Connectivity on the Road

[Tom]

I didn't need to call them; They called me a few minutes ago - a courtesy "how do you like the service?" call. I discussed the "Call tech support" issue reported earlier, and this was a new one on the caller. But she would have been quite happy to have me plug in the modem and do some diagnostics. Since I'm at home on cable, I said I'd try it later, either here on  or another alternate location, and I'll call tech support if I see that message again. I made it clear that I'm on a 30-day trial and trying to decide if I keep this or switch to another carrier.

Before concluding the all, I asked about the $0.002/kB rate in Canada vs the $0.49/kB rate that Jeff mentioned. The response was that the higher rate was for someone using a VZ cell phone. I didn't attempt to get into whether this meant $0.49/kB if using a cell phone for data, but the lady confirmed that my roaming rate for Canada is only $0.002/kB.

 

[Jeff]

That explains it. In the US I pay the same rate as a card, 59.95/mo to use my Palm Treo as a PDA and a tethered modem. We are in Pictou NB with a strong MotoSat signal so it is irrelevant for the rest of this trip.

 

[Tom]

Glad to hear you're getting a good HN signal Jeff. Sounds like your lat is far enough south to not be a problem.

 

[Jeff]

Tom:

And far enough west. We are 580 air miles east of St John's, NL now.

Now I am waiting for DirecTV to get back on the air.

 

[Ned]

Jeff, there's not much on DirecTV these days, so you're not missing much.  The most interesting channel lately has been the Weather Channel

 

[Jeff]

Jeff, there's not much on DirecTV these days, so you're not missing much.  The most interesting channel lately has been the Weather Channel

It must be showing all the rain in the Maritimes this summer.

The hurricanes would be second. ;D

 

[Tom]

I've been looking at the Verizon and Sprint coverage maps, and don't see a lot of difference. Both of them have huge gaps in coverage as you move across country.

AT&T's data coverage is dramatically different (better).

Might be time for me to switch to AT&T. Since they use the GSM/3G network, I'd also have coverage when I visit family in the UK.

 

[Ron]

In spite of what Verizon and others advertise it has been our experience when we had ATT the coverage was better.  However Verizon coverage has improved and ATT, then cingular, could not provide a phone nbr local to Sam's Camp and that is why we left ATT.

 

[Tom]

I'm only interested in high speed data Ron. Our T-mobile phones have proved to have great coverage, and I see no reason to change. My T-mobile air card has also had great coverage, but is relatively slow, which was why I was looking for a faster alternative.

Re-looking at the AT&T coverage map, I realize that I was looking at their voice coverage. 3G data coverage is considerably less, and doesn't seem to include some areas that would be a 'must' for us.

I'm thinking I'll stick with the Verizon USB modem, provided I can get past the hardware issue I observed.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

AT&T's data coverage is dramatically different (better).

Definitely not so, (as you said in your follow up). AT&T is far in 3rd place on high speed data service (though they are improving now).

 

[Tom]

These guys keep leapfrogging each other, and it's tough to keep up.

 

[Luca1369]

This is a good reason to check your usage in Canada with AT&T.

Steve

 

[RLSharp]

Also looks like a good reason to take personal responsibility for your cell phone usage. Don't blame your cell phone carrier for your actions. JMHO

Richard

 

[Tom]

Richard,

That was exactly my reaction when I forgot about roaming charges and ran up a huge bill in Canada. I talked with the carrier, but it was clearly my responsibility, and an expensive lesson learned.

 

[Ron]

We have been in Vermont and received a call that was connected through a Canadan tower.  Of course we were charged but a phone call was all it took to get the roaming charge for Canada removed.

 

[Tom]

They don't refund the roaming charge if you were actually in Canada though 

 

[Ron]

That is true Tom.  It did take some talking but after I pointed out there is no indication that we were on a Canadian tower even though we were in Vermont they removed the charge.

 

[Tom]

The guy quoted in the report needs to provide some oversight over what his son is doing. Roaming fees are clearly spelled out, and letting his son loose to download files and send lots of photos is, well, kinda dumb. Blaming the carrier because they didn't alert him to the high usage is like me blaming the power company for not alerting me to higher than normal electricity usage during an abnormally hot spell.

 

[Ron]

Very true Tom.

 

[KodiakRV]

This is a good reason to check your usage in Canada with AT&T.
Steve

I wonder if AT&T did anything about it...
[quote author=AT&T]
An AT&T representative said they're treating the matter seriously and looking into it. According to the company, they hope to have an answer for the family in the next few days. [/quote]