Air cards!

So here we are, heading back to NH cruising up the NYS Thruway at 70 MPH from a day of moving Miss Em into an apartment. Donna is driving and I'm logging on to NPN with my laptop and a Verizon air card.

So what does this have to do with nature photography? I can log on to NPN, even when traveling in a car! I just find this amazing...

Yep, they're great. I just upgraded a couple weeks ago to a much faster one than I had previously. And got a new data plan that gives me 5 times the throughput at less than 1/2 the price.

BUT.............. DO NOT roam with them. Especially outside N.A. Roaming data charges are VERY expensive. Don't ask me how I know this.

I am surprised at the speed of the connection of my Verizon card. It's not "cable fast" but very usable - even for surfing the NPN galleries.

I got set up with the card/service a few weeks ago during the Great Northeast Power Outage. Of course the day I got the card, our cable service was restored...

Well that figures, doesn't it Jim.

The one I got a few years ago when these things first came on the market in Canada had a max. download speed of 1.8 Mbps. And that was only in a small area around Toronto that had 3G infrastructure. It plugged into a PCMCIA slot. My new one plugs into a USB port and has a max. download speed of 7.8 Mbps and the coverage area is now much, much wider. You're right, not cable or DSL broadband speed but certainly pretty quick.

Back in about 2000 I bought a cable that let me use my cell phone as a modem on my laptop. It was a cumbersome affair and ssssssslllllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwww (and expensive). Technology is amazing.

The ATT version has been around up here for awhile, but with very mixed results. Here on Kodiak it's actually SLOWER than dialup, if that's possible. You're cutting things awfully thin to get any closer to zero than our local dialup. In Anchorage it's fine, though as others note, somewhat slower than whatever other services are available.

Evidently there's something in the connection to the local networks that slows it. Handy as could be though!

We ventured into this area a few months ago with AT&T. At first we were very pleased with the speed, then things started to go bad. We never could watch a video as advertised. Turns out the "phone" went bad. After AT&T exchanged it, all was good again, videos and NPN photos loading quickly. Why us?

Ken

Hank, it likely has to do with the build-out of the network. In areas where the infrastructure is more modern and up to date, the full speeds can be realised. In areas where the network infrastructure is a little older or where the fastest equipment hasn't been installed, the card automatically throttles down to a lower speed and the speeds can get quite slow.

I've had one for about a year and the connection has improved so much in that amount of time. I'm even noticing better connectivity in areas where I could not connect. Perfect for checking out the local radar for cloud movement when out in the field. I love it! They can only get better.

"Hank, it likely has to do with the build-out of the network. In areas where the infrastructure is more modern and up to date, the full speeds can be realised. In areas where the network infrastructure is a little older or where the fastest equipment hasn't been installed, the card automatically throttles down to a lower speed and the speeds can get quite slow."

That's what I figured. It's an important point to keep in mind for anyone that travels much.

As a matter of fact, it's probably a pretty good indicator of me and the places I travel. Built out networks and infrastructure probably occur only in communities with indoor plumbing and paved streets.