Working Anywhere

Me and My Verizon MiFi

I'll admit, I'm a gadget guy, and the kind of person who just has to have the latest and greatest, then push the limits of it to the nth degree immediately upon purchase. I did that once with my Nissan 300zx back in 1995 when I bought my Z, getting to the 350 mile mark in one weekend, then taking it to the wide open highways near Banning and Palm Desert and letting the engine and turbo chargers do their thing.

Yesterday I went to the Verizon Wireless store and bought one of the new Novatel Wireless' MiFi mobile hotspot in your pocket that delivers broadband everywhere you go. Before I even left the store (and after a fast installation and activation, as well as update to Verizon's new Broadband Access 7.0 software on my Asus EEE PC 1008HA) I was up and running and making phone calls. That's right. I did a fast test right inside the Verizon Wireless store and used a T-Mobile UMA based Blackberry Curve to call first my Google Voice account, then to call a friend. Both calls sounded great.

Since Helene's flight to San Diego was delayed by heavy fog and overcast skies, I used the extra time to try out the device as I sat in the Cell Phone waiting lot by Lindbergh Field and made a few more calls. Before trying any of the calls I disabled the mobile network connectivity to T-Mobile, latched on to the hotspot and saw the WiFi and UMA indicators light up. Calls. Email, IM's and even Blackberry messenger all worked fine.

Once I got home I made a few Truphone and Skype calls using my Apple iPhone and iPod touch. All worked but had variable results, making me think that location and where you are in relation to the cell tower, how much traffic is going on at that time on the data network will have impact. One call was great, the next choppy. Still though, for $59.99 having an alternative way to call with an iPod Touch and Truphone's unlimited calling as a way to listen in on Conference Calls or via Skype to do the same and be on the beach without a cell phone is a pretty neat trick.

I'll be putting the MiFi through it's paces today with my Nokia E71 and will update my first day's experience then, but for now this is an amazing device to have if you need to share Internet access with up to 5 people. It runs on battery power, can be recharged via USB from a PC and easily fits in your pocket. Sprint is also releasing a similar unit this week.

AT&T To Expand Netbook Deals

AT&T is bullish on the netbooks. So bullish that they and the manufacturers are taking very aggressive pricing to the streets with the opportunity to buy in for $50.00, and a multi-year contract.

As someone who has the Acer Aspire One and the AT&T data service inside of it, I can attest to how snappy it is and how well it works as a light duty PC.

Does it rival the MacBook Air and a 3G card? No. But what it does do for people like me is give me something beyond a smartphone which lets me work on more complex tasks than simply emails and some lightweight apps.

The bottom line is, this sale price helps get more contracts in house which further justifies AT&T's expenditure of some 11 billion dollars to upgrade the network.

Rich Tehrani "Gets" Airborne WiFi

I've been busy playing catchup on my blog reading after what amounts to almost a full week of being in conferences and meetings in San Francisco.

The long weekend gave me time to catch up with Rich Tehrani's post about his WiFi experience on Virgin America, one I'll be having this week as I'm off to NYC for two days of meetings. It seems Rich (who may travel more than I do) had a similar feeling of enjoyment as he described the GoGo WiFi experience as "awesome."

My view is simply this. I chose to fly Virgin America this week out of Los Angeles vs. American Airlines out of San Diego for the WiFi. Getting work done on a five hour flight vs. getting off the plane during a compacted, holiday weekend led off week makes the drive to LAX worth it. What's more Virgin's All WiFi fleet vs. the Russian Roulette approach of American, United and Delta out of LAX regarding WiFi makes it a better choice out of the gate. That plus the ability to pick my seat, something American reserves only for the higher rated Frequent Fliers.

Yes, when it comes to air travel I'm picky. And when it comes to in flight WiFi, it helps me decide which airlines to pick.

Hotel WiFi Access In New York Times

The New York Times Practical Traveler today has a feature on the price of staying connected that focuses on hotel WiFi and its pricing and various consumer and industry expert reactions, but it only tells part of the story, as it focused mostly on pricing.

There are four types of traveler using hotel broadband:

1) Vacation and Leisure

2) Kids and Teens

3) Travel Industry Professionals (airline, cruiseline, etc.)

4) Business Traveler

For the vacation traveler connecting to get information, light use will more and more translate to wanting free or almost free access. They'll use it to check email, stay in touch with friends, possibly upload photos, surf the web for information or to check flight schedules. Their bandwidth consumption is light.

Kids and teens use the Internet to stay in touch with their friends via Instant Messaging, check email and possibly download music or videos. Unless they're never leaving the room or hotel, their usage is moderate.

The travel industry professional will use the Internet to manage their activities, stay in touch with colleagues, make changes to travel plans, surf for local information, and likely is a moderate to heavy user of email. Their usage is moderate to light heavy.

The business traveler is the heavy user. They need to "stay connected" and the room is their office on the go. Downloading and uploading of large files, heavy email usage, Instant Messaging, voice calls, conference calling are all a part of their day (and night) and they require not only solid speeds, but a reliable connection.

As someone who falls into category 4, the business traveler, I'm not opposed to paying for quality bandwidth and connectivity. But, I want the option of both Wired and Wireless connectivity. For example, in my hotel apartment this week in London at the Metropolitan the wireless coverage goes from fair to poor depending where in the spacious and comfortable two bedroom apartment I'm located. Speeds were inconsistent and latency was high. I opted to switch to my own travel router and their wired connection and speeds went way up, latency went to near zero and the experience was like being in an office.

Too many properties fail in the last ten feet. For hotels and resorts, its not the amount of bandwidth that should be the only concern, nor how they charge for it. At the end of the day, it's the way the guest connects and how that makes the experience. If I used my wireless experience as the gauge here at the Metropolitan, I'd never stay here again. But using my Wired experience as the benchmark, and I know I'll return. It's the same way in most hotels I stay at. The wired connection usually blows away WiFi.

My advice. Carry a travel router and a spare ethernet cable.

Mail Anywhere

We've all become accustomed to getting our email anywhere we can find an Internet connection, but what about all that hard copy mail we receive?

Well thanks to Geared Travel I learned about "Earth Class Mail" a service that works a lot like PayTrust does for your bill.

Set up seems to be easy. You sign up, get your account and are provided a customer specific address that you start using as your meatspace address. (Ironically, this is exactly the kind of service I've always felt that UPS stores should set up, as well as Regus/HQ locations should offer.) The service center collects your mail, scans it down and then emails it to you. You also have access to each "envelope" that arrived and can archive or shred them as you see fit.

I currently have this done by my office, but if I was back to being a solo practitioner, services like Earth Class Mail and Paytrust would be very meaningful to me so I can continue to be working anywhere.