The Richter Scale^®

I admit (and am sure have admitted before) that I am an Internet junkie. Call it an obsession. That’s why I have two data phones (a Blackberry for Bonaire, a Sidekick 3 for everywhere else), a monthly subscription to T-Mobile Spot and Boingo (for WiFi), a T-Mobile GPRS/EDGE data card for my notebook, and Cingular’s GPRS/EDGE service built into my notebook. The latter two services work fine, but they are slow to connect, slow to disconnect, and just slow in general. Enter Sprint.

I had been seeing ads for Sprint Mobile Broadband for some time in USA Today and on the recommendation of good friend and networking guru, Daniel Senie, I committed to the Sprint Mobile Broadband service while in New York City the week before Christmas.

The Pantech Wireless PC Card that the Sprint store on Broadway sold me (net cost about $65 for set-up, with a $59.99/month fee for two years) installed easily in my notebook, and a few hours after I purchased the card I was on-line in my hotel room at Times Square. All I can say is “Wow!” - the download speeds I was seeing were about as good as the wired Internet connection in my room (which was $14.95/day). And while Sprint’s detractors have suggested that Sprint’s coverage is lacking, I’ve found no such problem in all the places I have wanted to use the card: New York City, La Guardia airport, Boston, San Juan, Las Vegas (daily this past week), and Miami (right now).

The only place the card was sluggish was during a press conference at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas about five days ago during the Consumer Electronics Show, and that was no doubt due to many others on the same cell using the service. In my hotel room in Vegas the Sprint data connection performed flawlessly, at high speeds - saving me $11.95/day for hotel room Internet access. And here in Miami, I’m able to watch my Texas DirecTV connection via my Slingbox Pro (more on that in another post) without problems on the Sprint Mobile Broadband connection.

And. on top of that, the time it takes to plug in the Sprint PC Card and establish a data connection is typically less than 30 seconds, compared to 1-2 minutes at least for the Cingular data service built into my computer. Same goes for shutdown when I want to hibernate my notebook (like when the flight attendants give me stern looks to suggest that NOW is the time I need to shut off my notebook in preparation for take-off).

I think it’s time to cancel my $80/month Cingular data service. And perhaps my Boingo service too, as less and less places seem to allow roaming with Boingo. T-Mobile’s a keeper as it works at just about all Admiral’s Clubs (although in San Juan, the Sprint Mobile Broadband connection is faster), Starbucks, and Borders Bookstores, among others. The T-Mobile unlimited data service is only about $30/month, so as a back-up which will work overseas, that’s not unreasonable. I understand that Sprint will not work overseas.

It should also be noted that the Sprint PC Card I have supports the Sprint EVDO data network, using the EVDO Rev. A system. The previous generation EVDO Rev. 0 system is not as fast, which is another thing to look for if you decide to follow in my (large) footsteps.

I give the Sprint Mobile Broadband service a 9.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale. The only thing that could make it better is a lower price. Bravo Sprint!