Virgin Broadband To Go User Report

Well, it has been three days now and I feel somewhat qualified to write a preliminary report. Virgin is certainly the cheapest of the current pack at $79 for the stick and $40 per month for unlimited bandwidth but came with mixed reviews. People complain about the coverage (it uses Sprint) and the coverage map is not all that impressive. They follow most or all of the major Interstate highways but it looks pretty dead once you get off the beaten path. That is fine with me because we will be sticking pretty close to populated areas and I can live with the odd period of no connection if that ever happens.

I have gotten connected every time I have turned it on but have yet to see 4 out of 4 bars. It is usually 2 or 3. Data speeds are quite slow:

Download - 0.24 Mbps
Upload - 0.03 Mbps
Ping - 1216 ms

Better than dialup but a lot slower than the ADSL I have at home. Emails with photos take a few seconds to load but nothing I cannot live with.

The big thing for me is that Skype works over it! This was my major complaint with the Mexican Telcel 3G system. Skype did not work at all on it even with a 4/4 bar signal so this is a huge advantage.

I am sorry I could not find a MIFI device. It would have mounted in the middle of the motorhome and would have provided WIFI in a 30 foot radius. It allows five simultaneous connections so I could have used both computers and still been able to share with a neighbor. There were simply none of these units available in Washington or Oregon.