Verizon Mifi Roadtest
In my efforts to become a true mobile broadband warrior, I purchased a new Verizon 3g Mifi device without a contract from Verizon. For those of you who are not savvy in the ways of mobile tech fu, Mifi came out earlier this year to some initial hoopla, but hasn’t really taken off that well or at least is not hyped as much as the smartphones. Mifi is essentially a mobile 3g gateway/router that allows you to connect up to 5 devices via wifi anywhere. You are your own mobile hotspot. If you are like me and you use a variety of devices, being able to switch from the phone to the laptop or, better yet, use the laptop on the go WHILE ON THE PHONE is a very neat trick. What is even more interesting to me is the possibility of not having a voice plan at all and use Skype or some other VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) solution. As I already pay through the nose for an iPhone, the Mifi $60/mo. for 5GB (the now “standard” cap …boo… more on that later), is not that shocking, especially if i can only pay that without a contract and use any device(s) I want.
Before i get to the roadtest, I should mention that as of November 2009, Verizon has doubled their ETF (Early Termination Fee) to $350 for “advanced devices” like smart phones, PDAs, and Mifi. Now this was shocking to me. Apparently, in a letter to the FCC defending it’s increase, Verizon claims that it is “fair” because of their increased costs associated with smart phones and that they will allow you to pay full retail for a device and pay month-to-month. The Mifi was either $50 with a 2-year contract and $350 ETF or $280 for a month-to-month contract. Either way, the monthly fee for the bandwidth is $60. I really hate hostage taking so I opted for the month-to-month and shelled out the cash. I did confirm with Verizon that I can sell the device without any hassle from them. Given that 4g is looming around the corner and the new ETF hike, the month-to-month seemed to give me more flexibility. Maybe not, but did I say that I hate hostage taking? If a 4g Mifi comes out in October perhaps, I will probably be able to recoup some of my costs and switch. If you don’t care about contracts or know that you need Mifi regardless, Sprint also offers Mifi for the same price with a 2-year contract. Just make sure that your carrier has reasonable 3g coverage in your area as both Sprint and Verizon further limit your bandwidth to 300MB when roaming off their native 3g network. Doesn’t take too many webpages to get to 300MB. Verizon charges $0.05/MB overage if you exceed the 5GB cap so be sure to check your usage. Mifi is for VOIP calling, checking email, connecting to remote networks/servers etc. so do your YouTube HD streaming at home.
Ok, enough with the business end of things. Does Mifi work and is it worth it?
Yes. It works and it definitely seems worth it, especially if you switch devices a lot.
I live in Western Massachusetts where 3g service is pretty good, but not great, certainly not like being in New York, Boston, or DC. I guess that makes it a reasonable place to test. To test the Mifi speed, I installed the iPhone app SpeedTest.net using a test server in New Hampshire. I have run this at various times of the day and night to get a better sample. Typically i am averaging about 1Mbps for downloads and 0.7Mbps up. Of course this is much slower than my Comcast cable (20Mbps down/5Mbps up), but is faster than some early DSL lines i have had around here. The true test for me is that i can make Skype calls, browse reasonably quickly to typical webpages, and run remote connections to our company servers. Mifi handles these tasks pretty well and it is nice to be able to be on a Skype call on the iPhone while typing an email on the laptop while sitting in the car (or in a store/airport that only offers Wifi for a fee).
The setup was pretty easy (easier if you always use Windows) but doable on Mac and Linux . The initial registration does require either Mac or Windows, but after that, you can manage the device through a wifi browser page just like what you may be used to seeing on your home network’s wireless router. The setup pages include pages for the device’s WAN (Internet connection), the LAN (your internal private network or Local Area Network) and various security and device monitoring functionality. Nicely, there is a diagnostic page that shows your total usage for the current billing period, though I recommend registering at verizon.com/myverizon so you can pay your bill and see what Verizon actually sees as your billable usage. Once setup is complete, you connect your devices to Mifi like any other wireless network. This is really nice for Linux users who typically end up with arcane scripts and other mystical incantations to connect with anything other than Wifi or Ethernet. Another feature that is nice is that when at home the Mifi serves as ready backup to my home network (Comcast) which is sometimes flaky to say the least. I used to pay for a dial-up, but since moving completely wireless, i haven’t had a backup Internet connection at home.
Bottom line, Mifi offers the tantalizing possibility of getting rid of expensive voice plans and allowing me to connect multiple devices to my mobile hotspot for maybe 30%-50% less than what it costs to have a regular smart phone with data/voice. Of course, when I say that this could be a good deal, I mean once you have already rationalized spending at least $60/mo. on a mobile 3g device. Assuming Mifi continues to perform well over the next week or so, I plan to cancel my voice plan and move my phone over to Google Voice. Will post more on that and iPhone as a Skype-only phone later.
Wireless