I recently tried several broadband wireless hotspots. One of the first was the MiFi available on both Sprint and Verizon. Sprint recently introduced a 3G/4G version and even more recently, Virgin introduced a 3G prepaid version. The devices I tried are as follows:
Device |
Network |
3G/4G |
Price |
Plan |
Virgin MiFi 2200 |
Sprint |
3G |
$149.99 |
Prepaid $10 for 100MB (valid for 10 days) Prepaid $40 unlimited (valid for 1 month) |
Overdrive |
Sprint |
3G/4G |
$99.99 (after MIR) |
$59.99/month with 2-year contract. 4G: unlimited. 3G: 5GB/month, $0.05/MB overage. 300MB/month roaming, $0.25/MB overage. |
Rover Puck |
Clear |
4G only |
$149.99 |
Prepaid $5/day Prepaid $20/week Prepaid $50/month |
USBConnect 881U |
AT&T |
3G HSPA |
$249.99 (no contract) Free with 2-year contract |
$35/200MB, overage $0.10/MB. $60/5GB, overage $0.05MB. 2-year contract |
Apple iPhone 4 |
AT&T |
3G HSPA |
$199 16GB $299 32GB with 2-year contract |
$45 2GB Tethering Plan |
I conducted three tests using Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net (where applicable).
Indoor office: located in Redmond, WA in a building with insulated glass, which acts as a good wireless insulator (Faraday cage), resulting in fair 3G and no 4G coverage
Outside office: located in Redmond, WA with reasonable 3G and poor 4G coverage.
Coffee Shop: located in downtown Bellevue, WA with good 3G and reasonable 4G coverage.
Indoor office results for computer
Carrier |
Download Mbps |
Upload Mbps |
Ping ms |
Pingtest |
Virgin 3G |
0.52 |
0.08 |
237 |
F |
Sprint 3G |
0.77 |
0.10 |
145 |
D |
AT&T 3G |
2.90 |
0.39 |
98 |
F |
Note: for this test, no 4G signal was received, so there’s no data for Sprint 4G or Rover 4G.
Outside office results for computer
Carrier |
Download Mbps |
Upload Mbps |
Ping ms |
Pingtest |
Virgin 3G |
1.84 |
0.49 |
222 |
D |
Sprint 3G |
2.21 |
0.43 |
150 |
D |
Sprint 4G |
0.55 |
0.07 |
190 |
- |
AT&T 3G |
1.41 |
0.78 |
99 |
F |
Note: for this test, no 4G signal was found for the Rover.
Coffee Shop
Carrier |
Download Mbps |
Upload Mbps |
Ping ms |
Pingtest |
Virgin 3G |
0.38 |
0.15 |
225 |
F |
Sprint 3G |
0.44 |
0.19 |
190 |
D |
Sprint 4G |
1.97 |
0.90 |
157 |
C |
Rover 4G |
1.22 |
0.82 |
76 |
B |
AT&T 3G |
3.42 |
1.03 |
119 |
D |
I will publish the iPhone results later, but they were consistent with the AT&T 3G USB modem results.
My conclusion is that the CDMA devices perform very poorly in comparison to the AT&T GSM network. Further, there seems to be speed discrepancies between the Virgin and Sprint device (when forced into 3G only mode) even though they are using the same network. Also, despite the fact that the Sprint has a stake in Clear and their 4G networks are supposed to merging, there are discrepancies between the Sprint device (in 4G mode) and the Rover device.