Review by xenophon 
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 528 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Kansas City,Jackson,MO
 $60 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Coverage everywhere I need it. Performance very good."
 "Sprint customer support is poor. Support is only downside."
 "WiFi is so last century. This is the way to be connected."
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(ratings above consensus)
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Have used Sprint EVDO for a couple years with Merlin S620 and S720 cards. I travel often and am connected essentially everywhere in US I go (with either EVDO or slower 1xRTT). Sprint roams on Alltel EVDO (Verizon EVDO does not). Alltel has massive EVDO coverage in rural areas in many midwest/southern states. Also roams on Verizon/Alltel/US Cellular 1xRTT (pre-EVDO) in very obscure areas. Am able to get to the Net virtually anywhere I go. WiFi is so last century. No need to look for hotspots.
Performance is typically 500Kbps-1.5Mbps and sometimes I can get over 2Mbps. Even 300Kbps is more than adequate for just web browsing/email. Sprint has no limits while Verizon may decrease your performance if you exceed 5GB a month.
The GPS feature of Merlin cards is nifty but I really don't use it much on a laptop. Ability to force EVDO or 1xRTT and force roaming is something that Sprint allows but other carriers do not. There is also techie fine tuning that can be done with Sprint cards but not with other carriers.
I dumped my cable modem about a year after I got EVDO. Don't miss it at all, except when wanting to stream high quality video. EVDO doesn't cut it for very high quality video. Also doesn't do VoIP very well, but it does work in ideal conditoins. Looking forward to combo WiMAX/EVDO coming from Sprint next year.
Sprint customer support can be awful. But I don't need to call them very often. I suppose they have improved a bit in the last year. If you need hand holding support often, Sprint might not be for you.
Followup comments:  
AlltelRules
@myvzw.com | Alltel: Massive EVDO? Where is this "massive," EVDO footprint you speak of. Alltel has EVDO here and there, but I wouldn't call their deployment massive.
Do you have any EVDO maps showing Alltel EVDO (non roaming) service? | |
|  | xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Re: Alltel: Massive EVDO? This map shows Sprint/Alltel combined but Sprint doesn't have much rural coverage, so in some midwest/southern states, Alltel has massive coverage. KS, NE, Dakotas, MI, FL, SC,AR, OH are at least 75% covered between the two. The entire eastern seaboard has EVDO between Sprint/Alltel.
Sprint users can roam in Alltel EVDO and 1xRTT areas at no charge.
»content.alltel.com/business/enha···rage.jsp | |
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