Mifi vs DSL

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sheltie

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Jan 8, 2009
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526
I've asked this before but now I'm getting serious about it and need some SIMPLE answers. I'm not a techie, just a user.

I currently have DSL at home and pay $45 a month for it. Both my wife and I use the internet, me more than her. I'm on it for email and routine browsing at least four hours a day. I also use it to transfer pictures from my Picture library to various forums I use. Other than that, not much. No movies, music downloads, etc. My wife will occasionally download a movie to the BluRay.

The reason I'm thinking about possibly changing to mifi is because of the speed, or lack of it, we are experiencing. It has gotten much slower than usual, plus I like the ability to take the mifi with me when we travel.

I'm looking for something that is at least as fast as my DSL and no more expensive. Does mifi fit the bill?
 
A MiFi (cellular data) will be as fast, or faster, than DSL if you're in a 4G service area.  In a 3G area, it will be noticeably slower than DSL unless you have really bad DSL service.  Also, the MiFi data plans come with much lower data caps than DSL or cable internet.  Wired internet caps are typically 250GB/month or more, while the cellular plans typically top out at 10GB/month for a lot more money.  I think the best compromise today between fixed and mobile service is to have DSL or cable internet when at home, then put it on suspension or cancel (if you can) when traveling and get the Millenicom Hotspot plan for $70/month, no contract, 20GB/month data cap.  If you don't need that much data, one of the other Millenicom no-contract plans would also work, and be less expensive.
 
IMHO the first thing you should do is contact your DSL provider about the speeds you are experiencing.  DSL is not a "single" thing; most providers offer multiple tiers of service with the highest levels providing speeds of 10 Mbps and even higher.  Do you know what you are currently paying for?  Have you used a site such as Speedtest.net to actually measure the speed at a couple of times during the day?  The DSL line we have at our winter location had issues for the first couple of months until the ISP's service technicians were able to resolve the problems.  Don't give up on your DSL until you fully understand the issues; if you are spending ~4 hours a day on the computer you're probably going to be bumping up against the limits of a wireless plan pretty quickly.
 
I agree that something must be wrong with your DSL...sounds like there are issues.

I am on the road and use the campground WiFi as much as possible, but when it is too slow or bad connection or not available I have a Verizon Hotspot 3G and 4G and find it more than adequate and quite fast when 4G is available...I have the smaller plan which I found to be more than adequate. Costs me about $50.00 per month....combined with my cell phone bill I pay right at $100.00 per month.

I work on the internet so it is a requirement for my business.

Good Luck in your decision.

Jim

 
DSL comes in a variety of speeds, based on the price of the service. $45 doesn't sound like the cheapest tier, but I don't know what the fee structure is like in your area.  My daughter was paying about $40/month for the cheapest available DSL in her locale and it was listed as only a 250 kb data rate.  Most 3G cellular will be faster than that, but speeds can vary with the load on the cellular tower in use. Might be 1 mb part of the day but only 100 kb in peak times. A typical speed will be around 400-600 kb, which is in the same range as typical home DSl service. DSL is supposed to be more consistent in speed, though.
 
I too spend a lot of time on the net and use cable at home. Because I created my own alarm system, I have to leave that on all the time. BTW -- I love my iP cam security system.
On the road, I use Virgin. They have a $ 50 a month, unlimited plan. It uses Sprint's 3 or 4G network. Yes it's slower than cab;e, but the unlimited price is hard to beat. I think all the other carriers have dropped their unlimited service. Also, it's month to month - no contract.
 
T-mobile has not dropped their unlimited plans. They offer a lot of unlimited plans. My plan is unlimited Internet, unlimited texting and 100 phone minutes for $30 per month.
 
I checked T-Mobile and couldn't find ant unlimited plans or any for $ 30 either. All had bandwidth cuts at various amounts of usage.
 
Super. Next question since I am limited to 3G with Virgin......  is the 4G that stunningly faster? Right now, we can't watch streaming video, because it has to stop and buffer every few seconds ?
Also since it says new activations only..... can you skip months?
 
Director said:
Super. Next question since I am limited to 3G with Virgin......  is the 4G that stunningly faster? Right now, we can't watch streaming video, because it has to stop and buffer every few seconds ?
Also since it says new activations only..... can you skip months?
I travel all over the country and the speed varies from place to place. In some cases it is stunningly faster and in other places is crawls. That is exactly the same results I got with Verizon's 4G air card. Streaming video sucks on just about every wireless connection. Yes there are some places where it is good enough to stream video but basically if you want to stream video you need to plug your computer into a hard wire.

I have no idea if you can skip months. I use it every month since I am a full timer.
 
Thanks for all the info. The price of the dongle going in --- to reduce our monthly by $ 20 doesn't make sense. We only use it for months we are on the road.
 
I have used VIrgin Mobile's service and still have it as a back up.. I currently use T-Mobile and my plan is a monthly billed plan, not a buy when you need it, but... The annual cost will be LESS than I paid for Virgin.  The service is better (My Virgin dongle was 3G) and there are places I park where T-mobile has coverage and Virgin... Does not.
 
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