Sprint/Verizon EVDO?

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
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Does anyone have either of these services? I'm not interested at all in GSM 3G because ATT doesn't allow gaming.

Questions:
- Can you get either without a 2 year contract if you buy your own card?
- Does Verizon allow gaming? I know Sprint does
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless use CDMA phones ... no SIM Card is used ... the provider
of service must activate the phone. Sprint, I think, uses Java on their phones so most games
are ok. Verizon Wireless uses BREW which is next to impossible for most games designed
for Java to run on. You can, however, change the Firmware on your phone, to say, one from Alltel
which does have Java and pretty much returns all the phone makers features to the phone that
carriers like Verizon, like to cripple, so you need to buy things like ringtones from them.
However, if you do that, you need to find all the correct settings to make it work on your network.
And in most cases, that type of mod, while legal, would void any warranty on the phone.
There are a few cell phone hack / mod sites out there that can get you through it. And some phone
makes can not be changed by the average users. Motorola phones, are easily hacked.

As to the question of EVDO it is used for location identification and also for better roaming coverage.
Downside is lower battery life as the phone is always checking to see where it can get coverage from.
 

w0ss

Senior member
Sep 4, 2003
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I have a Sprint Rev A card. Latency is way down and upload is way up. I typically see pings in the 100-200ms range. the latency flucuates alot sometimes and I have seen 500-800ms periods that can last a few seconds or hours.

I didn't want a contract either so I signed up at millenicom.com as they have no contract and a cheaper price per month than sprint.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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Originally posted by: w0ss
I have a Sprint Rev A card. Latency is way down and upload is way up. I typically see pings in the 100-200ms range. the latency flucuates alot sometimes and I have seen 500-800ms periods that can last a few seconds or hours.

I didn't want a contract either so I signed up at millenicom.com as they have no contract and a cheaper price per month than sprint.

Thanks. I read about that site on DSLReports, and the employee referral or whatever to get it at $50 a month, but I didn't know it was contractless.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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If I want to buy a PCMCIA card on eBay, how do I know if it's locked to someone's account or not? Or does that not apply to these cards?
 

w0ss

Senior member
Sep 4, 2003
365
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76
well "lend" was not what I origianally thought. I PAID I think it was 50$ they listed it for the hardware. The originial signup page mentioned nothing about returning the hardware. I only saw it after I had signed up.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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The $50 fee I think is like a connection fee. With Sprint the hardware is cheap and the 2 year contract is required anyway... so I guess if for some reason you like signing 2 year contracts, it's not much of a difference. I'd rather use the company's hardware, and not have a contract, and save $10 a month. Millenicom seems like a really good deal
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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I ordered Millenicom! I called yesterday and asked if a PCMCIA card is available and the guy said to just request that in the comments box, even though the only option on the dropdown is USB
 

kevnich2

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2004
2,465
8
76
Just out of curiosity, for those with millenicom, do you use a PCMCIA adapter or a USB adapter? What brand of adapter do you use?
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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I'll report back with what PCMCIA card they send me. I found that this is the USB one they provide... at least that's what a guy posted on some forum http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/2106/63/
It has built in 64mb flash for the drivers, and GPS... Maybe I should have gotten that, but I'm clumsy and at least a PCMCIA slot is big and sturdy.
 

kevnich2

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2004
2,465
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I currently have millenicom and I do have a USB modem which works fine but I also like the PCMCIA form factor better (less easy to break when moving a laptop around). But I was also looking a friend of mine's sprint PCMCIA card that has NDIS support on it. All he has to do is plug it in, and voila, he's online. He doesn't have to do any dialup or even press any buttons. With mine, I have to either go through the connection manager or manually go to the DUN and essentially dialup to Sprint. From what I'm told, Millenicom doesn't support NDIS.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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Oh yeah the adapter I got is a Pantech PX-500. Reviews are bad, so I bet a different one would yield better bandwidth.
 

kevnich2

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2004
2,465
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I traded my USB one in for a PCMCIA modem. The data rate, obviously, depends on how good my signal strength is. It is lower than the USB modem but it's still not bad. I like the PCMCIA form factor better than the USB. I was always afraid of breaking off the connector when I moved my laptop around. Atleast now I can move it around. I wish millenicom would either have a greater selection of modems or let us buy our own and use it on their service because I love their prices and the fact that they have no contract, just wish the hardware was a bit better.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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FYI, you can improve latency by setting your home agent to one in your state. By default, all use a home agent in California. From what I gather, it's like a gateway. If you search on evdoforums.com you'll find info. I'm going to try that because I get 1 second+ ping in games. Half of the ping packets sent to google.com are dropped.... but I don't know if that's related.
 

Stattlich

Member
Jul 6, 2004
196
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0
AT&T HSUPA FTW.

Caveat- just don't go over 5GB of bandwidth per month. That's unfortunately new this week (unl. data no longer available on aircards).
 

kevnich2

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2004
2,465
8
76
I don't like GSM Data cards, bandwidth is far too low compared to EVDO. Plus, millenicom has no contracts, is a solid $49 per month, how can I beat that?
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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Originally posted by: kevnich2
Any idea what the MSL is for the Millenicom PX-500 PCMCIA card??

It's an individual code for the card. You have to call Millenicom and they have to get it from Sprint unless it's already listed on your acct. I'm still waiting for them to get the info from Sprint.