There are a couple things I hate most about travel. For one, it’s emotionally exhausting. Running from the car to the check-in, through security and to the plane. Only then finding that the flight has been delayed. Nothing quite like twiddling thumbs in an airport for a couple hours.
The biggest issue, however, is getting a decent Internet connection on the road. Sometimes my iPhone is in a “hole” or I really need to email a contract to a client, which requires finding a connection for my MacBook. Heaven forbid I should try to do any video streams while mobile.
One would think that the myriad paid or free HotSpot options from TMobile and their ilk would fit the need: fast connections for an affordable price. Well, no. Free hotspots are still sketchy and paid options are really no better. I’ve had 50kpbs “High Speed WiFi” from a Starbucks (TMobile) in downtown Hollywood. It was expensive, too. Further, almost every hotel I’ve ever stayed in has had near useless Internet reliability. If you’re lucky it works long enough to grab email, but for anything else you’d do just as well striking up a conversation with a hair dryer.
In the past I’ve tried USB and Express/34 connectivity cards. For the most part, they’re a fine option for bringing your Internet connection with you. I will digress for just a moment to complain about my last AT&T Express/34 connection card: It only worked in Seattle. Seriously, I would open the computer in airport and use the connection. Get on the flight, land (didn’t matter where), open the computer and get a connection error – even with full bars. Eventually AT&T’s tech support gave up and just had me return the card.
The downside of the cards and connection sticks is that they only provide the Internet connection for the one computer they’re attached to. That’s a very 1990’s idea: one computer, one connection. Nowadays even digital cameras have WiFi capabilities. (At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before my underwear has its own Twitter account.)
The answer wasn’t long in coming. Earlier this year Novatel released a little card called the MiFi 2200. A few months later my business carrier, Sprint, picked it up. A week later, I was in the Sprint store laying down some cash. (Specifically, $99 for the card and $59/mo for “unlimited” – 5GB/mo – service.)
What is it? The MiFi card is one of brilliantly simple ideas that only comes around once in a blue moon. Like twist-top beer bottles, or the Snuggie. Only this one has blinking lights, a rechargeable battery and it can generate an Internet hot spot anywhere, anytime. Not one connection one computer. But one connection and up to five devices. Any WiFi device. That’s bonkers.
It’s the any device part that really makes this an orgasmic must-have for the traveling techie. Connect an iPhone, Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), Palm Treo, notebook computer, digital camera, or whatever else you have with a WiFi connection.
Testing the MiFi at home in Kirkland
Simplicity doesn’t just apply to the concept and design. It’s dead simple to operate, too. So simple that even a tanked frat boy can fire it up, should the party require it. Press the only button on the card. Once the light comes on: Boom. You have a WiFi hotspot.
Since I have the Sprint version of the card, it naturally uses its high-speed 3G network for connectivity. Sprint calls this the EVO Rev. A, the latest offering in high-speed cellular data. 4G is around the corner, but we’re not quite there yet.
How fast is it? Well, we’re certainly not talking DSL-like pipe, it’s still a wireless connection. But consider this scenario: on a recent trip from Seattle to Los Angeles we decided to do a live show from the road for Driving Sports TV. So, with three cameras in the car, a very hot MacBook on my lap, and just the MiFi card for internet, we webcasted a full 20-minute live video stream as we were driving through the Stockton area.
For a more technical analysis of the performance I recently ran a series of tests in two different locations. I compared the local hardwired connection, AT&T’s 3G speed and the Sprint MiFi. All tests were done using the Ookla speed tool on an iPhone 3GS.
AT&T 3G can be fast
Redmond Office (one block from Microsoft main campus)
T1 - 1161 kbps down, 1448kbps up
AT&T 3G – 1408kbps down, 357kbps up
Sprint MiFi – 1139kbps down, 275kbps up
Kirkland Home
FiOS – 3293kbps down, 1414kbps up
AT&T 3G – 1591kbps down, 83kbps up
Sprint MiFi – 548kbps down, 386kbps up
What I’ve listed here are the best results from up to three tests. Most surprising was how high the AT&T 3G connection was scoring, but for the native iPhone connection it’s only part of the story. AT&T was all over the place: from 341kbps down and 100kbps up to the high listed above and everything in between. This was also on the Friday prior to Labor Day, when fewer folks are jamming the AT&T network with iPhone data. So, on light traffic days, it has the potential to download as fast as a T1. That is pretty damn impressive.
AT&T 3G can also be very, very slow.
The Sprint card, on the other hand, was never able to beat the best AT&T results (not what I had expected, to be honest) in our Seattle-area test locations. Here at least it runs second to the native iPhone cellular data network. But – and this is critical – the connection results were far more reliable and far more consistent. If you want to do any video streaming, remote desktop or anything that needs a strong, consistent signal, the Sprint MiFi provides a better (if not faster) connection.
At the end of the day, this is how I use the MiFi: While traveling I don’t even bother with the hotel connection anymore. I simply throw down the Sprint card and call it good. When my iPhone is having issues finding signal, I use the MiFi as a backup data channel – even used Skype to make a call in one particularly remote part of Montana that had 0% AT&T coverage. And, of course, when I need to use my computer to fix a site, send a report or read icanhazcheezburger.com and I’m not near a land connection, I bust out the MiFi without a second thought.
If you’re not on Sprint and you want to get your own slice of mobile Internet nirvana you’re in luck as Verizon also sells its own branded version. Features are almost identical, though Verizon has disabled the location services on the device for some bizarre reason. (Because they’re Verizon and they do stuff like that, okay?)
In the end, knowing that no matter where my travels take me I’ll always be able to catch up on Penny Arcade and Gawker even makes airports a little bit more relaxing. That’s better living through technology.
