Sprint high speed alternative to DSL and Cables Modems.

[cjchaps]

Sprint sent me a letter yesterday talking about a new high-speed wireless service. It is not DSL, cable modem, or a satelite(sp?). You put a wireless antenna on you roof, and I think it probably works similar to a cel-phone. Check it out here.

Does anyone use this service?

 

[arod]

I tried AT&T for about 3 weeks.... You run into the problem of the satelite high speed internet though, larger ping times but if you dont play games you don't have to worry about this.

 

[cjchaps]

This is not Satelite, this is wireless. So instead of beaming into space, you beam to a tower like, so it is similar to how a cel-phone works. The speeds are supposed to be around 512k-1.5M download speeds, and up to 256k uploads. I would assume the ping times would be good as well, since the tower has to be close to you in order for this service to work.

 

[Sugadaddy]

I think they have something like that over here, it uses a microwave antenna. The problem is it's only download, the upload is done through a 56K modem, so it sucks. They were supposed to make it bidirectional, but I'm not sure the company is still around. It wasn't very popular since there's DSL and cable everywhere in my area...

 

[arod]

Well AT&T wireless wasnt as good as my cable modem so I went back to that

 

[351Cleveland]

How much did these services cost you on a monthly basis? I am investigating for my dad (out in the sitcks). Will he be able to get it way teh heck out there? His cell phone works, so I would guess so, but if there is a LOS issue then maybe not...

 

[arod]

well AT&T was 34.95 / month and it was a good service just not good for gaming which I do alot of...

 

[Doggiedog]

If Sprint's data service is as good as their cell phone service, you might as well connect to them with 2 tin cans attached by a string and pull once for 0 and two times for 1.

 

[polm]

Think about the VAMPIRE possibilites.....hello...WIRELESS!!

 

[Bozo Galora]

<<<<pull once for zero and twice for one>>>>


muahahahahaaaaa!!!!

 

[Dually]

If you want to pay for it, my cable is fast enough.

 

[Barrak]

We have it in this area for businesses only, it is hella expensive. I think it is a good service if you can get it for a resonable price

 

[Bleeding Jawa]

Interesting....it is available in my area. I think I will stick with my cable for now. There are very few subscribers in my area so speeds are very brisk...but it is very nice to know that the cable company no longer has me by the balls if I get ticked off about my service. Now I can threaten to cancel &amp; they might give me a discount.

BTW...EVERY time I have cancelled (or tried to cancel) premium channels or digital tv service from my cable company, they have ALWAYS offered me a big discount &amp; sometimes an upgrade that usually makes it cheaper than basic cable. Give it a try.

 

[acuraman]

I have it and it sucks big ass. The pings are horrible no game playing, tons of outages, latency is horendous, and the upload sucks also is way oversold in the markets they are in. At evening hours right now I am seeing dial-up speeds up and down, I would steer clear if I was you. For me it is the only option no cable and dsl is just starting to come aroundand once cable comes Sprint will be history. But I repeat it sucks. :disgust:

 

[amnesiac]

My friend has this service (Sprint ION) and he lives in the boondocks in Colorado. Prior to that he had cable modem and he swears that ION kicks the crap out of the cable modem in all respects.

 

[d0ofy]

Sprint ION is not what he's talking about. ION is kinda like DSL. You get a wad of bandwidth and you get phone and internet. The problem is that if your internet service goes out, your phone usually does too.
This other Sprint service is a microwave antenna mounted on your roof that's aimed at a reveiver somewhere high in your city.
I would suggest you get it only if cable modem service isn't available, or if it sucks. I would suggest this over DSL.

 

[CQuinn]

It depends on where you are at.

In Colorado Springs it is not oversold yet. Downloads are as responsive as the
T1 I have at work. Uploads are slower, but still much faster than 56k.
Outages here are rare, but the latency is pretty bad, so online gaming is
right out.

It is bidirectional, and asynchronous due to hardware limits. FCC regs let them
do 400W on the downstream, but the user site can only transmit 40W back up.
It is very much like a cell phone, with the broadcast partitioned into
specific sectors, so different sectors might also experience differences in
performance.

If you are being offered it in an area that is not saturated it can be as
good as DSL or cable (since I'm in an area that can't get DSL or cable yet).

Around here there are stores that are set up as demo sites so people can see
the performance for themselves. You might want to check for sites like that
in your area to shop it around.

 

[goodoptics]

I have it. Upload speed sucks ~128kbit. Download sometimes get up to ~5Mbit.

 

[shopbruin]

yeesh some people need fast connections don't they?

we have it at home and i think its decently fast. we have the dish mounted on the chimney of our house. cable and DSL are not an option at our house, so this is the way we went.

its actually very fast. downloads are fast. sure it gets laggy AT TIMES but everything does.

i also used sprint pcs for over a year and a half and liked their service. i'm currently on AT&amp;T and their call quality does NOT compare to sprint pcs, which is pure digital.