Screw Verizon (that's the short version)

[ghostjmf]

So I had narrowed my choice of laptop/notebook to a Chromebook. There are reasons why I need to get e-mails at any hour, & if the e-mail senders in question would just use the darn phone & call me instead, I wouldn't need to, but they won't. So I need a device on which to get e-mails, & a $350.00 (approx) Chromebook with the 2-year free 3G connection via Verizon seemed to me the cheapest, best way. And I'd get a laptop on which I couldn't do Microsoft Stuff but could certainly google stuff. Like maps when travelling. Because it's made by Google. And antivirus stuff is provided for free via Google. This would certainly be cheaper than buying a smart phone for $200+, then paying $50.00/month for the service. And using a much, much smaller screen to read maps on.


So now I read that Verizon has discontinued their contracts to provide 3G for this. Apparently they were getting lots of complaints that people couldn't get on the internet, so instead of figuring out what the problem was, they just discontinued the service. You can still buy 3G for it, which I will look into. Reportedly, the 3G when bought works.


The Chromebooks do come with a WiFi option instead. Which would have me scrounging around for free WiFi spots or buying a WiFi generator for whatever & paying whatever per month to keep it working. Smart phones, which do this connectivity for you, seem easier to me. Just too expensive.


It just doesn't help me to hear that thus-&-such laptop/notebook synchs to thus-&-such smart phone when I can barely afford to get one, not both.

I have a feeling that with everything going 3G, 4G, WiFi is going to soon become history, & if I buy a WiFi thing I will be left in the lurch.

[SportsFan68]

Reporting from the lurch . . .

My cell phone (a CellularOne Motorola) does only phone calls and only where there's a pretty good signal. My Samsung, which I had under Alltel and which I loved more than a person should love an inanimate object, did not always need such a good signal, or maybe it was the Alltel network which was so great. When AT&T bought out Alltel, the local office soon became irrelevant, as did my desire to keep my wonderful phone, and the office robots gave me non-explanations as to why the equipment and service had taken a nose dive (when what they really wanted to say was, "The reason service has taken such a nose dive and we can't authorize anything here at the local office is because we have become entirely corporate profit driven instead of customer oriented."), and I switched to CellularOne because it was so cheap, although I freely admit that the equipment is even worse than the crummy phone I got from AT&T.

Except for the dropped calls, I'm happy here in the lurch, and I hope for the best for you in your quest for a good 3G system.

[plasticene]

I think you should get an ordinary WiFi Chromebook and purchase a WiFi hotspot device such as the Karma or the FreedomPop Freedom Spot Photon.

I'm intrigued by the Karma, because there's no recurring monthly fee; whatever bandwidth you purchase (or earn) never expires. There are some potential drawbacks (see the linked review), but it seems like a good deal overall.

The reviewer likes the FreedomPop Photon better than the Karma. (They're practically identical devices and they both seem to have great coverage in the Boston area, but they have different data pricing plans.) One pricing plan gives you 500MB of data per month, absolutely free; there's a charge per megabyte over 500MB, but it's not exorbitant, and it's quite likely that you won't need any more than 500MB if you're not streaming music or video.

Both of these devices currently use a network that's going to be shut down within a year or two, at which time you'll have to exchange your device for one compatible with the new network. The nice thing about FreedomPro is that you get a full refund of your $89 deposit when you return the device--other than the deposit, it's free. Karma hasn't made clear what it will do for its customers at that point.

[ghostjmf]

plasticine:

I will look into Karma & FreedomPop Photon. I will also look into "what happens in the middle of nowhere" with your self-generated WiFi hotspot; my understanding is that there needs to be something for the hotspot to communicate to to get onto the internet. Which is why that Verizon 3G, with Verizon's famed "we're covering the middle of nowhere", which turns out to be true, for purely cellular phone coverage anyway was luring me.


And I need to find out if one of these devices will work for my sister's I-Pad, because its "you must type in the address of the nearest Apple WiFi Apple location" feature, which after you've done it apparently doesn't connect you anyway half the time, really stinks. Apple expects all their customers to be, you guessed it, synched to a 3G phone. And so not need their WiFi finder. It can find the WiFi generator attached to my cousin's laptop in the apartment where my sister is currently living, luckily. Or it wouldn't work at all.


SportsFan68: I feel your pain. I had 3G coverage with my itty-bitty pay-as-you-go T-Mobile phone, anytime I wanted to spend the $1.49/day for it, until T-Mobile discontinued it. The cheapest 3G coverage they now offer is $50.00/month, & while that's about what their old coverage would have been if I used it every day, the key to my cheapitude was I didn't use it every day. And if I do go for T-Mobile (or Verizon!!!) phone internet, the lure of a bigger-screen phone, where you don't have to spend about 5 minutes going through the right menu on the phone even when you've done it before, is great.

[Bob Juch]

You could also get a Verizon MiFi.

[BackInTex]

Word to the unwise. Nothing is free. Nothing.

So, when you see these things, think...."why?". You may be O.K. with the costs (ads, someone tracking your every move, internet activity, emails, calls, etc.). And generally, you get what you pay for, so if you're not paying, or paying very little, the services will not be up to par.

Choosing a real plan from a real provider has benefits. Yes, it may seem expensie, but is it?

AT&T has a family share plan that I use. For $160 month I get 4 devices, unlimited calls and text and 10gig of cellular data (attaching to wi-fi when available and all AT&T hotspots are free).

So that's $40/month per phone. With a 2-year commitment some smartphones are free, some $100, some $200, some $300. Going with the freee one, your two year cost is $960. If you would otherwise pay $350 for a device then your cell service is down to $610 for 24 months or about $25/month.

Now that is with 4 devices. I'm not sure what the lowest (real plan) for a single phone is.

[ghostjmf]

The Chromebook/Verizon deal was meant to lure people to Chromebooks who otherwise would have wanted a Microsoft-compatible notebook. I can't scare up info on the internet about what Google, who makes the OS for Chromebooks, thinks about Verizon backing out of their deal. Strangely enough. And, technically, it wasn't free, it was an added $50.00 or more to the price of the Chromebook. Verizon definitely is a real provider. And that their "you can buy it seperately" service works for Chromebooks when their packaged service reportedly didn't stinks.