3G Connection
This is the first time we’ve been able to take full advantage of our AT&T USBConnect Mercury card, since the cell phone network in Bangor is still in the dark ages of EDGE and GSM. From Portland, ME down to past Boston, it is all 3G – a much faster technology that approximates the speed of hard-wired broadband access you’d get to your home.
Man, it really does work. Accessing everything was quite zippy.
The only problem with it is the 5 gigabyte per month bandwidth cap. For the average person, this wouldn’t be a problem, as 5 gigabytes over 30 days works out to about 167 megabytes per day. But for power users like us, 5+ gigabytes is probably an average month. Today alone Angela downloaded a 67 meg book file and I downloaded a couple of 30 meg covers for her. It will be interesting to see the next bill.
The 3G network coverage extended over our first stop – Normandy Farms – in Foxboro. And good thing too, as the WiFi at Normandy Farms has really gone downhill. When we first went there back in 2004, the WiFi was quite good (though it cost to use it). But this time around, the park’s WiFi (now free) was basically unusable from our site – #613. The signal was fine, you just couldn’t ever connect out to the Internet reliably. A perfect example of why you shouldn’t rely on only one form of Internet access when you need Internet access to run your business.
Rumor has it Bangor will get 3G coverage in the Fall, but I’ll believe it when I surf it.