by I’m not crazy about at&t as a cellular provider. Their 3G network is awful and slow and shattered — but, I have an iPhone and I have a 3G data plan with at&t as well — so I’m stuck with the service in deulling, two-year, pops.
I used to own the Option GT Ultra Express 3G modem on the at&t network, but my new MacBook does not have a 3/4 Express slot; I needed to upgrade to a USB modem for 3G connectivity. I decided to get the new Quicksilver 3G USB 2.0 modem from at&t.
at&t gave me a hard time about wanting to get a new modem. They wanted me to pay $250.00USD for the new modem; but I was able to convince them — after a lot of wrangling that included adding a new line and canceling the other data line to “save” me $50.00USD against the $175.00USD cancellation fee of the original line — that my computer could not use the old modem and that I wasn’t trying to get out of my contract and that I would be paying for a data plan I could not use.
In the end, cooler heads prevailed at at&t, and the second new line was canceled and the original old data line was restored and I was offered an “early upgrade” on my existing 3G data plan — that extended my contract two more years — and I had to pay $40.00USD for the new modem without getting a refund. I took the deal. The only other choice was to stay on my current contract for another year and pay the full $250.00USD price for the Quicksilver modem.
The modem is working well and I like how the modem “swivels” inside the antenna box to protect the USB connector when not in use and then extending the size of the modem antenna when employed for full data communication.
3G data speeds are around 600 Kbps down and 400 Kbps up. I can use the Quicksilver on all my computers because it is USB instead of a dying, proprietary, port — and that’s a good thing because it stretches the value of my $60.00USD a month plan for a measly 5 gigs of data.
A USB modem is the only way to go today because it works across Windows, Mac and Linux Operating Systems — and you lose nothing in speed by using a USB modem instead of a proprietary slot system.
It looks nice but five gigabytes is hardly a realistic limit in this day of watching the office and other television programs on the computer. 🙂
Hi Gordon!
Yeah… 3G speed isn’t really very good for multimedia. I can stream Pandora pretty well, but video isn’t grand. 5gigs a month averages out to around 150MB a day — not that bad if you’re doing serious work and you’re on a sked watching your time. After 9/11 we wanted to have an alternate means of online communication in case something happened and it became feasible and affordable a year or so ago.
Oh my pockets burning again. Why do you do this to me? Can I get same deal you got?
Yes! Call them and demand the deal! I worked many hard hours with them over the phone to convince them of my position and they should certainly honor your similar situation, too.