Wifi or Aircard?

[poohbear]

I just carry my Ipad and use my smartphone wifi option to piggyback off of mostly to use a weather app if things are looking bad.I'm camping,not working.
We went to Big Bend in May and stayed at the lodge up in the mountains,no cell/wifi/tv.didnt miss em at all.

[dddire]

Sitting in Marco Polo Land, Cavendish PEI... great wifi signal strength but of course, it's slower than cold molasses. Or at least it is when you're used to being on a fiber optic connection at home. Glad we have the wifi card... 3 laptops and a media player connected. Love it!!

[Chakara]

OP said that he wants to swap a SIM - I think that means he needs T-Mobile (yuk for coverage) or AT&T (just a little less YUK). Go look in the Howard Forums to find guys and gals that really know this stuff....internationally.

That said, in my travels all over NM and a bit around the rest of the country - Verizon rocks. The sad part is they know it and are move expensive. I spend a fair amount of time in rural NM, but this year, for the first time, did not have coverage when othesr did. Talking to folks there the ONLY provider was a local company. Very odd IMHO.

-Chak

[RoyBraddy]

I have spotty coverage sometimes with VERIZON in the back country areas of Arkansas and Mississippi... I know ARK is full of local companies... A few years I know I was in a small town in ARK and went to use my cellphone and they wanted me to give a credit card number to use long distance hehe... Never heard of that before... Verizon definitely rocks for me when I get off the main roads. There are some places it doesn't work but are far between. My electronic system working years which took me to many DOD locations way back off the grid and Verizon was always the carrier of choice to get it done....

I notice around here new AT&T tower installations are going up so I suspect AT&T and their carriers partners might be getting into the game more now... I get along OK with the 3GB 3G dataplan I have with my Verizon MIFI but this will probably have to be stepped up to the next level as more and more TV data streams are coming more available. Using MIFI with Internet TV and the local National Broadcast Digital HDTV pretty much covers all the TV we want to use across our travels... The national Broadcast Digital system for local TV coverage is great for us using the OTA Batwing antenna when we are camping off the power grid sites... Very seldom NOT have local HDTV coverage doing this... I even do this at camp sites with CABLE connections as high def Local area TV is better to watch then the cable analog TV feed to the trailer. If I want to watch CNN and the other cable channels i will switch back to the camp site site cable hookup. Just CLICK CLICK using the TV remote...

Having good luck using my Verzion MIFI connections for all my bring along LAPTOPS, Tablets and other WIFI items just about every where we go...
I dont think I could do all of this with the AIRCARD I use to have with VERIZON which is only plugged into ONE computer. I guess if the AIRCARD is plugged into a mobile router like CRADLEPOINT to create a WIFI HOTSPOT then the other WIFI units would work then ??? I do know I got my Verizon DROID just to be able to do some of this on the road and that didnt last very long at all. I need my regular LAPTOP and full size keyboard.

Also at that time (2-3 years ago) the only APP that was available to make WIFI HOTSPOT somewhat work with the DROID was not recognized or installed by Verizon and you had to install it yourself at risk. Made me feel like a thief in the night so I never installed it. Dont know how the smart phones handles WIFI hotspots now to allow you to connect through the smart phone to get to the internet with your additional brought along WIFI toys... The $30 a month VERIZON MIFI with the 3GB DATAPLAN was my way to make it work back then for all of my toys and still going strong today...

[dddire]

yup.. need a sim switch.. and ATT or Tmobile seems the only option for my device due to it's carrier limitations.

[dddire]

Originally Posted by RoyBraddy

I have spotty coverage sometimes with VERIZON in the back country areas of Arkansas and Mississippi... I know ARK is full of local companies... A few years I know I was in a small town in ARK and went to use my cellphone and they wanted me to give a credit card number to use long distance hehe... Never heard of that before... Verizon definitely rocks for me when I get off the main roads. There are some places it doesn't work but are far between. My electronic system working years which took me to many DOD locations way back off the grid and Verizon was always the carrier of choice to get it done....

I notice around here new AT&T tower installations are going up so I suspect AT&T and their carriers partners might be getting into the game more now... I get along OK with the 3GB 3G dataplan I have with my Verizon MIFI but this will probably have to be stepped up to the next level as more and more TV data streams are coming more available. Using MIFI with Internet TV and the local National Broadcast Digital HDTV pretty much covers all the TV we want to use across our travels... The national Broadcast Digital system for local TV coverage is great for us using the OTA Batwing antenna when we are camping off the power grid sites... Very seldom NOT have local HDTV coverage doing this... I even do this at camp sites with CABLE connections as high def Local area TV is better to watch then the cable analog TV feed to the trailer. If I want to watch CNN and the other cable channels i will switch back to the camp site site cable hookup. Just CLICK CLICK using the TV remote...

Having good luck using my Verzion MIFI connections for all my bring along LAPTOPS, Tablets and other WIFI items just about every where we go...
I dont think I could do all of this with the AIRCARD I use to have with VERIZON which is only plugged into ONE computer. I guess if the AIRCARD is plugged into a mobile router like CRADLEPOINT to create a WIFI HOTSPOT then the other WIFI units would work then ??? I do know I got my Verizon DROID just to be able to do some of this on the road and that didnt last very long at all. I need my regular LAPTOP and full size keyboard.

Also at that time (2-3 years ago) the only APP that was available to make WIFI HOTSPOT somewhat work with the DROID was not recognized or installed by Verizon and you had to install it yourself at risk. Made me feel like a thief in the night so I never installed it. Dont know how the smart phones handles WIFI hotspots now to allow you to connect through the smart phone to get to the internet with your additional brought along WIFI toys... The $30 a month VERIZON MIFI with the 3GB DATAPLAN was my way to make it work back then for all of my toys and still going strong today...

This air card is like your mifi.. 10 wifi devices.. one USB.. Awesome so far.

[dddire]

So we camped last weekend in Saint Andrews New Brunswick. Wifi was nice and strong and FAST.. I mean really FAST. Now while it was end of season here in the Canada and the park was pretty empty.. though more than I expected. It was still REALLY FAST. I asked the folks running the park about it.. they were so proud to tell me they had a 100mb fiber line installed in the park recently. No wonder it was fast. lol He did say though, in high season, with 200 sites full.. and he figured min two wifi devices on avg per site.. they can still choke the connection to a crawl... Thanks to netflix usage. I'm glad we have the aircard for those days.