Wireless Broadband

After a long debate, I eventually decided that I wanted to try out Verizon's wireless broadband for myself. I had heard reports of great speeds and reports of slow speeds, but never personally heard from someone who used the service. I also knew that Sprint and Cingular offered similar services, but I found it impossible to get any sort of information about their coverage areas. Once I heard about Verizon's 15 day money back guarantee, I knew I had to find out for myself what the service would be worth.

At home I utilize a Qwest DSL connection, wirelessly, quoted as 7.0Mbps, much faster, and cheaper, than any cable service offered in my area. I expected Verizon's wireless service to get maybe a fraction the typical speeds I receive on my DSL connection, but I was still pleasantly surprised. On average, when downloading updates to my Linux computer I average speeds of 120-200Kbps, not bad for service I could use nearly anywhere. It was probable that I could have even faster signal if I lived in a town of more than 22,000 people; my signal probably came from a cell phone tower nearly 10 miles away.

In order to get a better idea of the service quality, I had traveled from point to point in town with my laptop patiently downloading several update files in the passenger seat, to get an estimated range of where I could find the best signal. Surprisingly, the service stayed constantly connected, and I received a pretty consistent connection speed. To further test my luck, I decided I would go out of town, at least a little ways, to see exactly how much signal speed I would get. I went about two miles out of town, about as far as I would ever go, and found the speeds were still excellent. Overall, the signal quality varied as any cell phone would, but I never completely lost signal, and speeds hardly dipped below 50Kbps.

But, as with anything, there were drawbacks. The first was obvious, the price tag. $80 a month might be a bit much if quality service can come straight to your home or office for half price. And if you don't travel much, its hardly worth it. The second drawback was hidden away deep in the fine print; Verizon's "Unlimited" Wireless Broadband service had a limit, and it was only 5GB per month. If you used more than that they could disconnect you without notice (although they say the service isn't supposed to be used for file-sharing, streaming music, etc). The terse language makes me wonder what might happen if I need to download something big and important.

But so far, even though an extra $80 per month can be hard to come up with, (the service costs less if you have Verizon cell phone service), I've decided that the ability to browse the Internet, work on my articles, and do my homework anywhere would be well worth the price tag.

Voice Over IP

Voip, Voip, Voip is all that I hear people talk about these days. For a while now I have been ignoring it because I was happy with my Charter services, but over time it seems as if Charter is slowly going hay wire. I'm not sure what is going on with Charter but I got pretty fed up with them about two months ago. And that is when I decided to jump on Lingo Voice Over IP.

I could have gone with the good old Vonage, but I had heard a lot of negatives about Vonage so I decided stay away from Vonage and actually take a chance with a company what was voted number one as the new, up and coming Voice over IP company in IT Week, Lingo.

The main reason why I went with Lingo Voice Over IP was because it offered Voicemail,

three way calling (which Vonage didn't),

simultaneous ring,

Anonymous call rejection

do not disturb

These are features that I didn't find so true with Vonage when I reearched the company and I may be mistaken. I might have over looked these features but at the same time I was more interested in Lingo Voice Over IP so I pretty much ignored what Vonage had to offer anyway.

Funny thing is Lingo Voice Over IP's basic service is $7.95 a month. That's about $15 less than what Vonage charges. I know I sound cheap right about now because $22 a month isn't expensive but during these hard times, it really actually is. All I want to do is keep in contact with my family and friends and be able to call an emergency contact if need be from a house phone. Most of my phone calls are made through my cell phone so It isn't a mandatory need. It's just something that I feel is necessary to have but at the same time it shouldn't cost me an arm and a leg either. This is exactly why I was loving Lingo Voice Over IP.

Lingo Voice Over Ip offers flexibility with great pricing. Now the thing that I really wasn't feeling about Lingo Voice Over IP was that it pretty much acted like a cell phone contract. You have minutes that are given to you for your phone calls. I'm not used to having a certain amount of time designated for my house phone. I found that kind of silly and when I first heard about it, I thought it was silly. So this feature was a bit of a turn off to me.I also wasn't liking their customer service. A Lot of times when I had to call about my bill of a general question, I was appointed to someone who just didn't seem like the knew what they were doing. They gave me the run around most of the time and other times, I knew more they did. To me, the customer service is pointless. Lingo Voice Over Ip would be much better off mailing out a help manual. Plus it would cut the cost of over head.

Another thing I wasn't liking about Lingo Voice Over Ip was that when I first made my order, I was hood winked. I was thinking that my total was going to be the plan i chose plus maybe a shipping fee. Nope, I was thrown three to four more fees. They were small fees but they did add up. The biggest fee was the activation fee for $29.95. Why did I pay? I figured why not it's one time and I didn't plan on changing my phone any time soon.

I've had Lingo Voice Over IP for two months and I must say it's interesting. It's neat company that makes their customers want to stick around. They offer a refer-a-friend program. Where the first friend you refer, you get a $25 credit for each friend your refer. If your refer-a-friend becomes a customer then your phone calls to them are absolutely free. Which in my mind, they should be anyway but who cares what I think.I mean don't get me wrong, I could upgrade my account, pay more and get unlimited talk but I deal with enough of that with my cell phone provider.

So the bottom line with Lingo Voice Over Ip, it's a good go for me. I have no complaints that are big enough for me to not want to stay a customer. There should be a huge attempt in better training when it comes to their customer Service but other than that, Lingo Voice Over IP gets two thumbs up from me.