Autonet Wifi for your car?? Worth the $199??

**2k1Toaster** · 09-02-2009, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by nitehawk

Wow, $180 for unlimited calling and data?

Do you have Cricket in your area? If you do, I would DEFFINANTLY look into it. $45 per month for unlimited calling and texting. And their data plans aren't particularly expensive either. The biggest problem is their only offered in very very few areas at the moment.

If you are paying $180, you're being royally screwed.

We now pay $175 + tax for 4 phones all with unlimited minutes, all with unlimited text, all with unlimited MMS, 2 with the international phone plan since we call Canada all the time and 2 phones with unlimited data with rollover. And this is on AT&T.

And cricket may be cheap and a good choice if you stay in your town. But keep in mind that Cricket is CDMA based and really just piggybacks on Verizon's network which isnt very good either. And being CDMA it will work in very few places outside the US, and unless you buy an East Asian version phone with a R-UIM card slot, you are pretty much screwed when traveling or wanting to just switch phones on the fly.

**nitehawk** · 09-02-2009, 11:45 PM

Actualy, I have to disagree with teh verizon network comment. In my house, we have several different cell phone providers (I have verizon, my wife has a sprint, my parents have a t-mobile) and of the 3, my phone is the only phone that continuously has coverage. Second best is the Sprint phone, and the t-mobile phone drops ever single chance it gets.

**2k1Toaster** · 09-03-2009, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by nitehawk

Actualy, I have to disagree with teh verizon network comment. In my house, we have several different cell phone providers (I have verizon, my wife has a sprint, my parents have a t-mobile) and of the 3, my phone is the only phone that continuously has coverage. Second best is the Sprint phone, and the t-mobile phone drops ever single chance it gets.

of those 3, yeah Verizon wins. TMobile is really the worst of them all. Their coverage is spotty everywhere except along interstates in the US. If you look at their coverage map, the good spots are all within a mile of an interstate, and everywhere else is "good" which is really bad, and then no coverage.

AT&T has the largest coverage area and I consistently get more bars than any of my friends with other carriers no matter where I am. Even when in the boonies, I can get 1 or 2 bars, when others have no reception at all. And living in the mountains, I get coverage through the mountain passes, ontop of mountains, everywhere. I have been ontop of the continental divide with 4 bars at the Monarch Ski Resort. Hiking in the back country in the woods, still get coverage. I don't know what they do, but it seems to work. And my mom has a Sprint/Nextel phone from work along with her AT&T phone, and the Sprint one drops out and loses coverage in various places through the city. Maybe it isn't so bad in areas that are more flat? But here AT&T rains supreme and again, there is the international compatibility that CDMA devices just can't do.

Oh and if I didn't mention it, I used to sell cell phones too

So I had access to the real coverage maps vs. marketing maps, and know the inner workings of most of them. (Not Cricket or Nextel but all the other major US carriers)

**nitehawk** · 09-03-2009, 12:29 AM

Lol, When I went over the continental devide while moving from SLC Utah to Laramie Wy, I got 3 bars.

And T-Mobile doesn't even have that great of reception on the interstates... My uncle ALSO uses T-Mobile (he's a long distance trucker) and every time I try to talk to him, I cant understand a damn thing he says.

Anyways... I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can avoid an ongoing debate about which cell provider to go with...

**2k1Toaster** · 09-03-2009, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by nitehawk

Lol, When I went over the continental devide while moving from SLC Utah to Laramie Wy, I got 3 bars.

Yeah on the ground level, I mean on the TOP of the mountain!

Originally Posted by nitehawk

And T-Mobile doesn't even have that great of reception on the interstates... My uncle ALSO uses T-Mobile (he's a long distance trucker) and every time I try to talk to him, I cant understand a damn thing he says.

, well I never recommended them and was going based on their maps. If you can get a hold of one of their real coverage maps, then overlay it on a map of the US interstate system, it lines up exactly! It is pretty funny.

Originally Posted by nitehawk

Anyways... I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can avoid an ongoing debate about which cell provider to go with...

Okie dokie, I just had nothing better to do, and figured with some sale experience in cell phones it was worth mentioning. Average Joe wont notice the difference anyways. Considering less than 10% of americans actually ever leave the country, for 90% of the people they could care less what provider they are on or what compatibility problems they have going from a proprietary us based system (CDMA) to an internationally accepted standard (GSM).

**nitehawk** · 09-03-2009, 01:30 AM

Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

Okie dokie, I just had nothing better to do, and figured with some sale experience in cell phones it was worth mentioning. Average Joe wont notice the difference anyways. Considering less than 10% of americans actually ever leave the country, for 90% of the people they could care less what provider they are on or what compatibility problems they have going from a proprietary us based system (CDMA) to an internationally accepted standard (GSM).

It's funny, because that's the exact same reason one of my friends was trying to get me to switch to T-Mobile and get a G1... Honestly, I dont see myself ever having a reason to leave the contry. And, if I do end up in a situation where I do have to leave the country, there's a pretty good chance that I'll be able to afford a new phone hahaha.

And yeah, I know a thing or 3 about cell phones too. Both me and my Wife worked for Sprint, her as a customer service rep, and me as a network technician. Ohh, and btw, very boring work it is.

**trinybwoy** · 09-03-2009, 09:38 AM

check out the Verizon mifi.
i use it.
wonderful device.
It allows u to connect up to 5 wifi capable devices . has its own internal battery, and best of all its portable.
its the size of a credit card.

**trader007** · 09-03-2009, 10:26 AM

what are you guys using to tether your phones?

if you have a winmo phone, winmowifirouter is the only way to go. it allows my cell phone to ad-hoc to multiple devices. it doesnt even list how many, it appears it will work up to as many as you can try.... these carrier alternatives that are really nothing more then a 3g card with a wifi chip are nearly a ripoff since they only allow 5 connections. sure, you probably wont ever use that many at once, but why cripple the service like that?

however i use it rarely. i made a usb cradle for my phone, and you can leave winmowifirouter in USB mode... meaning you just plop the phone on the cradle and it the pc will see it as a landline network connection. it works better this way because of how fast and stable it connects. but if i do want to feed a bunch of wireless devices its very easy to do.

**Cartastic** · 09-04-2009, 03:03 PM

I found this review online....
Peep it out
http://cnettv.cnet.com/autonet-mobil...-50074938.html

**soloxp** · 09-07-2009, 08:12 AM

[Only disadvantage is the phone can only handle one PC at a time.]

I don't know what phone you have that can only handle 1 pc at a time...My internet went down for 3hrs one day. So I setup my Android G1...my wife, son and my pc was connect to my G1 3g with no problem.

Must be a iphone