Should I dump my wired ISP for cellular broadband?

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Well, I certainly feel your pain. My unlimited data plan costs me an additional $40 per month on top of my regular cellphone charges. Add to that the roughly $50 per month I pay for the DSL into my home, and it definitely adds up.

Now, granted, in my case it's my business, and I have strong reasons for needing both.

But even if I didn't, you wouldn't see me dumping the hardwired DSL just yet.

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There are a some issues that crop up if you were to rely on cellular broadband as your sole source of connectivity.

Speed Even for EVDO, which is the current "latest, greatest, sexiest" technology for cellular data transmission, speed isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm hearing various reports from people using EVDO that, while they occasionally get near the quoted max transmission rates, it's often far less. Apparently the actual throughput is very location specific. That makes sense to me, as I would expect it to be very dependant on the strength of the cellular signal. Just at a gut level, it seems that each faster technology that comes along is correspondingly more sensitive to signal quality.

Since you already have the phone, my advice there is to try it. Set up where you think you'll be using things, and see if the speed matches your expectations. My guess is that, moving from a cable service, you may be seriously disappointed.

"All you can eat?" I have heard rumors that, particularly with the EVDO services, if you use too much of your unlimited data plan, you may be charged extra. What? That's what I said... it implies that your unlimited data plan may, in fact, not be truly "unlimited" at all. If you suddenly move all your work to that cellular connection, you could blow through whatever that ceiling is pretty quickly.

My advice here is to do the research. Do not rely on in-store salespeople for this. Call the service provider, scan the discussion boards on the internet, and see what's really happening. I'm not saying that it will happen, because I've not seen any official statements, but if true, you could be in for a rude surprise.

Networking Using your cell phone for connectivity is something typically designed to be done with a single computer. It is possible, using Internet Connection Sharing, to share that connection with other computers on a local area network, but it's a different set up, and requires that one computer be on at all times any of the others might want to access the internet.

Dropped Calls You'll need some way to reestablish dropped calls. Data calls are occasionally dropped, just like voice. When that happens to me, I have to reach over to my Treo and push a couple of buttons to reestablish the call - it's not something I can do from my laptop's keyboard.

My recommendation is to rely on cellular as your sole provider only if you have no other choice. And really research the implications, should you go that route.

Related:

• Ask Leo! - How do you stay connected in weak cellular areas?

• Ask Leo! - How should I stay connected while traveling?

Article C2646 - May 6, 2006