Gravitational Pull

Time for Sprint v. Verizon for mobile net needs

Posted on 20 March 2007

Well, it seems like only yesterday I was signing up for Verizon’s mobile broadband service with a Novatel v620 PC Card modem at $79.99 a month. But it’s been two years and in the world of cell phone contracts, two is the magic number. I’m free to consider the competition.

Why bother? For one, Verizon won’t give me a discount on mobile broadband unless I also have a regular cell phone on the same account and I can’t do that. Sprint charges $59.99 a month on a two-year contract. Both companies have also been hard at work rolling out the newest flavor of EVDO known as Revision A. My current Novatel card, of the Rev. 0 variety, is is starting to seem a little pokey, even when it has a good signal. Well, pokey for broadband.

On the down side for Sprint, they offer zero mac support. Boo. But the fine folks at the EVDO Info web site are ready to help and more than willing to send you a wireless modem card already activated to work on Sprint’s network and with Mac driver software. Hurray.

One common element is my desire for a new modem form factor. Both Verizon and Sprint are selling a USB-compatible wireless modem, Novatel’s Ovation u720. Unlike my present PC Card modem, this USB Novatel will work fine in my current Powerbook G4 and in a new MacBook Pro (which has a PC Express slot instead of a PC Card slot) or even an iBook or MacBook (which have no slots at all). Just like my present PC Card, the U720 picked up an “editors choice” award from PC Magazine.

So I’ve signed up for a test run with Sprint. I’ll report back asap.