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Old 06-12-2010, 14:13   #31
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Originally Posted by grunzster View Post
So are you saying, outside of the US Wi-fi is more reliable? Hmm, maybe another reason to keep heading South.

Everyone keeps mentioning cellular and 3G. So are you all using air cards or tethering? Worth the price REALLY depends on who your service is with. I know of at least one provider, who charges a ridiculous fee for tethering, with an even more ridiculous usage cap. Guess I'll just have to wait for a certain software upgrade for a certain device to come out.
I don't know if wifi is more reliable outside the US. Never been there. Hope it is because we are leaving the US for the Bahamas in a few weeks and my understanding is that wifi is the only game in town there.

We use an air card for our 3G. We also use a Cradlepoint to create a hotspot on our boat. We've had AT&T for years. Pretty happy with it.
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Old 06-12-2010, 14:58   #32
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Originally Posted by hellosailor View Post
So we're all being ripped off. There apparently is not 3G or 4G service on the US market yet. Anyone wanna clue in the FTC on this? I'm tired of living in a third-world country run by corporate slumlords. I say, keelhaul 'em all, and then run the survivors out of town on a split rail. (And no, they didn't let 'em ride on the round side.)
Typical!

Say F*** during a broadcast and get slapped with a huge fine.

Do it to millions of customers, and NOTHING!

I know someone who actually called the FCC once to complain about some of those BS fees the phone companies slap us with. The FCC...the organization responsible for "regulating" these crooks, openly admitted that some of these charges are illegal, but said they won't do anything about it, because there haven't been enough complaints.
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Old 06-12-2010, 16:20   #33
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Grunzster, the FCC, like the USCG, has never recovered from Reagonomics. As in "You want a budget? Go out and levy some fines, earn your own keep."

So the FCC auctions off airwaves, has no money for RDF vans or field enforcement teams, and the USCG begs for civilian radio operators because they can't man the stations and boats at the same time. Much less keep all the equipment operating at once.

The FTC, not the FCC, are the ones who could end the fraudulent advertising. That's their bread and butter. If a cellco says "$59 a month!" there's no reason the fine print should say "Plus another 30% in niggling surcharges that sound like they are government mandated but really, we just want more of your money, haha."

And I suspect that if the FTC or a couple of state AG offices were to mandate "Put it all up front, same size type, same spot on the page" the cellcos might even appreciate a level playing field.

Oh, wait, that's the profiteers who charge us about 1000x more for a text message than they do for an email or voice traffic....nevermind.
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Old 06-12-2010, 18:55   #34
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Originally Posted by Zydeco View Post
I don't know if wifi is more reliable outside the US. Never been there. Hope it is because we are leaving the US for the Bahamas in a few weeks and my understanding is that wifi is the only game in town there.
Not entirely. The bahamas have a cellular sim program which will work in an unlocked USB device like the ZOOM. Plug it into your computer, and wherever you can see a cell signal, you're on.

Not at all like they claim, mind you, but at least you're connected. Meanwhile, connect it through a Cradle Point router, instead, and you're in business with your local router feeding your WiFi devices, whether inside or out of the boat, just like in your home.

That said, other than in the Jumentos, where there simply are no homes privately supplied (at least, yet - there may be some who will eventually acquire a satellite service as we're finding more and more as we cruise, with their own local router connected to them, such as was the case in Normans Cay, where the only game in sight was the MacDuff's bar, where you could plug into theirs, since discontinued - which was fine by me, because then I didn't have to lug the laptop there to get online, but instead enjoyed one of two available signals at anchor near the sunken airplane shot down in the time of Carlos Lehder), I've not had any problem getting connected.

A friend has one of the Zooms, and he was connected several miles from Ragged Island, the only Batelco cell site, where I had to be satisfied with my SSB setup (if you think dialup is slow, just wait until you experience Pactor speeds!).

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Old 07-12-2010, 11:18   #35
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hellosailor - I think a better option is to just reduce your usage, switch to pay as you go, unlock, leave, and collect sims as you go.
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