AT&T Wireless Internet

[december]

My sister will be 32 Sun, and has never sent an email! She got a laptop over the weekend, and I went over to her house to get everything set up today. I have DSL, but it isn't available in her area. The only options available through AT&T were dialup for $22/mo (but she'd have to keep her phone cord connected at all times) or wireless for $55 a month. The lady I spoke with told me the limits on usage, but I'm not that technical. When I asked what that meant in online time, she said she used it last year when she was in college every day, and never even used half of her allotted usage. Anybody have any experiences to share? She has 30 days to cancel, but I hate to think I've messed her up (don't want her getting a huge bill).

 

[FireDancer]

The cap (usually 5GB) has nothing to do with time, it is data sent and received. If you download a couple of movies (legally of course) you can go through that cap in a day or two. If you do mostly text based websurfing it may not be a problem. I would just install a meter and reset it on the first day of each billing cycle. This link has some free meters. The ISPs they are talking about in the article are not wireless so their caps are a bit optimistic for wireless data plans.

On a side note...32 and never sent an email? 32 is pretty much the peak demographic age wise for Internet usage. I wouldn't be able to last one hour at work without electronic communication. What the heck does your sister do?

 

[lustergirl]

I have an att wireless card for my laptop and I was paying 70 dollars month for it- ouch!! It wasn't worth as the connection was bad and gave a several times on me. I gave it up.

 

[mill4023]

Have you checked with the cable company to see if cable internet is available in her area?

 

[december]

She is a respiratory therapist (nights) at the largest hospital in the state. I set up a yahoo email address for her Sunday, so at least she has that now!

There is no cable where she lives. Rural MS doesn't have alot of what some of you take for granted. She does have satellite (either Dish or Direct) but she says she hasn't heard good things about satellite connections.

Dial up is so slow out there (I had dial up at one time, but it was much faster than my father's, who lives next door to my sister). The lady from AT&T told me the wireless card would be equivalent to the fastest DSL service they have.

I don't see her downloading much. She will be surfing the web, and using it to help her 7 yr old with homework, things like that.

My father is interested in it now, too. But he downloads tons of music for my mother. Doesn't sound like this would be a good option for him.

 

[Fire14]

I'm in rural Ohio 1/4 mi from verizon high speed I currently have a wireless thumb drive type thing thru verizon wireless that gives me 5gb/mo for 60.00/mo. I have never gone over 3gb. I use facebook, webkinz, email on regular basis.

 

[december]

Thank you. I don't think she'll use it for more than what you are using yours for. I'm just happy we'll be able to communicate by email now!

 

[P.I. Squirrel]

For a light surfer, the wireless will be fine. However, it is mandatory that she checks her balance constantly for the first couple of months, to make sure she does not go over 5GB. The reason is that the overage charge is somewhere around $503 per additional GB. There are several folks posting on techie sites that regularly go to Youtube or Hulu, and their first bill was in the THOUSANDS.

AT&T does offer internet service via satellite, beginning around $55 a month.

 

[Imzadi]

Set her up with a Gmail email acount instead. Their spam filter is soooooo much better than Yahoo. Plus, once she has a real internet account, she can forward any/all of her emails from that account for free to her new email address. So for anyone who has her old email address, their emails will automatically go to her new box. Yahoo charges for email forwarding as part of their "premium" service.

 

[december]

For a light surfer, the wireless will be fine. However, it is mandatory that she checks her balance constantly for the first couple of months, to make sure she does not go over 5GB. The reason is that the overage charge is somewhere around $503 per additional GB. There are several folks posting on techie sites that regularly go to Youtube or Hulu, and their first bill was in the THOUSANDS.

AT&T does offer internet service via satellite, beginning around $55 a month.

 

[stm61]

She is a respiratory therapist (nights) at the largest hospital in the state. I set up a yahoo email address for her Sunday, so at least she has that now!

There is no cable where she lives. Rural MS doesn't have alot of what some of you take for granted. She does have satellite (either Dish or Direct) but she says she hasn't heard good things about satellite connections.

Dial up is so slow out there (I had dial up at one time, but it was much faster than my father's, who lives next door to my sister). The lady from AT&T told me the wireless card would be equivalent to the fastest DSL service they have.

I don't see her downloading much. She will be surfing the web, and using it to help her 7 yr old with homework, things like that.

My father is interested in it now, too. But he downloads tons of music for my mother. Doesn't sound like this would be a good option for him.

things aren't any better in rural SC either! The card isn't even an option since cell phone coverage is unreliable No DSL, no cable, the only options are satelite, which is ridiculously priced, or dial-up. We seem to be doomed to dial-up forever. It's really becoming a problem because I'm unable to download files sent from work, or upload files to work.

 

[december]

I saw a clip on the news recently about how lack of DSL service in so many rural areas is putting many Americans at a disadvantage. We live in town now (in a town of around 4000) and have DSL. But our home is part of dh's job. He wants to leave in the next 3 yrs, and move back to the country. I love the idea of it, but hate the thought of losing my internet!

My sister got her wireless card today. She has 30 days to try it out and cancel with no penalty. I set up a yahoo home page for her, and gave her instructions on how to get to it. I also sent her a link to the free meters. I hope she can figure it out-she is smart, but scared to death of technology!

 

[P.I. Squirrel]

There is no cable where she lives. Rural MS doesn't have alot of what some of you take for granted. She does have satellite (either Dish or Direct) but she says she hasn't heard good things about satellite connections.

I worked for a few months in Picayune for the phone company after Katrina. Trust me, I know how frustrating it can be to be relatively isolated techology-wise.


Unfortunately, your situation will not likely improve. The cable and phone companies won't lay thousands of feet of fiber to serve a half dozen customers in a remote area.

 

[december]

They aren't quite that remote

Cable isn't a problem. I live in town, but I still have Dish. It is much cheaper, and has more channels, than the cable here. I have no idea how DSL works, but I know it is connected by our phone line (even though we don't have a landline phone). We even had it at a house we rented last year while our house was being built. It ran on an old (nonactivated) phone line. They now have it out where we used to live, which was truly the middle of nowhere!

The wireless didn't work out for her though. She was told that if she had cellphone reception, the wireless card would work. But even though she had 4 to 5 bars on her cell, she couldn't get and keep a signal on her computer. So she is sending it all back today, and getting dial up.

 

[mill4023]

Satellite isn't a bad option. You can't play fast paced games online, because the time it takes to get a signal from your computer to a server and vice versa is pretty high. But for surfing, downloading files, etc, it would be much better than dial up.
Cable/DSL: click a webpage link, page comes up almost instantly.
Dial Up: click a webpage link, page immediately starts to load, but takes forever.
Satellite: click a webpage link, nothing happens for a second or two, then the page loads quickly.

 

[FireDancer]

The digital TV transition may be coming to the rescue for rural residents. When they auctioned off the analog spectrum AT&T mobility and Verizon purchased a large chunk of it. The theory is that they will use some of the spectrum to provide over the air wireless broadband. Since the spectrum in question has a much larger footprint it can be used to serve remote or rural users.

Time will tell, but it looks like an inevitability.