Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sprint Advertises 4G Overdrive Hotspot Device Using iPhone
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That's nice, but I pay enough for my cellular services. Last I checked, you have to pay for a data plan, not only with the iPhone, but most smart phones/PDAs today. Regardless, I don't think I would pay $60/month plus my voice plan. I don't use data that much.
The AT&T $15/mo no-contract plan will, hopefully, generate competition amongst carriers. It is time the carriers realize that being a dumb data pipe is a worthwhile business. Get with it or lose out to those who offer it.
With Skype, a data pipe is all you need. Forget voice services. 3G, 4G, 5G, who cares. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth.
I see this device as the start of where the wireless companies start competing with the cable/phone companies for who has the connection into someones home. A lot of people go with the cheapest cable/dsl plan and something like this could replace that plan AND be portable. I'd welcome almost any option over Comcast at this point.
Barefeats says it doesn't work well with the iPhone
http://www.barefeats.com/overdrive.html
'I am puzzled by the iPhone's pathetic 90Kbps performance when connected to the Overdrive -- especially when I saw 9000Kbps when connected to Comcast via Airport Extreme.'
The service areas are also pathetic. LA isn't even on the list.
http://www.barefeats.com/overdrive.html
'I am puzzled by the iPhone's pathetic 90Kbps performance when connected to the Overdrive -- especially when I saw 9000Kbps when connected to Comcast via Airport Extreme.'
The service areas are also pathetic. LA isn't even on the list.
I love my Sprint Overdrive. I get 5 to 6Mb/s with it and it's the reason I ordered a WiFi iPad. I use it for everything. It's $59/month for unlimited 4G and 5GB of 3G. I use it instead of hotel and Starbucks WiFi because it's just as fast and convenient, plus no $10/day for hotel WiFi. Bandwidth and latency are a LOT better on 4G than the sluggish performance of 3G.
Can you explain why Apple doesn't have to approve? I thought that in TV shows or movies, you have to get approval to show a brand name product, so I figured it would be the same for commercials. Or are the brands hidden so as not to give free advertising?
Hidden so as not to provide free advertising. Apple and other companies provide significant "promotional consideration" for those placements in movies and TV shows.
not a chance, were falling behind badly at the moment...for the first time in....well god knows how long, the US is getting a better phone system than us...
Were that only true. "4G" is available in a limited number of cities in the US. Just a handful. Our 3G network is far from built-out. You guys are still ahead of us in terms of coverage and quality. Rest assured.not a chance, were falling behind badly at the moment...for the first time in....well god knows how long, the US is getting a better phone system than us...
Same here, especially since the service -- like so much of Sprint -- isn't available anywhere near my area.
I could see this being valuable as the ultimate portable wireless router. I could dump my Verizon DSL, and ironically dump my iPhone and just go with an iPod Touch and Skype. That would save me about $40 a month.
The 4-6 Mb/s is the expected real-world speed to an actual device, not the theoretical max. Theoretical max on WiMax is somewhere between 10-20 Mb/s. However, I think the 4-6 Mb/s may be a little optimistic (or you're sitting on the cell tower with no one else connected).
Fire to ATT is good
I had the audacity to ask for a rebate since for over 1 year my area doesn't have 3G and is only getting it supposedly in October , when 4G is already coming up.
ATT had no answer when I asked why do I have to pay the same other subscribers do for not getting the same service.
Not done with my complaint yet, but .............
What a joke. $100 device after $50 rebate.
2 yr contract at $60 a month.
4G speeds limited to select cities of which there are very few.
3G if you don't live in a 4G city is limited to 5GB/month.
All that and you have to carry around/not lose that BLOCK.
3G iPad $130 premium.
Plan $15 - $30 a month.
Sprint $100.
Plan is $30 - $45 more a month.
Sprint is more expensive from month ONE!!.
Fail.
2 yr contract at $60 a month.
4G speeds limited to select cities of which there are very few.
3G if you don't live in a 4G city is limited to 5GB/month.
All that and you have to carry around/not lose that BLOCK.
3G iPad $130 premium.
Plan $15 - $30 a month.
Sprint $100.
Plan is $30 - $45 more a month.
Sprint is more expensive from month ONE!!.
Fail.
5 gig cap for 3G
no cap for 4G.
Besides you have to abuse your download allotment before Sprint even gets curious whats going on.
You assume that the only use for the Overdrive is the iPad. No one is going to do that. But for someone like me that uses it for notebook connectivity all the time it's a great setup.
BTW: Pretty much all 3G plans are limited to 5GB/month. Check the contracts..my Verizon 3G USB adapter was like that. I never came close to it since 3G sucks to use for long periods of time where as I can use my 4G Overdrive all day and it's like being on WiFi.
Why would you get the 4G hotspot if you don't live in a city with 4G?
The Mifi is cheaper device and cheaper service plan.
The whole point of the device is for the 4G Network.
The 5GB cap is not so much of a problem if you're using it for normal browsing and email and so on.
However, the 300MB upload cap rendered it worthless to me (amounted to uploading about 60 images, 15 if I did RAW).
If I needed to wait to get home to do the things I wanted to do while mobile to avoid hitting abitrary limits, then the whole point was lost.
4G coverage was poor enough that the "unlimited" aspect was only useful at home. And don't get me started on Sprint coverage in general and their 300MB roaming limit as well.
However, the 300MB upload cap rendered it worthless to me (amounted to uploading about 60 images, 15 if I did RAW).
If I needed to wait to get home to do the things I wanted to do while mobile to avoid hitting abitrary limits, then the whole point was lost.
4G coverage was poor enough that the "unlimited" aspect was only useful at home. And don't get me started on Sprint coverage in general and their 300MB roaming limit as well.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/7E18)
Yes I'll pay $30 for data I'll never use and then at least $50 so I can browse the net a what I think may be faster does anything over 2MBS matter when browsing on a mobile device the latency is at least 300s so gaming and intensive apps are out of the question for now.
Yes I'll pay $30 for data I'll never use and then at least $50 so I can browse the net a what I think may be faster does anything over 2MBS matter when browsing on a mobile device the latency is at least 300s so gaming and intensive apps are out of the question for now.
this + wifi phone = no more at@t
When this tech becomes reliable and offered in more regions, say goodbye to traditional cell service. Wifi telephony + all wifi access = very flexible and inexpensive service.
r.
When this tech becomes reliable and offered in more regions, say goodbye to traditional cell service. Wifi telephony + all wifi access = very flexible and inexpensive service.
r.