Can someone help me pick out a phone/service?

by Crucial-Kenny Mar 9, 2011 3:33AM PST

I've been on AT&T for a long time, even back when it was Cingular. I got an iPhone just under two years ago and discovered tethering soon after. I live in a rural area where broadband is not available, so I depend on tethering for internet. I'm not in an AT&T 3G area and the service keeps getting slower and slower. It's horrible during peak hours. I canceled my service and need to find a replacement by the end of my billing cycle - a couple weeks away.

My options are Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile. Verizon has the best coverage, and 3G is at my house. Sprint also has 3G at my house and covers the places I'm usually at, but I know other area have sparse coverage. I'm pretty sure I can tether for free with android phones on both services. Both have contracts. Verizon is $90/month plus tax, Sprint is $80/month plus tax (for low minutes, unlimited text, unlimited internet). Virgin is only... $25 for basically the same service, just lower minutes that I doubt I'd go over. No contract. Same coverage as Sprint. But I'm not so sure about tethering. There are ways to do it, but at $25 a month and no contract I'd imagine they would be quick to cut your service for using much bandwidth.

Any advice?

Discussion is locked

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My son has the VM droid.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 9, 2011 10:03AM PST

Picked it up at Target, added 25 bucks, Easytether and got online. Sprint appears to be what system they connect to here so if Sprint works, VM should be fine.
Bob

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You are right

by Pepe7 Mar 10, 2011 3:54AM PST

I stand corrected. One of our IT guys just came in with his non-work phone and showed me easytether. He said he only uses it as a backup though, and doesn't download multiple GB of data. The fastest speed he reportedly received tethering was between 300-400 kb/s, which seems to jive with someone in the following thread i cut and pasted below on the topic. I wonder if VM would actually pull the plug on someone for actual, regular home use(?) In any case $25 seems like a heck of a deal(!)

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/32852-advantages-tethering-i-e-pdanet-easy-tether.html

-P

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Rumor has it.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 10, 2011 11:54AM PST

And I can't confirm it that VM slows down your data rate after you pass 5GB. We had moved and had to wait weeks till the internet and phone was installed so for two weeks he used it constantly.

The only confirmed issue is it would drop connection after a few hours. But it would reconnect and keep working.

This would only bother torrent users?
Bob

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Tethering on stock Virgin Mobile phones

by Pepe7 Mar 10, 2011 2:02AM PST

AFAIK the stock VM phones/plans don't permit tethering. I don't think you could even install the PDANet app that is commonly used for tethering. In any case, I'd pop over to the VM sub-forum at Howardforums.com and ask. I would be very surprised anyway. If they *did* permit tethering it very well might be at dialup speeds

You might look into Page Plus service, which runs on Verizon's native footprint that is really good in the U.S. I believe they now allow quite a lot of different Verizon branded handsets to be activated on their service. This way it wouldn't be as locked down like the more proprietary VM devices/service. http://www.pagepluswireless.com

Let us know how it goes.