I've used 3G services with Verizon Wireless for close to 3 years now. My outlook has changed quite a bit in that amount of time. My first experience with it was on a older 3G capable phone with limited browsing and email capability, so it wasn't that important to me, nor did I really pay attention to the speed of the 3G network. It wasn't until my work had given me a PCMCIA 3G card, that I could really judge how fast internet connection speed was. The first 6 months, I hated it. I was use to upload/download speeds on a cable modem (25K to 300K a second), and the 3G card downloaded at about 10K/15K a second. It was horrible over our VPN for work checking email and browsing network folders. As Verizon continued upgrading their cell towers, the PCMCIA card improved speeds by over 3x the original numbers I was getting.
Today, I currently use 3G with my Blackberry Curve 8330 and also a USB UM150 3G Modem for my laptop. Well actually, I purchased a router for the UM150 (From Cradlepoint) and share the internet connection with 4 seperate computers in the house. I tether my Blackberry through USB or Bluetooth on the laptop and it works beautifully. Download speeds are decent at around 50-75K, but I would love to see 200K-300K like I used to get with Cox Internet.
Depending on the location, speeds vary quite a bit too. At home, I sometimes notice a 25% slowdown due to only a 2 bar or 3 bar reception signal (I think I'm around 73
dB). It's tollerable, but I'd like to see Verizon work on improving reception...
Overall, I think it's a good investment, especially if you do half of your work from Coffee houses or different locations with a Laptop. With the availability of routers to share the connection, it's a win/win for cancelling our home internet services and using the USB modem as our only internet connection.
