The upside of running your own one-man/woman business is, in theory, there is lots of flexibility to work when and where you want. The downside is when you’re not working, there’s no one back at the home office to take care of business.
As a result, I wanted to stay connected while taking two weeks of vacation at a cottage outside Haliburton, Ont. Yeah, I know a vacation shouldn’t mean being connected but it was a necessary evil.
If you listen to the radio, it’s pretty much impossible to not know about Rogers’ Rocket Mobile Internet service that features a USB modem that uses Rogers 3.5G wireless network. So, I reached out to Rogers to see if I could take the Rocket up north for a rural test run.
All in all, the service is excellent. For the most part, the service is similar in terms of speed to Rogers’ residential high-speed service, although there were some interruptions when watching videos.
Getting the service set up was straightforward – the process, which includes an auto-install of the software, took 10 minutes. Getting on the Internet is easy, and the service supported not only Web browsing but Twitter, e-mail and blog publishing.
If you agree to a three-year contract, Rogers gives you the modem for free. Without a contract, the modem costs $199.
Data plans range from $30/month (500MB) to $85 for 5GB, which makes it pretty good value for anyone looking for mobile high-speed access. (Note: If you use a lot of data, including streaming video, 5GB can disappear in a hurry. It would be great to see an all-you-can package.)
In an ideal world, it would be great to see Rogers provide an integrated package that would include mobile and residential high-speed service – giving computer users home and away coverage.
More: This is the second in a series of product/service reviews I’ll be doing over the next couple of weeks. The first review on TweetCapz (an iPhone photo caption application) ran last week.
Thanks to everyone for offering me the opportunity to try out a bunch of products and services.
Would you consider this better than Tethering your computer to your iPhone's data connection?
I haven't tried tethering my laptop to my iPhone yet but the ability to do so is the reason I signed up for the 6GB for $30/month plan recently. I think that if you only need mobile Internet on in awhile, tethering is the way to go. If you're a regular mobile Internet user, the Rocket stick is a good option.
Mark
5GB is not a lot – how much video did you stream? If you decided to watch lots of streaming video on your vacation you could have a $1000 phone bill to look forward to! You say $85 for 5GB is good value – maybe only in Canada where we got totally hosed for wireless service.
I don't stream a lot of video; I'd probably use it just for e-mail and some Web surfing. But you make an excellent point about how much bang for the buck you get.
Mark
Ho hum, I've been following your work for a couple years now. You've steadily turned into a corporate shill for all things new and 'edgy'. Will you ever return to that more critical eye to technology that you once possessed and was the reason I subscribed to you blog in the first place? I'm on the verge of letting you go because you've become boring and pedestrian.
Conrad,
Thanks for feedback. I try to provide valuable perspective and insight so I'll keep on an eye on the \”corporate shill\” in the future. cheers, Mark
Conrad, I respectively disagree with your assessment of Mark's writing. I can point to many recent instances of where writing on this blog has been that which you claim to crave.
"Can Apple Save Newspapers?" as an example I thought was very insightful and got me to thinking about "Apple" and the much discussed future "iPad" in a much different light. It has inspired me to table this topic in a future blog post on my own.
I consume "Scoble-numbers" of blogs per month – and I can say that I have learned as much (if not more) from Mark's approach and style of blogging than any other single source. The articles are consistently clear and articulate, and while Mark may not have the most "magnetic or edgy" blog titles out there, I have never been "fooled or misled" when I've read through an article, compared to what my expectations were.
It might be more useful, both to Mark and others here, if you could point us to an example post or blog that is meeting your expectations. I'm always interested in finding other quality blogs out there. Wondering if you have your own blog? – Pedro (MakingItWork)
I've been tethering my iPhone to my MAC for a few weeks and it works great. I had to upgrade my iPhone to release 3; the set-up took about 15 minutes, enabled Internet Tethering on the iPhone, and I'm now able to surf on my MAC at 3G speeds. I wrote a blog post on this very subject, and you can check out:
http://www.thetelecomblog.com/2009/08/07/internet…
Hey Mark can you give me feedback on a company…broadburst.com I'd like to know exactly what they do and is their business old, current or future abled. I've had a few of my investment clients invest in the company through a "brother" of a friend and want to make sure they are not getting hosed. Your guidance is most appreciated.
Cheers,
TJ Nash
Hey Mark – quick question for you – I would only need this for the cottage season – May to mid-October. The 3 yr contract is therefore not terribly cool to me. If I buy the stick, and then only need 4 months of service, it's unlikely to work out as well. It strikes me that there's a decently large population of people in the same boat – you can get suspended satellite TV service without a charge, so why wouldn't Rogers/Bell/Telus come up with an offering for that crowd? And then advertise it to the slow moving crowds on the 401, 35, 400, etc…
I agree that having to enter into a long-termcontractis not idealwhenyoureallywanttousesomethingforjustafewmonths.IdidsomediggingaroundonhowtheservicewouldworkifyouboughttheRocketStickfor$199,butcouldn'tfindanyinformationontheWebsiteotherthantwoorthree-yearcontracts.From what I can tell, Rogers is selling the Rocket Stick as another wireless service as opposed to Internet access. That said, they are trying to attract more users so maybe limited use packages would be a good niche as long as customers are willing to pay for the hardware.
DONT EVER DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE FOR THE ROCKET STICK> IT MAKES IT DOWNLOAD WAY SLOWER> THE ROCKET STICK WORKS GREAT WITHOUT THE UPDATE!!!!!!!!
Hello Mark,
I am based in Ontario and am looking for a mobile internet data plan 3G or
4G that will give me access to about 2 Gb of data per month combined in
Canada as well as the US.
I think one of the Rogers Rocket Mobile Internet Plans or BELL’s US & Canada Mobile Internet Plans might be the one for me. But I’ve heard that with Rogers one can use only upto 75MB in these packages. Is it true? And does BELL have similar restrictions as well?
Thanks.
I’m sure Rogers will sell you additional data as long as you’re willing to pay.
Mark
Hey guys, I have recently purchased the Rogers Rocket Stick. I also have a mobile with Rogers. I too neededd mobile internet for school and convenience when I al away from home. So in combo with my cell phone and rocket stick I pay 94 dollars a month (with taxes). Rogers charges you a one time 35.00 activation fee, I got the 3 year term , which works fine for me as I have 2more years of school left anyways and travel a tad bit. If u do choose to cancel you have to pay a maximum of 100.00 cancellation fee..reason for this is its not a data package , its only gb’s. So with the 94 dollars , I get 6 gb’s for my phone and laptop. 200 daytime mins on phone, my top 10 contacts, free after 6 evenings and weekends, with my voice mail, caller I’d, all that jazz. It took 2 days to have my rocket stick delivered. 10 mins to set up… Connection right away…only issue I have is it going in and out of connection…I’ve had it for a week..and sometimes it disconnects , and I have to pull it out of usb port and put it back in. You also have 15 day trial..if its not for u , u can send it pack…hope this helps