Verizon Wireless Cards

[sdc]

Just signed up for a 2 year contract for a verizon wireless card...

Havent made up my mind whether I like it or not wanted to get your opinions....

2 yr deal
$60 per month
$130 to activate and buy card

Couple things I have noticed so far
You can keep a constant signal driving down highway...
This is huge, I spend alot of time on the road and can now play while traveling (when others drive of course)

Speed seems fine for poker however...

Surfing the net it sucks, for example it takes forever to open up espn's website

It may be worth keeping just to play while traveling and in airports...just have not decided yet

I have a 15 day trial period to decide

Anyone else use these things?

Have any opinions?

How soon till this technology improves?

Am I better waiting?

[awr000]

Define "forever"

I'm on my verizon card right now and it took approx 8 seconds to load up espn.com's front page

I've had my card for 9+ months now and am very satified with it.

[sdc]

forgot to mention

i was also running 2 tables at the same time i tried to open espn's page

the guy at the store told me it would be comparible to a dsl or cable connection, and i just dont feel that is the case

as far as poker goes i am satisfied

however, when i am at home surfing the net is seems pretty slow

like i mentioned i havent decided 1 way or another yet

thanks for input

[StacysMom]

I just got one and absolutely love it. It is a bit slow for web surfing, but the freedom I get for playing poker is rediculous. Just the other day I was grinding on a picninc table next to a river. For as much as I play, I need a change of scenery to keep my sanity. It keeps a reliable connection and that is the most important part of the connection once it has the minimum threshold speed for multitabling.

[JRussell]

It is only comparable to DSL when you're in a city that offers Verizon Broadband Access coverage. Once you lose the Broadband Access signal it changes to cellular and is more comparable to dial-up.

[Mendacious]

I love it. It is rock solid for poker. Not so great for internet, but it depends somewhat on the cache you have for reloading pages, and the internet varies a lot from day to day & place to place. It is not compable to DSL or Broadband. I would not be happy if I got rid of my broadband at home and replaced it. But it is so handy and is serviceable for the internet, and ROCKS for poker...which pays for the card easily.

My contract is $80 and I signed up in July. Do you have your voice plan with Verizon as well. Or have the cut the rate across the board?

[sdc]

Is is a special they are running...

I was anticipating $80, so when they said $60 I had to jump on it.....

If you want to start term over I am sure they would adjust your bill....

My conract is 80/month also. Web is so-so. Poker is awesome.

Look at it like this:

# of hrs played per month on verizon card * hourly poker rate

Compare it to your monthly verizon bill.

Is it positive EV for you to have this?
If poker $$ is less than the bill, is the differce worth the surfing value?

[JRussell]

Mine is $60/month and it was purchased about 2 months ago. I do not have voice service with Verizon. I also got a mail-in rebate for the card so it only cost about $50.

Remember, if you decide you don't like/want it after a few months you can always change it over to a regular voice plan. This way you're not really stuck with the internet service for 2 full years.

[MicroBob]

I just got mine.

The guy said that it's $80/mth unless I also have or get a Verizon voice-plan at which point it is $60/mth. I may change over to a Verizon voice-plan just to save a few bucks on this.


I've had some problems with it though although it is working fine right now.
But i had a stretch in there where it wasn't connecting AT ALL....then it would connect fine several times in a row...then it would completely fail to connect again for hours on end.
Perhaps I was in an area of my home where it was less likely to work (although I was getting 3 bars ouf of 4 for signal much of the time).


If you have suggestions...you can probably just save them. I spent over 2 hours on the phone with support trying to fix the damn thing.


However, after tinkering around with some settings I think it's pretty good for web-surfing...whereas at first it was WAY slower than regular dial-up for surfing.


I'm going to play on it A LOT over the next few days because if I'm going to dump it before the 15-day trial-period ends I need to figure out NOW what I think of it.

If I get one more situation where it's refusing to connect then I'm calling back the support guy at Verizon (who I feel I know pretty well now after 2+ hours on the phone with him) who has already suggested that the problem might be in the card itself and that I can send it back and they'll send me a new one (since none of the other ideas seemed to work at the time...but again, it's mysteriously working fine now).

[Mendacious]

care to elaborate about the settings that made it work much faster?

[sdc]

fyi

$80 is bs because i currently have my voice plan thru sprint
and still have the $60 rate

[JRussell]

[ QUOTE ]
care to elaborate about the settings that made it work much faster?

[/ QUOTE ]

PLEASE!

[JRussell]

[ QUOTE ]
fyi

$80 is bs because i currently have my voice plan thru sprint
and still have the $60 rate

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here. Maybe it was a "promo rate"?

[MicroBob]

I really don't remember everything that we were doing.

but mostly trying to get my norton anti-virus out of the way a little bit while also disabling a couple of the other network wi-fi thingees seemed to help a lot.


My first day with it the web-surfing was idiotically slow.
Even slower than my regular dial-up in fact.

I think that turning off the personal firewall on norton made a significant difference there.
Also make sure that you ahve it set for 115k max-rate (or whatever it is).

It truly does feel like about 2x the speed of dial-up (as advertised).


I'm still having some occassional connection issues though.
I talked with my 2nd tech-rep today. I am going to take the card back to a verizon store and get a replacement.

I have a feeling it's just a general signal strength issue that perhaps fluctuates in my area...maybe I'm far enough away from the tower AND there's enough traffic on the signal that is the cause of the problems.

If I have the same problem with the new card then I'll probably ditch it.
Perhaps will go with Cingular which also has a similar product.


Also - will call Verizon and ask about the $60/month promo-rate (even without a Verizon voice-plan).
If they are still running it then I am going to demand that I get this one also (or else I'll just cancel my plan before the 15-day trial period ends...and then will consider whether I want to get a new plan with them or if I will be taking my business to Cingular).

[awr000]

[ QUOTE ]
It truly does feel like about 2x the speed of dial-up (as advertised).

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like your on the older 1xRTT network which should be 60-120kbps (ie- about 2x dialup speed) I think it's called "National Access"

The EVDO network ("Broadband Access") should be 3-500kbps. Thats typically what I get in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on 1 or 2 bars of signal strength inside a concrete/steel building. Outside or in a normal residential type building I get 500-800kbps, about the equivalent of mid-level DSL.

[JRussell]

Yes, the card does both networks. Many small-mid sized cities (and a few large ones) still don't have Verizon Broadband Access coverage. The National Access (cellular) coverage gives you 2X's dial-up at best. Sometimes it can be slower than dial-up, but even that's fine for playing poker. The overall connection has been VERY consistent for me.

[JRussell]

[ QUOTE ]
Also - will call Verizon and ask about the $60/month promo-rate (even without a Verizon voice-plan).
If they are still running it then I am going to demand that I get this one also (or else I'll just cancel my plan before the 15-day trial period ends...and then will consider whether I want to get a new plan with them or if I will be taking my business to Cingular).

[/ QUOTE ]

wp /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Do you also have the additional program that came with the Verizon software? It is called Venturi and is supposed to optimize your connection speed. I was just wondering if this was one of the things you removed that helped the speed?

Thanks

[PartySNGer]

I'm in Omaha, and it doesn't look like Verizon has an Omaha market, but I'm looking for an alternative that has an Omaha market and would work about as well. My main concern is that my Netgear wireless card can't quite obtain a wireless connection in my college classrooms. Could someone suggest a product that would extend my range so I could obtain wireless connection in the classroom? I'm kind of a noob when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks!

[MicroBob]

I don't know what 'wp' means.


I have the Venturi client running.


I'm in Memphis where they don't have the broadband...so I'm just on the digital-cellular signal.
I plan on moving around from city to city (within the U.S.) in the near future...likely to include a couple of markets that have the broadband coverage.


The fun test comes up at the end of the month when the GF and I drive to Washington DC and then over to West Virginia.
there will be areas where I'll get zero cell-signal...but I'm looking forward to the stretches where I get to play internet-poker while were cruising down the highway.


In Omaha...even if they don't have the broadband you would still get the national-access.

[JRussell]

wp = well played