edge

Now that I am an AT&T subscriber for my cellphone service (thanks, iPhone!), I decided to try some of the other goodies that AT&T has to offer, as well. I am part of the large [anti]social class of people who get physically uncomfortable if they can not access Internet for an extended period of time (and, yes, half an hour can be an extended period of time). Considering this personal deficiency, the first natural choice was to try the 3G mobile internet connectivity.

Unfortunately, iPhone does not support 3G. It only supports an older and slower EDGE technology. Furthermore, I can not use even EDGE from my laptop since iPhone does not support Bluetooth modem protocol and can not be used as a modem from a laptop. I was very upset with this shortcoming, when I first got iPhone. Considering that I use a Mac and iPhone is an Apple product as well, I was convinced that they would have the integration squared. I still think the only reason they don't is because AT&T has a separate service for that. You bet AT&T was not too excited by the possibility of iPhone cannibalizing that line of business for them.

Long story short, I went to a local AT&T store and signed-up for a separate data plan for laptops. They gave me a Sierra AirCard 875U USB modem. With an existing voice plan, I got it for just $150 after $100 mail-in-rebate and my monthly fees for 3G came to $60, which I believe is at $20 discount. All-in-all it was not a bad deal. I used to pay a comparable $40/month for a HotSpot access with T-mobile before. That, however works only at Starbucks and select other shops, whereas my 3G access works almost anywhere in urban areas and coverage will grow rapidly.