* Carrier throws down mobile data pricing gauntlet
So Verizon Wireless threw down the gauntlet and – at least temporarily – has punctured the $80-per-month list-price barrier to all-you-can-eat, high-speed mobile WAN data services. The service provider last week dropped its CDMA-based EV-DO service rates by 25% to about $60 per month with a two-year contract and with an accompanying voice services contract.
The EV-DO mobile WAN service offers users about 300K to 500K bit/sec, burstable to 2M bit/sec.
The move challenges the $80 flat fee also long offered by Cingular and Sprint (now Sprint Nextel) for what the providers call their “broadband” or “3G” mobile WAN services. Available services have been a mix of Enhanced Data-rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE), which operates from 100K to 130K bit/sec; Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), with bandwidth from 220K- to 320K-bit/sec, burstable to 384K bit/sec; and 1XRTT services, operating from about 60K to 80K bit/sec.
Verizon also said it has launched additional EV-DO service in seven more U.S. markets, including Denver, Louisville, Kentucky and San Francisco. The company’s service is reportedly now available in 62 U.S. markets. Sprint began offering its EV-DO services in July in about 30 markets and says it plans to nearly double that coverage by early 2006.
At the end of the day, there are going to be lots of ways to get mobile access, whether it is a traditional mobile WAN service using one of the technologies described, a Wi-Fi hot spot, forthcoming 802.16e WiMAX mobile services, something Qualcomm and its acquiree, Flarion, are cooking up or something entirely different.
Because there are many generations of mobile WAN networks in various stages of deployment, be sure to protect yourself. Match the appropriate device with the appropriate service. Find out what speed your service will fall back to in non-coverage areas using the same device.
You may wish to investigate a common package, if available, for Wi-Fi and mobile WAN services, and ask about the provider’s plans for supporting Wi-Fi-to-cellular service handoffs. Such support could come in handy in the not-to-distant future.
