If you need 3G access every day in your car or on a bus or train, and cannot wait for web access via a wi-fi hotspot at home or work or a cafe (increasingly for free or reasonable fee), or importantly do not want to for security reasons - you continue to pay heavily for the privilege.
a) Two year 3G data plans are settling in around $ 1,800 after activation, monthly fees and taxes from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. For this, you get roughly $ 200 subsidy off your NetBook or a USB dongle.
And, even with that hefty fee, you may find the 5GB per month limit insufficient. Also, you may find in many places their Wi-Fi coverage is better (hotspot coverage typically included in 3G plans), so there goes your security blanket.
b) Virgin Mobile has just introduced a pay-as-you-go Broadband2Go.
No monthly plan in increments of $ 10. For $ 20 you get a cap of 250 MB which translates to roughly 12 hours of web browsing or 1 hour of video or download 25,000 emails w/o attachments. For $ 60 you get 1 GB, so 1/5th of what you would get with the monthly plan of the other carriers in option a. And you have to use it within 30 days.
Also… the USB dongle device will set you back by $ 150 – to be sold initially exclusively through BestBuy.
c) Tether your PDA to become a modem for your laptop or Netbook. (AT&T took heat at the launch of the iPhone 3GS for not being ready to support tethering after announcing last November it would) Pricing should be comparable to tethering on Blackberries and Win Mobile phones – another $ 30 a month (in addition to your mobile data plan of another $ 30 or so). But if you are on the road and likely away for a 3G cell tower you will find tethered speeds like old-dial up, and you will either miss calls on your PDA or keep losing the data connection.
d) I keep waiting for 3G offerings from Boingo and iPass, which repackage wholesale capacity from the major carriers. iPass typically has nice packages for corporations, but in spite of announcing a foray into consumer markets last year, has not yet made a major dent there. Boingo continues to grow its Wi-Fi hotspot coverage around the world and innovate on pricing and packaging there.
