Verizon offers prepaid wireless service for laptop users

Verizon Wireless on Thursday said it will offer customers who want Internet access on-the-go a prepaid wireless broadband option for their laptops.

The new services will be bundled with the Verizon Wireless USB760. They will operate on laptops running Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. The modem will be sold at Verizon Wireless Communications stores and at Best Buy locations beginning November 16.

Here's a breakdown of the new service plans and what users can expect to do with the limits that Verizon is offering.

The daily plan costs $15 and allows users to access 75 megabytes of data. This would allow users to send or receive about 25,600 e-mails, download 500 Web pages, and send and receive 150 low-resolution digital phones.

The weekly plan costs $30 and allows for 250 MB of data. This plan would allow users to send or receive about 85,300 e-mails, look up 1,700 Web pages, or send or receive about 500 low resolution digital photos.

And finally, the monthly plan costs $50 for 500 MB of data usage. And Verizon claims this is enough capacity to allow users to send or receive 170,000 e-mails, look up 3,400 Web pages, and send or receive 1,000 low-resolution digital photos.

Verizon's contract wireless broadband service costs $60 a month and allows users to transmit up to 5 gigabytes worth of data. It also offers a $40 a month plan that offers 250MB of data per month.

[cnetterite]

Wow, I can send 150 low-res digital phones. Thats great. How about those hi-res phones? How many of those can I send?

don't get too gready now! Not everyone get to send those low-res digital phones you know.

Seriously, does cnet have a freakin editor?

[nscnet]

"and send and receive 150 low-resolution digital phones."
I think you meant photos, not phones :)

Anyways, I think this is a great idea, I would be much more likely to purchase prepaid services such as this, but to me, $50 for 500MB download? I know it is mobile and what not, but that is like $0.10 per MB, and you would think with a monthly plan, it would be a much better deal.

[mattumanu]

The weekly plan would offer 250 megs of download? Are they kidding?

Telcos, listen up! The Market you create by doing this will be infinitesimally small compared to the market you'd create if you'd actually build a REAL wireless network.

[teraguru1]

Telcos marketing dept "Hey lets give people what they used to get with AOL". Boss we have put out another press release proving how minimal we want CAN do for our customers.

[therobot]

can you all crunch the numbers to see what package I would need for low resolution streaming porn. preferably 320x240

[TaiYurShu]

Roflmao

[hoosierdadi]

500mb per month for laptop use? I used 650mb last month ON MY PHONE. $50 a month should be for 5.0gb. If you lose the subsidy on the USB card by going prepaid it should be cheaper per month, just like the new Tmobile plans

[fondy]

Good point. If you have to supply your own hardware, they should cut you a cheaper rate.

I can see how this would appeal to someone who didn't need mobile broadband all the time (maybe while on vacation or something), but those data caps are ridiculous. There's no reason why the monthly option shouldn't have the same 5GB limit that the 2yr contract option enjoys.

[thebergie]

$15 dollars is too expensive. The biggest use of this I can imagine is "emergency" internet access or when people are travelling. WIth the pervasiveness of free wi-fi available. SOmeone will hunt around for something before paying $15 dollars. at 10$ they are competing with standard hotel rates and people would be more likley to pay. $15 dollars for a day is really pie in the sky. Nobody's gonna pay it.

[Super2online]

I can tell you I surely won't. There are just way to many other options available to a mobile laptop user that are free or pack a much bigger bang for their buck.

[icepick314]

"The daily plan costs $15 and allows users to access 75 megabytes of data. This would allow users to send or receive about 25,600 e-mails, download 500 Web pages, and send and receive 150 low-resolution digital phones.

The weekly plan costs $30 and allows for 250 MB of data. This plan would allow users to send or receive about 85,300 e-mails, look up 1,700 Web pages, or send or receive about 500 low resolution digital photos.

And finally, the monthly plan costs $50 for 500 MB of data usage. And Verizon claims this is enough capacity to allow users to send or receive 170,000 e-mails, look up 3,400 Web pages, and send or receive 1,000low-resolution digital photos. "

ALL those should use "OR"....not "AND".....

it's good for wanting to have internet access while on vacation...although i don't see WHY you would want to have an internet access when you're trying to get away from it all...

[Regulator7]

Having internet access on a vacation isn't necessarily about checking in on work.

It's about finding good local restaurants. It's about finding the hours of a local amusement park. It's about getting the hours that a sailboat charter operates, or when the Jeep tours depart, or how long a guided hike takes. Or whether that art studio in the next town over has anything decent. Or for discovering notable historic places to visit. Or festivals occurring in neighboring towns.

Now I agree, a lot of this ought to be planned ahead of time, but it's not always the case. And plans *always* change. Asking locals, consulting phonebooks, and browsing brochures at tourism offices are useful, none offer the convenience and power of "Google".

[Regulator7]

I applaud Verizon for finally - *finally* - giving those of us who *occasionally* need mobile internet access an option. I have no need for contracted $xx/month internet service, but I can definitely see myself picking up a dongle if only to throw in the bottom of my laptop bag for "emergency" internet access when on the road or on vacation.

And I don't think the prices are unreasonable. I'd gladly pay $30/week when I'm on vacation for mobile internet access (rather than anti-TOS tethering). But the bandwidth caps are too limiting. 250mb/week? That's ok if you just need to check email - but I'd think most of us savvy users already have a mobile email option (Blackberry, iPhone, etc). Verizon should have a 'light' package that's $20/week for 250mb, and a 'power' package that's $40/week for unlimited (or absurdly high; 5-10gb). That I would be very interested in.

[Super2online]

There's a reason they have the largest 3G coverage in the US. There service is very high!

[clynx]

Wow, the people who thought this was a good deal actually have a job? This is the biggest rip off I have heard in a while (since Virgin Mobiles pre-paid that is). And whoever buys this may as well put the word, stupid" on their forehead. No way is anything on the internet worth this plan. Can anyone say,"price fixing and collusion". Sounds like a page from the oil industries marketing scheme.

[ikramerica--2008]

Agree. What's the point of having a time limit AND cap on it? It should simply be a pay by the MB product, with discounts for buying more MB in advance.

[nrg.dude]

This is too little for too much money. There are tons of places offering FREE access now. The point all the telcos miss is that Apple and the iPhone own the market because Apple offered the people what they wanted. They gave away some things and charged a premium for those willing to pay. It's called Marketing! Whenever one of the telcos wakes up and does the same thing for wireless access, they will own Apple. Imagine that.

[blueshore]

Virgin Mobile has a similar service, (http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband). Looks like they are testing the market reaction, specially the prepaid market.

However, those prices are way too high, unless you are in the middle of nowhere with no Internet access for some unusual reason (out of coverage area), and need to connect no matter what, in which case it migth do the trick.

[alaris3k]

wow $15 for a days worth up to 75 MB, times that by 30 days and it's $450 for a month. what a deal! fu verizon.

[opiapr]

and all that for just 2.25GB verizon should fire who ever came with that ridiculous plan but wait thats verizon's culture so he probably gets a bonus.

[bobmarleypeople]

In the UK, the network "3" gives pay-as-you-go users 150MB of free internet (use on phone or through tethering) with every top up (£5 and up). Verizon's offers seem a bit pricey to be honest.

[KevinB6511]

Verizon has offered the $15 per day deal for a while now but it doesn't work. I bought a USB modem and signed up but they could never get the service to work even after repeated trips to the local Verizon store and hours spent on the phone with customer service.

[Charbax]

In Denmark, our pre-paid data plans are $20 for 10GB per month.

Have fun with your crappy carrier data prices.

[menajemh]

internet plans here sucks, really bad.

[zyxxy]

I welcome our new wireless data overlords.
"All your bytes are belong to us."

[bonesbautista]

Reading through the post and the snarky comments, I'll have to side a bit with the snark given that I'm tethering on my VZW BB to the tune of $15 per month for 5 GB of laptop data - with no contract since they don't require a contract for tethering. Users can turn it on and off on their OLAM for a minor per diem cost. Go figure...

[heulenwolf]

My company e-mail server allows up to 20 MB attachments. As such, users have taken to using e-mail to send rather large presentations, images, and documents around. The weekly plan with the 75 MB limit would allow me to access 3 e-mails, at that rate, not 25,600.

Sure, not every e-mail has such a large attachment. In the days of forwarding large attachments, never-ending reply trails, super-size signature files, and html formatting, is it really all that more ridiculous than assuming the average e-mail uses only 3KB (75MB/25,600) of data exchange?

[renGek]

Exactly. Can't tell you how many times a colleague thought a joke was funny and want to share it with everyone and not realizing the attachment is a photo that some other fool didn't bother scaling down and is in a native high res format and ends up being 10megs.

I'm tired of seeing journalists quoting "thats equivalent to 10,000 emails" like every other journalist writing about technical information. Use some real life examples like typical google map searches with sat image or average bandwidth used to make a hotel reservation.

Wow, that is the worst deal ever. Cricket has no contract broadband for 50 a month.. i think its a 5 gig cap . Either way Verizon's "offering" is pathetic and this is the reason i refuse to ever use them . They nickel and dime their customers to death. (How about those raised early termination fees on smartphones?)

[DesktopIntegration]

Get a MIFI - $60 - Verizon 3G - and you can share it with up to 5 WIFI devices at the same TIME. 5GB. Why lock yourself in to this what looks to be a terrible deal!? I even use my Iphone over my Verizon 3G MIFI since it connects to it via WIFI. It's more reliable and allows me to watch sling player (no 3G limitations) too.

[B-Ri]

The sad thing here is that you are paying almost $100 for that, not much of a deal there either. If AT& T would just open up the tethering on the iPhone you could use that instead. Though then you are restricted in what you can do with the connection, they can't have you streaming video or making Skype calls on their network. I guess what I don't understand is if there is a limit, ie. 5GB cap, then why can't we do what we want within that limit. My guess is that they have mismanaged their network in their greed for more and more subscribers and that they can't actually deliver what they promised. The iPhone has probably shown them that they have been living on borrowed time. Previous devices were not really built as mini computers like the iPhone and newer smartphones are. I have heard in the past that the ISPs depended on some people barely using their connections at all as then they can oversaturate the market. Problem is when the tools get so easy to use and as compelling as they have been more and more people start taking advantage of what they have been paying for. Just a thought...

[fondy]

But can you get 5GB for $60 without signing a two-year contract? Verizon had a real opportunity to offer a useful service and they bombed with the unreasonable data limits. The daily (and maybe the weekly) plan should be unlimited. How much frickin' data are you going to use in one day? How much 'should' you use? At $15/day as much as you d*mn well please!