Review by gopnick 
UPDATED: 2.1 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 964 visits, last login: 31 days ago
 Benton,Saline,AR
 $59 per month (24 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Cost effective, reasonably fast, excellent coverage in Arkansas"
 "Higher cost than traditional DSL/Cable Internet"
 "When there's no DSL or Cable, give EV-DO a try!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Purchased a new house only a few minutes from my old one. The new house did not have DSL or Cable Internet access despite being so close to the old one that I can hear the ice cream truck from my old neighborhood when in my new!  I purchased (through my company plan) a Kyocera KR1 wireless EV-DO router and a new Air Card.
I will detail my experiences according to DSLR's standards:
Pre Sales Information: I rated this a 4/5, only because my rep couldn't tell me when Rev. A would be deployed in my area. They did however send a business team to drive by my house (!!!) and confirm that I did have access before I purchased the router (at $300, I wanted to be sure). The quality of the info was poor, but the customer service end was amazing!
Install Process: They sent me the wrong card and I had to flash my KR1 with a new ROM in order to make it work. This alone makes it impossible for the novice user to install and use. That said, most people using this KR1 would need to be a bit geeky in order to know it exists anyway. 
Connection Reliability: The connection does fine, but it drops every two or three days. I would ordinarily give a 1 or 2 rating for this, but it is CLEARLY the KR1 and not the service, as a reboot fixes things up fine. I can handle this, but again, a novice user wouldn't want to deal with it. I gave a 3/5 rating for my troubles.
Tech Support: Alltel has great, honest tech support. When I found the ROM flashing issue before they did, the tech asked me to e-mail him a link so he could update their system so they can help other customers!! I was glad to help and the informality and openness at Alltel makes me want to do business with them more in the future.
Services: The QoS is good. I get about 600-900kbps down and 70-140kbps up. Respectable. Not as good as AT&T HSDPA 3G, but good enough for me (and much cheaper, especially up front). The coverage foot print is also excellent, and my KR1 came with a car adapter so my car can be a traveling Wi-Fi hotspot!! The only problems are equipment related (disconnects every 24-48 hours, requiring KR1 reboot) but again, the overall QoS for the Internet access is great.
Value: Excellent. Comparable 3G cellular technology is normally $79.99/mo without a voice plan. I got this for $59 on my corporate account discount. AT&T wasn't willing to work with me to help me get a 3G router (they don't even sell one directly!!) or on monthly cost.
Update: 10/2/2007
Ok, the KR1 sucks. Don't buy it if you have any other choices. The service is ok, but it gets really slow at night... as low as 50k. By 11pm it picks back up to 1 megabit or more. Alltel really needs to work on their backhaul.
Still better than satellite, IMO.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Alltel Axess |
|
Alltel Axess
(14)
·
·