Are you thinking about subscribing to wireless internet? If so, you may be interested in learning about my personal experience with the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet service.

I have been a customer of Sprint’s PCS Wireless Internet service for the past 5 months, beginning in February 2003 until now. I purchased the Sierra Wireless Air Card for $350 and subscribed to Sprint PCS at the monthly cost of $100 for unlimited service. Since then I have used Sprint PCS Wireless Internet to access the Internet throughout the United States. Overall this service has been extremely unreliable and not worth the money. Here are some details:

1. My first experience using this wireless service was in an automobile while my wife drove from Atlanta to Savannah, GA. For the most part I was able to connect to the internet and stay connected for 30 to 50 minute increments before being dropped. The resulting Internet access speed was about 42K – about the same as a good phone/modem connection. Basically it worked. This worked because Sprint has cell phone towers along major interstates – in my case I-75 and I-16. Sprint’s system has been designed to accommodate salesmen while driving down the road. It makes sense that internet access would work fairly while driving down the road. I was initially encouraged by this result. However, seldom am I in a position to access the internet while driving down the road. In most cases, I am in hotel meeting rooms and teaching facilities.

2. My primary need for high speed internet access is for teaching and lecturing. I lecture on the subject of technology such as accounting software, Windows XP, Office XP, the Internet, etc. I need live access to the Internet while I teach and lecture so that I can demonstrate Internet related activities such as publishing web sites, remote access to accounting systems, shopping for lower prices, etc. In recent years, phone line access to the Internet has gotten worse as more people share these phone lines. In most cases, a phone line results in a 19.2K connection, which is pathetic. Most hotels do not yet offer high speed Internet access in their meeting rooms and most of those who do charge about $150 a day and up for this service and require that these arrangements be made well in advance.

3. I was hoping that Sprint PCS wireless Internet would solve my dilemma, but it does not. About 70% to 80% of the time, my Sprint PCS Wireless Internet Service is unavailable in the hotel meeting rooms – there is simply no signal. Specifically there was no signal at dozens of hotels including the following locations:

1. Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN
2. The Gaylord Hotel in Orlando, FL
3. The Marriott World Center Hotel in Orlando, FL
4. The Marriott Marquis in Atlanta
5. The Bellagio in Las Vegas

I did have Sprint PCS Wireless Internet access in a few places such as the Windham Hotel in Columbus, GA. My meeting room was on the main floor and had windows to the outside world. However, I did not have the same connection success across the street the next day in the Columbus, GA coliseum.

4. I have been able to connect using my Sprint PCS wireless Internet at most, but not all airports. On those occasions when I am able to use this, it has worked fairly well as it makes me a little more productive on those 20 to 30 occasions each year. I have also been able to connect in my hotel rooms about half the time, which is also useful and makes me more productive. However internet access at airports, interstates, and hotel rooms are not my primary need.

5. Most disappointing has been the stability of the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet service. On those occasions when I am able to connect to the Internet, my Sprint PCS Wireless connection disconnects frequently. When this happens the software thinks that it is still connected even though it is not. When this happens, the software does not allow me to close the application down. Further, I can not shut off my computer IBM A30 until I close the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet application. Therefore I must instead use CTRL-ALT-DELETE to access my task menu and force Sprint PCS Wireless Internet to close. This is a royal pain in the neck. Once I have performed this procedure, I then find that Sprint PCS Wireless Internet will not connect again unless I reboot my computer. On many occasions, I have performed this procedure multiple times trying to get just one e-mail out the door.
    
6. After 5 months of use, I then determined that my Sierra Wireless Air Card was damaged - the antenna including internally components just slide right out of the card. Now I am unsure whether my Sierra Wireless Air Card has been damaged all of this time which was causing my problems, or whether the card recently broke. Calling Sprint to get service on this was been a nightmare - they don't seem to want to help me and I don't want to invest $550 more out of my pocket to continue testing this service ($350 for a new card and $200 for two months service).

In conclusion, I have found that this service only works when I am in a good cell area, and even then my access is only about as good as a 56K modem connection. In addition, I must fight buggy software that disconnects and freezes my computer. If you are traveler like myself and you travel to different hotels and spend time in hotel meeting rooms – you may find that the Sprint PCS Wireless Internet Solution to be a weak choice for you.

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