Well, I use a Susteen cable with my Verizon phone (Verizon sells them, too, as "mobile office kits"). Like I said, it gives me a ~100kbps connection, which is charged as a regular cell phone call. No cost for the data or the call itself, but if I log on during peak hours, it uses airtime minutes.
Verizon offers aircards which basically do the same thing. If you do that, you get the same connection speed and rate scheme, but the aircard is counted as a second phone. So you pay for an extra line on your plan, but you can be online and use your cell phone at the same time.
The third option is a
Broadband Access plan. That gives you a faster connection, doesn't use airtime minutes, and doesn't care what time of day you long on, but costs more.
To sum up...
Data Cable: One-time fee for the cable, but no additional cost after that. Uses minutes on your calling plan. Uses your phone to connect, so you can't talk and surf at the same time. Drains your phone's battery (you get a couple hours' worth of connect time, give or take, depending on your phone). Connection speeds up to 100kbps, depending on signal quality, etc. Sometimes significantly slower.
Aircard: One-time fee for the card plus a monthly fee (probably $20) for a second cell phone line. Uses airtime minutes. Connection is roughly the same as with the data cable.
Broadband plan: One-time fee for the card plus a monthly fee ($60). Does not use your phone or airtime minutes. Average connection speed (according to them) in the 400-700kbps range, depending on signal. Can go up to 2mbps if you're at a hotspot. Not so good if you're too far from one of
these locations . (I think if you're outside of the coverage area, you get nothing. Which sucks. They should make it dual mode, so that if you can't get a broadband signal, it acts like an aircard and uses the cell phone data network instead.)
Satellite: Possible fee for equipment installation. Monthly fee for service (
Earthlink charges $70). Speed up to 400kbps. Requires a good line-of-sight connection with the satellite, which means that poor weather can disrupt the signal and that if the dish goes out of alignment (knocked around by the wind or something), you get nothing until someone comes around to fix it.
So... if you're in the right area and if you can afford the $60/month fee, the broadband plan is probably your best option. It'll get you the fastest, most reliable connection, and won't drain any of your other resources (minutes, battery power).
If not... up to you what's most important.
Paul
