The VAR Guy has not used WiFi or Ethernet for the past four days. Yet, he remains online — Blogging, Tweeting and chatting with readers. How is that possible?
Our resident blogger and other Nine Lives Media Inc. team members are testing Sprint’s 3G cellular card for the Apple MacBook Pro. So far, so good.
Consider the following situation: During a typical four-day business trip, The VAR Guy hops between WiFi networks in hotel rooms, hotel conference centers, airports and Starbucks. The costs can be $10(US) to $30(US) per day, depending on how many networks The VAR Guy accesses each day.
Frankly, the WiFi mobile model is broken. The market is too fragmented with too many WiFi service providers all trying to charge different fees for access. The VAR Guy liked T-mobile WiFi and used it frequently in Starbucks. But what about hotels? Airports? That required different service providers or partner WiFi access fees.
Frustrated, our resident blogger wondered if 3G cellular offered good enough performance for mobile blogging. The answer: In the vast majority of cases — yes. During a trip from New York to Vegas, our resident blogger has had good, reliable access to the Sprint network.
The only drawback involves video: Using Sprint’s 3G service, It took 30 minutes for The VAR Guy to upload a one-minute HD video (rated G, of course) from Apple iMoive to YouTube. Painfully slow.
But for non-video applications, 3G seems just fine for this mobile blogger.
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i’m not sure WI FI is completely dead yet, cost is a big factor especially in Australia and New Zealand where data prices are still premium. Wi Fi in public spaces, air ports and hotels where the techorati pause between engagements and the like still offer cheaper option in many cases.
Be careful of data transmissions. Despite their “unlimited” claims…the major carriers have 5G data limits per month.
@Pete: The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting WiFi is dead. Our resident blogger uses it at home and in corporate offices. But mobile WiFi — where users have to pay over and over again to access different WiFi service provider networks in Airports, Hotels, etc. — is a broken business model.
@StaceyC: Great point. Yes, The VAR Guy needs to see how much data he’s transmitting and the potential incremental costs involved.