Mobile Broadband

What are the options available now if you want to take the internet with you?
We have a few free wi-fi spots in town, but a few that aren't free. I want to be able to work on my laptop while riding on trips or when I take the kids to the park. The last I checked Cingular was the only company providing service and they want $50-$60 a month. Do we have any other options?

I'll chime on this one since i've been using Verizon EVDO broadband service for 3 years.

The first year, I hated the EVDO service! It was slow, and most of the time, the reception was terrible, even in a major metropolitan city.

As Verizon began upgrading cell towers and their 3G service, I began to receive good download speeds (up to 40K/second).

This last year, I found out there was a router available that would share my EVDO connection with the house. The CradlePoint CTR-350 EVDO. I purchased it, shut off my cable internet service, and haven't looked back since.

I still get a few problems from the EVDO connection every once in a while, but overall, I'm very happy with the service.

Just a few words of caution too, you may want to test the service out before committing to a service plan. Some houses and apartments may not get a good connection because of their geographical location. Also, if you download a lot of data (movies, music, etc.), you may want to check into download limits. I think Verizon's download limit is 5GB monthly, so I have to be careful running 2-3 websites and running updates. Luckily I have a second device (my blackberry) which I can "tether" to my laptop and use for an internet connection.

Mobile Broadband is good, but it's not fast enough for anyone into gaming.

Thanks Jay,

I will look into Verizon. I have only heard about Cingular service and it just doesn't seem worth the money. Of course if I could find a way to compensate for the expense, I wouldn't mind as much. I don't do any gaming or downloads when I am away from home. But I do a lot of reading online and it would be a dream come true, if I could access my sites anywhere.