I use a Bell canada air card, cost 100 a month for 1 GB north america wide! and 3 bucks per MB over 1 GB

i know i pay alot but i think thats the cheapest i will find for internet anywhere in canada or usa, since i spend about half my week in canada and half in usa every week.

 

Oh... now you're bragging! That's a great rate!

I've had a Sprint card for well over a year and love it. You should be able to be online while rolling- of course, you can't really use the internet while rolling if you're the one driving

My husband does the majority of the driving and I like to sit in the jump seat and go online. If we had to be parked for that, I'd be really upset!

 

My system stays online while moving. Of course, the only thing it does "online" is to send out my current location from the gps to a tracking system. My dad got REALLY bored after he retired, so he sits at the computer and basically watches me drive (or at least my exact location on Google Earth).

 

Same here.....I have had my Verizon card for over a year now and think there was only one time I couldn't get connected.

 

We tested Verizon, Sprint, ATT, and T-Mobile.

There were big differences between the TYPE of card (i.e. Express Slot, PCMCIA, and USB) as far as signal strength and speed. The USB is the easiest to install because everyone has multiple USB ports, but these units stick up or out of your laptop in such a way that it is easier to break them than the slot cards.

Be careful with Windows Vista! We have multiple cases where some versions of the software that comes with the ATT and Sprint cards actually crashed and corrupted Vista whereby it had to be reloaded from scratch. In every case this was with the USB versions that have the software drivers preloaded into the card itself - not on an accompanying CD. I am sure that these companies have heard this and may have already fixed it on newer versions, but it is worth mentioning.

The Express slot cards were the nicest. They don't stick out very far and are very fast. This is the "thinner" slot on the side of your laptop. Older laptops have PCMCIA slots which are wider than the newer express slots. There are still the wider air cards available from the various providers.

As far as coverage we found that Verizon and Sprint had considerably better coverage than did ATT and T-Mobile. And when they were operating, the Verizon and Sprint also tended to have faster data speeds with Verizon having a slight edge in coverage and data transfer speeds overall.

Finally, if you are considering a new laptop, be aware that some laptop brands are now offering to have a BUILT-IN cellular card now. That option currently adds 1 - 2 hundred dollars to the laptop price tag.

 

I had a Sprint phone and air card, there were a lot of holes in their service, especially up north in Wisconsin, etc. Lima, OH, no phone no internet, Elwood, IL, (just south of Chicago), no phone no internet. Cherokee, IA, stuck there a day and a half, no phone no internet. West of Lincoln, NE, forget it. Eastern mountains, zilch.

Now I've got Verizon, in 4 months I've only found one spot I didn't have phone service or internet. But I'm now limited to 5 Gigs a month which is about 166 MB a day, so ya can't watch a lot of video or listen to internet radio all day.

No one has mentioned this: with a USB air card you can get an extension cable so you can set it up in the windshield area for better reception.

 

Not sure what service your cell phone is with but, consider upgrading to a 3g phone and tether to your laptop. I'm with AT&T and have a BlackjackII and unlimited PDA data plan ($30 month) and the speeds are adequate, and in 3G, speeds are great. I've dropped my wifi plans and always have service unless I'm in the middle of nowhere.

P.S. you don't need to get a tethering plan ($60 at ATT) to use your cell as modem. There are workarounds.