Recently, telecommunications providers Sprint and Verizon launched their own MiFi data plans. It’s like a portable modem that you can use to access the Internet anytime, anywhere without searching for a WiFi access point.
The idea here is to be able to have your own wireless Internet access wherever and whenever. Verizon has its own unit and data plan included. This company has a good reputation for its data plans. And much is expected of them. When you get your unit, you can find a label on the bottom that will indicate the preset access code for your personal wireless network.
You have to give credit to the plug and play convenience of the Verizon unit. The unit works like a typical wireless router. So you can easily access your settings page. You won’t be able to see what the setup page looks like for your Verizon network. However, it is easy to navigate and configure through it.
The signal is pretty good. You can get up to 557 kbps and more.
As for Sprint, you don’t get a passkey. The network is open when you get it. You can configure the connection as usual. And then you are good to go. You just need to plug and play the unit. So you don’t have to go through any installation process and yell at tech support. You can get an average speed of 150 kbps with the Sprint unit. And the best part is that you also get a GPS unit with your router. This is built in. So if you don’t have a GPS phone, this baby is something that would really come in handy.
The battery life of both units can last between 4 and 5 hours approximately. They can also connect up to 5 wireless clients at the same time. And this is something really fascinating in such a small device. It is compact and very efficient.
However, one thing to remember is that the signal for this network depends on the network coverage of the providers in the area. There are some areas where you may receive a weaker signal. And there are other places where you will receive stronger signals. It all depends on the location. So you can’t expect the signals to stay constant.
When you look at it, both providers are quite similar in nature. The only difference is perhaps the brand and the case they use. Of course, Sprint gets more points for its GPS unit built into the router.
It can be quite difficult to choose one over the other. It will be up to you to decide which one will work best for you. Perhaps the only thing left to decide is which service provider has better signals in the places you frequent or where you might need to use your portable access point. But in any case, you can get the router for $ 99 along with the corresponding data plan.