awesome. Today, it’s woefully inadequate. With today’s websites, moving around is rather painful at that speed. My activities are limited to checking email and writing blog posts. If I dare to browse around and read other blogs, it would take a considerable chunk of time to move from one to another. Quite frankly, without broadband, social media is hardly worth the effort. The only exception are those sites that have added mobile interfaces to their sites. They may be stripped down, but they get the basic job done of keeping you in touch.

This leads me to believe that there is giant segment of people out there for whom social and new media are a waste of time, literally. Without broadband access for physical or economic reasons, it is simply too much of a time sink to wait for content to download. If they go online, it is with a specific objective and they move on with their lives once it is achieved.

I often hear that New Media is in its infancy. I would tend to agree now that I realize with greater understanding that there are folks out there for whom it is meaningless. It’s tough to appreciate Youtube when you’re connected at dial-up speeds, which are often under 56k. It’s even tougher to be part of the conversation when you have limitations on what you can upload.

I don’t want to give the impression that rural areas are disadvantaged. Rather, rural America has some obstacles when it comes to participating in the new media. Obviously, if somebody living out in the country is willing to put up the money for satellite, mobile broadband, or some other alternate broadband access, then they have no problem contributing; however, I would argue that few are willing to pay $60+/month for non-business access. In addition, with sites like Kyte.tv and Utterz, which lend themselves to mobile technology, rural folks have some contribution to make. I think more people are willing to pay for mobile service, which has a practical and more accessible use.

Trying to Get By Without Broadband

Currently, our broadband connection at home is not working. This poses a few problems for me in that it limits my Internet options. Rather than fix the problem, I’m going to let it ride and try to get by using my mobile phone as my Internet connection. Even with this, I’m not truly experiencing dial-up speed. Using my phone, I can still pull down 115 kb/s; this is faster than dial-up. Even so, the Internet is not exactly speeding along.

One thing I have to accept is that I can only browse one thing at a time. Browsing two pages at once means that they will both load slowly. Therefore I still end up waiting for pages to download. It forces you to plan your browsing. This in turn, may actually result in saving time because you focus on what you need to get done and cut out unnecessary browsing.

Video is a problem. Small videos are not a big problem, but much of the fun stuff is in the high megabyte count, making them painfully slow to view. I can forget about uploading.

Audio podcasts are, strangely, still doable. It seems that my phone is capable of downloading just a little faster than the media player is able to play; therefore, I can listen to podcasts while they download. I am able to catch some streaming audio too. In the case of recording shows, I don’t typically use a data connection to record my shows; I dial in. The only downside is that if I want to use my Blog Talk Radio or Talkshoe switchboards, I cannot simultaneously dial in. My mobile phone lets me pick between data or voice, but not both. Therefore, I need to run off somewhere where there is free wifi, or I need to get a second phone for voice.

Working on a slow connection also has social media implications. I have to use low-bandwidth options. This means that Twitter is best used via GTalk. Using the Twitter website is just too slow. Facebook and Myspace? Forget it, unless I use the mobile versions. This is probably not a bad thing. Mobile versions strip out all the junk people load on their pages and get to the point. I suppose I can continue using mobile versions of my social media.

For blogging, I can’t say that I am hampered all that much. Blogging, for the most part, uses a static page. Fortunately, blogging, which has been good for me career-wise, is hardly impacted without broadband. I am blogging using my phone’s connection now.

One other thing that I’ve come to appreciate is that I am able to operate a great service that I have started using, smartsheet.com. Smartsheet is a great website that is perfect for project planning and team collaboration. I was worried that my ability to use SmartSheet would be hampered by a slow connection; it is not. Although it is slow to load at the outset, once it’s loaded, there is not problem. So, you mobile professionals may appreciate this about SmartSheet.

Most of this is moot if you choose to use something like Sprint’s EV-DO. Sprint’s mobile Internet is spectacular. I’ve used Sprint and I must say that I am impressed. They have 1 Mb speeds for download and not too shabby upload speeds. In my case, I use T-Mobile’s EDGE data connection. It’s no EV-DO, but I’ve been very happy with T-Mobile’s customer service; so, I’m willing to put up with the slower speed.

NOTE:
In case you are wondering, I have a T-Mobile Dash and use the built-in Internet sharing feature on the phone. The unlimited data plan is roughly $20/month, which includes unlimited access to T-Mobile HotSpots.

T-Mobile Has Lowered Their Total Internet Plan

I own a T-Mobile Dash and have struggled with paying $29.99/mo for their Total Internet plan, which includes unlimited use of HotSpots. I really enjoy the ability to roam and have access to the Internet through my phone. There are locations where I could take advantage of the HotSpots, so it’s theoretically a bargain. The problem is that I hardly visit Starbucks and Kinkos Fedex.

I called in to cancel my mobile Internet again, thinking this was definitely it, when I was informed that T-Mobile has lowered the price of the feature to $19.99/month. I was skeptical and asked if anything was stripped out of the new rate. Evidently, it’s the same plan, but costs less. The catch is, however, you have to request the lower rate. New customers automatically get the new rate, but existing subscribers will continue to pay $29.99/mo.

After lowering my Internet cost, I reconsidered and left it running on my account. My issue was not the utility, it was cost. With the lower cost, I feel more comfortable leaving it on. It’s a good thing too. Our cable internet is down again, so I have had to resort to connecting to the web via my mobile phone’s internet plan. If you are paying $29.99 for unlimited internet on your T-Mobile Dash, you should call in and request the $19.99 rate.