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(More customer reviews)I've had an Asus netbook for nearly two years and finally decided to equip it with a mobile broadband card. Since my need for such a device would be very casual (I have a 15Mbps cable modem connection with wifi router at home and 3G data on my phone) I was looking for a service that wouldn't require some lengthy contract or a large investment up front. Virgin Mobile seemed to offer more economical plans ($20 for 300 MB) but the initial cost of their modem was significantly higher. ReadyMobile seemed to fit both requirements, especially with respect to start-up costs.
First, I'll talk briefly about the modem. It is a Sierra Compass 598 which runs on Sprint's network. Setting up the device might require a little patience for some users. While the instruction sheet says you can plug the USB modem right in and install drivers from imbedded flash memory, I was unable to do so. That will require installing those files from an included CD-ROM. For those of you, like myself, who have a netbook with no optical drive present, you'll need to copy the entire installation package, about 95 MB total, on to an SD card or USB flash drive. The driver software set-up process took longer than I expected, but eventually I was able to get everything running. To finalize the set-up and establish service, you have to call ReadyMobile and speak to a service rep. I was on hold for about 10 minutes, then spent another five minutes getting the account activated.
The service itself seems to work just fine. I was able to play full-sized CNN news videos with very little buffering, though I could tell things didn't run as smoothly when compared to my 15Mbps cable connection. That's to be expected given the difference between an EVDO connection and a cable connection over wifi. As far as basic web browsing and email is concerned, the ReadyMobile handles both tasks quite effectively. Video sites such as YouTube are certainly watchable, but can chew quite a bit off your MB balance. I do not recommend this service if you're planning on streaming tons of audio or video on a regular basis.
I decided on the $25 plan for 250MB of data. That is about the only plan ReadyMobile offers that is cost-effective for light users. The $40/600MB plan is not a good value, and the $75/1GB plan is an absolute rip-off. If you will be using large amounts data over an extended period of time, Virgin Mobile broadband offers a much better value. However, if you're somebody who needs a more temporary mobile broadband set-up for occasional usage, ReadyMobile is quite economical thanks to their lower-cost modem. It certainly is more suited to my needs than those expensive long-term contract plans offered by AT&T and Verizon.
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