Comments for Best Party Trick Ever: Multi-Device Wireless Broadband from Sprint MiFi

Best Party Trick Ever: Multi-Device Wireless Broadband from Sprint MiFi

2009-06-22T04:00:04Z

It's the length and width of a credit card. It's the thickness of a couple nickels. It'll let you and a few friends get an Internet connection just about anywhere with no wires whatsoever.

It's a MiFi, Sprint's new wireless broadband device, and it's geek gadget magic that'll realistically fit in your wallet. Disclosure! Sprint gave us a MiFi device to test. We tested it for a couple weeks and sent it back. We were sad to see it go.

]]> We first tested the device with three laptops at a Facebook Vanity URL-Grabbing party. The host's WiFi connection was getting bogged down with traffic from about 20 other devices, so three of us picked a spot and huddled around the warmth of our own connection.

Sweetly simple and functional, the device easily accommodated the three users' surfing around. Multimedia uploads were as zippy as on a normal connection during the time we were test-driving the device.

Another test involved a crowded WiFi situation at a local coffee shop. Two laptops were connected to the device with the same lightning-fast results.

We even had time to literally road-test the MiFi; there's still something man-on-the-moon-ish about accessing the Internet from a moving car. We built a website during the course of a two-hour mini-road trip.

The battery held a charge for a good couple hours between charging, and the connection worked at ranges of 10-20 feet. We did notice a bit of trouble when using the device for long periods of time with just one device; every now and then, the card seemed to overheat and would drop the connection. A rest and reboot period solved the problem, but it would've been painful/disastrous had we not had access to a backup WiFi network in the meantime.

Still, the device is pretty amazing. We highly recommend seeing it in action:

Slight correction: The Sprint website states the device can support up to five devices.

Now, as previously disclosed, we received the free-as-in-beer, no-strings-attached version of the MiFi. We were not required to go through the new account/line activation process, any rebate loopholes, contract renegotiations, or other factors that make mobile services companies so uniquely pleasant (and by "pleasant," we mean "exquisitely tortuous in the BDSM sense"). The MiFi is advertised now at $99.99 per device, based on several conditions that seemed to require scientific calculators and gave us headaches. We recommend calling Sprint if you're interested in the device and finding out exactly how much the price would be for you. We're also aware of a similar Verizon device but have not yet been exposed to it, ourselves.

Comment from bruscol.pip.verisignlabs.com on 2009-06-21

2009-06-22T04:23:07Z

Great product - too bad it is useless.

Why is it useless? Because it is tethered to a 5GB per month account. Broadband internet us useless in a era of growing cloud computing when data limits are imposed. If you utilize an online backup service for your work and files - and it backs up a file each time a new one is saved - you go through 5 GB very, very quickly. Glad the technology is available - now I only have to wait for unlimited data plans to be available and they will have a customer.

Comment from linkmoneydotorg on 2009-06-21

2009-06-22T05:01:19Z

This is a great product and I might just upgrade from my Verizon wireless USB device. Julie is the perfect spokesperson for ReadWriteWeb, just one question. Where does she pin her microphone?

Comment from Aldo Bucchi on 2009-06-21

2009-06-22T05:28:20Z

Nice girl!
And the card looks interesting as well.

Comment from dans on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T10:02:21Z

yes nice card to appear as well as great success in interesting

Comment from Johnny on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T10:41:36Z

What a nice hot chick! The MiFi card looked harder when she touched it. I don't blame the card, I would too.

Comment from Mark Pannell on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T10:47:35Z

Oh snap! THIS is what we need for Tattooleetup. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything back from Sprint. Hmm... maybe a representative from said company will read this before I have to do something drastic like... *yikes* call Verizon.

Seriously though, great review. I've read about the devices on both companies' websites but nothing compares to seeing one in action. I realized just how big of a geek that I am when I saw this article in my RSS reader and thought, "Sweet! Jolie reviewed the MiFi dealio!"

Comment from Dave on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T13:04:31Z

You guys must go to different kinds of parties than I do....

Comment from Dmitry on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T13:30:52Z

who's the girl?

Comment from Kirk on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T14:34:47Z

Unfortunately I agree with the first post. While it's a great idea to have wireless in your pocket, who actually knows how much internet usage they have over a month? I have a broadband connection at home and god only knows how many KB/MB/GB's I use a month.

Comment from Jolie O'Dell on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T17:47:57Z

@burscol @Kirk

Yeah, that's why I included the paragraph about TOS not being part of our test period. We never had to deal with 1) any kind of contract or 2) any limits to how much of the Internet we could access over an extended period of time.

However, for the simple convenience of it (WiFi *literally* anywhere?), it seemed like a good deal to us at the time.

Comment from Tom on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T17:55:04Z

Seriously, Jolie, you have got to be the cutest little thing! We demand more vids of Jolie showing us kick-ass stuff!

Comment from johnn5 on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T18:15:18Z

Nice ones...

Electronic Cigarette

Comment from some guy on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T20:13:26Z

"Facebook Vanity URL-Grabbing party" - Holy crap you guys need to get a life.

Comment from Jolie O'Dell on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T20:16:15Z

@some guy - Sadly, this *is* my life. =) And I love it.

Comment from Rich Pesce on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T21:51:42Z

Thanks for the write-up and video Jolie. I thought I would at offer the following regarding concerns with the 5GB per month cap. While I wish it worked for all, for the majority of our customers, 5GB is plenty of room for monthly usage. Sprint continually works to ensure a great customer experience. Efficiently managing our wireless network and optimizing its use so that use by one customer isn’t adversely affecting another is a big part of that commitment.

I hope this provides some insight as to why there is a cap.

Rich Pesce
Sprint
Social Media & Communications

Comment from JK on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T23:08:06Z

Rich
I respectfully completely disagree that 5GB is 'plenty of room' in this day and age. I guess we'll see when stories start to come out about people protesting bills for hundreds or thousands of dollars of over usage charges.
This is a neat device if not for the 5GB cap

Comment from Robert on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T23:47:21Z

I bet the people in the feature party hit the 5 GB limit in no time. How many movies can you stream off Netflix or Apple TV with a 5 GB limit? Even web browsing will eat up 5 GB in no time.

PS: A 'tethered' iPhone will do everything the MiFi does plus lots more. The MiFi would have been great if it came out 5 years ago.

Comment from John on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T23:53:25Z

Wow dude that is just too cool! I like it!

RT
www.anon-tools.tk

Comment from Blah on 2009-06-22

2009-06-22T23:59:23Z

"Facebook Vanity URL-Grabbing party"

Wow.

Comment from Michele on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T00:22:27Z

Any Nokia or Windows Mobile phone can do exactly the same..you have anyway to look for and install a specific software, but it's incredibily easy, and incredibly cheaper than the solution presented.

Comment from jon forsman on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T00:25:36Z

how the f--k is this a party trick? stupidest article i have ever been tricked into reading period. good job

Comment from twenzel on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T00:51:35Z

@Rich --Seriously, you have to be kidding that you think 5GB monthly limitation is justified. Most websites are very media intensive. MOST people could cap 5 GB in a week. Not to mention you are allowing 5 devices to connect at time. This is in fact, a "Party Trick" because it cannot be used in a practical manner. Good intentions on the engineering team, poor execution on the marketing team.

@Jolie --If I found myself at a "URL Grabbing" party with mostly dudes as you have displayed in your video, I would set myself on fire as I think that would be a more comfortable situation.

That is all.

Comment from Brian on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T01:15:28Z

This (and the Verizon product) are a pretty darn cool item! However, the nature of the device is simply at odds with the caps. I understand that a carriers network represents a finite resource, and they need to be able to split it up amongst all their users in order to be able to provide good service for all (as mentioned by the Sprint guy, above). The problem here is that there is a split between how the device is advertised: "You and your friends can hop on anywhere!" and the way the pricing is structured: "Bandwidth is an important business resource to be conserved".
I'm guessing it'll run somewhere around $60/month for 5gb. That's not so bad if you are a business user that needs anywhere-access for email and sending docs. If you're slurping lattes and checking our youtube or hulu, that just not going to cut it.

Sprint needs to decide who they want to sell this to, and price it accordingly. Maybe throttling would work, where they cut you back if you go overboard. That would cut of that tasty extra cents/kb for overages though, wouldn't it?

Comment from Steve on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T01:17:04Z

A 5-gig bandwidth cap makes this device utterly useless. I'm an internet business owner and for a little more every month I access truly unlimited wifi every day I'm on the road at coffeehouses etc. out of necessity, and I get "free" meals out of the situation.

Comment from David on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T01:21:01Z

Rich
The mistake here is that the major market for this device is not the typical '5gb crowd' The people who might purchase this device are those with a highly technical desire and we tend to burn through 5gb easy in a normal week. Of course that doesn't include things like software updates, media uploads for us publishers (another major market of the device), and off-site backups. For example: in a single night of photography I might take more than 5gb of photos. These are all things we are used to doing in our typical computer using hours and if we are unable to follow these typical patterns then it becomes an inconvenience to us. So if my typical computer usage becomes inconvenient then I will not purchase this device just to check my email or twitter feed. For that I can use my phone or make it to the local free wifi. Combine that with the fact that people like me are perhaps the only people who might buy such a device because the others will simply wait till they get home, means this product will be collecting dust on the shelf. When you calculate average bandwidth usage you must consider the market as well.

Comment from hitekhouse on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T03:38:44Z

this is old cradelpoint had this a while back for a varity of cards
and yes the 5gb cap is totally old im already at 4.9gb for this month and have till the 29th to reset have a cradelpoint mbr1000 and it smokes that srpint toy.

Comment from Revo on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T03:49:44Z

Holy hot damn! Excellent spotlight on a new product by an absolutely gorgeous presenter! I for one would love to see more of Jolie O'Dell in upcoming product spots, and hopefully a spot on yourself one day! At a 5GB cap, this doohicky would meet the needs of all technical professionals who would use such a device to do actual work like ssh/terminal control a session to perform maintenance remotely. The thing is, this device is specifically geared towards the casual net user who would likely download 100GB per month. I know I hit 159GB this past month, and I've already lightened up more than usual.

Comment from Ricky on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T04:21:53Z

I want to digg this for the hottie doing the review, but I just can't digg an ad for a 3G WiFi router with the title "Best Party Trick Ever". It's completely inaccurate.

Comment from randomuser on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T05:35:46Z

Rich,

5gb is not enough for the price. For $50 a month, I get a 12mb cable connection with a 250gB soft cap. So, you're offering something that is 1/5th to 1/10th the speed, with 1/50th the bandwidth cap, for $10 more. Yes, it's mobile, but that's not enough of a value proposition to bring enough usage to inundate Sprint's network.

It's simply too expensive. For a miserly 5gb cap, a carrier should charge $20/month. For $60 a month, I'd rather just wait until I get home or go to the nearest wifi enabled restaurant.

There are two basic types of customers that might pay $60 a month for internet. 1- the business user who must have it now, regardless of draconian limits; and 2- the tech oriented consumer or prosumer. Good luck getting droves of business users to sign up right now. The second group I described above will sign up in droves for a carrier that offers prices, speeds, and bandwidth that rival cable/dsl providers.

Again, the "it's mobile" argument only carries about a $10- 20/month premium, all else being equal. Given that all else is not equal, it's an insult to the intelligence of your potential customers to charge so much for so little.

Comment from tom_mandory on 2009-06-22

2009-06-23T06:21:50Z

Whats a nickel?
the thickness of a couple nickels.
????

Comment from Jan Paricka on 2009-06-23

2009-06-23T10:25:29Z

Man, she's hot!

Comment from Michael on 2009-06-23

2009-06-23T12:21:18Z

Ya, but whats with the voice tick, having to say "whoop" every so often?

Comment from wimaxworksltedoesnt on 2009-06-23

2009-06-23T12:57:22Z

Ya'll ever hear that Sprint owns a huge percentage of Clearwire? If this is a technology site you should do your research..WiMAx

Comment from Paul on 2009-06-23

2009-06-23T13:37:12Z

@tom_mandory, a nickel is a 5-cent coin in the United States. According to Wikipedia, they're about 1.95 mm thick.

Comment from And on 2009-06-23

2009-06-23T16:37:41Z

The review is much better when muted. Also makes girl more attractive. Also... headline totally --but you already knew that.

Comment from chewy on 2009-06-25

2009-06-25T12:15:59Z

I would love to know what the comcept of a thered I phone is? Also How can you make this function opperational on a Nokia without subscribing to a data package. Also what phone should I buy seeing as you all know alot more than i do I phone 3g , N97, bold, javlin, palm pre or new I phone s or a similar option. Looking for something kick ass

Comment from Kyle on 2009-07-06

2009-07-07T04:46:01Z

I cracked up when I saw the... "what kind of party's you go to?" post. I tend to ask the same thing of myself. Then I ask… "Why am I the only one with a beer! ha

Anyways, the reason I’m posting is because I just opened my new “party trick” and the first thing I did was Google, "best way to keep from going over on the 5 gig sprint network card limit", and this is where Goog send me. I'm watching the counter as I type and it says I have already racked up 1.5mg of usage. Ouch! But, not as bad as I thought it would be.

So far my biggest concern is how to keep other people from knowing that I have this. I don't see a way hide the broadcast or prevent it from having "SprintMiFi2200" in the broadcast name. I just ran a speed test and got .35 mb/s down and .15 up. (Richardson,Tx) I gave it a quick test this morning (at O'hare) and got 1.5… and at the Sprint store in Chicago, I saw 2.2. Not a bad little connection. and 1.0 @DFW

The best thing about going with Sprint is that I have the lowest overage charge for the 5 carriers. Only a nickel per mg. Some of them are trying to f-u almost 0.50!!! I did hear that Verizon just started offering theirs at .05 too… but at that time, I had already made my decision to go with Sprint and wanted the best card they had.

I still think this is the best card, and with all things considered the best carrier for it. And since you’re going to be dropping about 1.7k over your 2 year contract… What’s another 0.1k to get your buddy on line at the airport?

But back to the reason I started this…

Is there any software or an application that will limit the usage to a specific program… Like Outlook or Chrome?

Or, Where do I find one of those bad ass, open source, guys, that have flattened the world? The flat world needs an app like this... really cool badass program guy that is reading this!

Cheers-
Kyle

Comment from Christian on 2009-07-20

2009-07-20T12:48:09Z

Comment 29 has a very valid point. I am searching for a viable mobile broadband solution. This seems like a great product, but its 5GB limit makes it unusable for me. I am not a business owner, just a tech savvy person. If they could offer an alternative plan with a higher monthly premium and remove the cap, I would really consider it. Until then, I have to agree with everyone else that you will not embrace the culture that would adopt a mobile broadband solution like this. Just my thoughts.

Cheers,
Christian

Comment from Greg on 2009-08-11

2009-08-11T21:14:25Z

AT&T is rumored to be the next American carrier to add the MiFi to its product line (the GSM MiFi 2372). Perhaps with more competition between wireless carriers, users will see lower prices or larger data caps.

One can hope, at least.

Comment from James on 2009-08-11

2009-08-11T21:18:11Z

Check BuyMiFi.com for pricing updates, deals, and news related to the MiFi

http://buymifi.com

Comment from Wendy Pierson on 2009-11-06

2009-11-06T17:42:19Z

Ok, so am I to understand that if I only want to check e-mails, occassionaly browse the web, and remotely access my desktop, that this would probably be the best solution? I am not very technical!

Comment from Wendy Pierson on 2009-11-06

2009-11-06T17:44:57Z

Clear.com offers unlimited mobile internet including home internet and a voice/phone line for $70.00 per month, no contract, no price increase for lifetime! I just want to pay a tiny fee since I won't utilize it very often - meaning the mobile internet.

Comment from Josh - Electronic Cigarette Reviewer on 2009-11-12

2009-11-13T00:13:23Z

That's too cool you did a road trip with the thing. I agree, facebook at 75mph must be surreal. I'd kill to have this thing to be able to liveblog from places. Sounds super cool. Also, your facebook vanity party had me cracking up

Josh