Considering VZ Mobile Broadband - how to measure current internettraffic load?

I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)

This prompts a couple of questions:

1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
go by?

Thanks.

Dave wrote:
> I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
> access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
> that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
> total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
> Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>
> This prompts a couple of questions:
>
> 1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
> 2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
> some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
> go by?
>
> Than get net meter

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network...NetMeter.shtml

Dave wrote:
> I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
> access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
> that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
> total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
> Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>
> This prompts a couple of questions:
>
> 1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
> 2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
> some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
> go by?
>
> Thanks.

The "VZmanager" connection applet supplied with the aircard keeps a byte
count.

If you are concerned about data usage, you may want to go with Sprint. They
have true unlimited data plans for the same price as Verizon data plans that
have a cap.


"Dave Rudisill" <denali@alaska.net> wrote in message
news:87thq3l9fgf78ruirptequv0qcpmq1ti3c@4ax.com...
> >Dave <david.f.jenkins@usa.net> wrote:
>
>>I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
>>access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
>>that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
>>total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
>>Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>>
>>This prompts a couple of questions:
>>
>>1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
>
> Per billing period. See:
> http://b2b.vzw.com/broadband/bba_terms.html
>
>>2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
>>some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
>>go by?
>
> If you are talking about a cell phone, you can dial #DATA. With any
> kind of device you can go to your VZW account online and see your data
> usage to date during the billing period.
>
> --
> Dave

1. Its the 'billing month'
2. while there are many utilities to measure data usage, we've found that none of them match up with what verizon says, and its their opinion that counts.

FYI, we've not yet had any customer be 'throttled' for usage.

__________________
The EVDO Experts are at http://www.EVDOinfo.com

Jar-Jar Binks wrote:
> If you are concerned about data usage, you may want to go with Sprint. They
> have true unlimited data plans for the same price as Verizon data plans that
> have a cap.
>
>
> "Dave Rudisill" <denali@alaska.net> wrote in message
> news:87thq3l9fgf78ruirptequv0qcpmq1ti3c@4ax.com...
>>> Dave <david.f.jenkins@usa.net> wrote:
>>> I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
>>> access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
>>> that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
>>> total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
>>> Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>>>
>>> This prompts a couple of questions:
>>>
>>> 1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
>> Per billing period. See:
>> http://b2b.vzw.com/broadband/bba_terms.html
>>
>>> 2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
>>> some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
>>> go by?
>> If you are talking about a cell phone, you can dial #DATA. With any
>> kind of device you can go to your VZW account online and see your data
>> usage to date during the billing period.
>>
>> --
>> Dave
>
>
But he would also need to consider that Sprint has much poorer coverage
in many areas and from what I understand you can't roam on to VZWs
network to compensate with a data connection. Also Sprint still hasn't
turned up EVDO in many of their markets.

"George" <george@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
news:sKmdnfyMjcfMRDTanZ2dnUVZ_rCdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Jar-Jar Binks wrote:
>> If you are concerned about data usage, you may want to go with Sprint.
>> They have true unlimited data plans for the same price as Verizon data
>> plans that have a cap.
>>
>>
>> "Dave Rudisill" <denali@alaska.net> wrote in message
>> news:87thq3l9fgf78ruirptequv0qcpmq1ti3c@4ax.com...
>>>> Dave <david.f.jenkins@usa.net> wrote:
>>>> I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
>>>> access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
>>>> that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
>>>> total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
>>>> Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>>>>
>>>> This prompts a couple of questions:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
>>> Per billing period. See:
>>> http://b2b.vzw.com/broadband/bba_terms.html
>>>
>>>> 2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
>>>> some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
>>>> go by?
>>> If you are talking about a cell phone, you can dial #DATA. With any
>>> kind of device you can go to your VZW account online and see your data
>>> usage to date during the billing period.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dave
>>
>>
> But he would also need to consider that Sprint has much poorer coverage in
> many areas and from what I understand you can't roam on to VZWs network to
> compensate with a data connection. Also Sprint still hasn't turned up EVDO
> in many of their markets.

All of these statements are incorrect. Sprint actually has more data
coverage than Verizon and their data coverage has been rated to be better
than Verizon. Data is the niche where Sprint really excells. You are also
wrong that you cannot roam on Verizon's data network. I am doing it right
now on a laptop that is sitting on my desk. I heard all of the horror storys
when I switched to Sprint data and was very worried. After several years, it
turns out that none of them were true. Interesting huh?

Sprint has horrible customer support but since their network is good and
they have the best roaming agreements, I never need to call customer
support.
Don't believe everything that you read. Get a Sprint and a Verizon laptop
card and give them a try.

Jar-Jar

Jar-Jar Binks wrote:
> "George" <george@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
> news:sKmdnfyMjcfMRDTanZ2dnUVZ_rCdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>> Jar-Jar Binks wrote:
>>> If you are concerned about data usage, you may want to go with Sprint.
>>> They have true unlimited data plans for the same price as Verizon data
>>> plans that have a cap.
>>>
>>>
>>> "Dave Rudisill" <denali@alaska.net> wrote in message
>>> news:87thq3l9fgf78ruirptequv0qcpmq1ti3c@4ax.com...
>>>>> Dave <david.f.jenkins@usa.net> wrote:
>>>>> I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
>>>>> access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
>>>>> that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
>>>>> total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
>>>>> Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>>>>>
>>>>> This prompts a couple of questions:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
>>>> Per billing period. See:
>>>> http://b2b.vzw.com/broadband/bba_terms.html
>>>>
>>>>> 2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
>>>>> some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
>>>>> go by?
>>>> If you are talking about a cell phone, you can dial #DATA. With any
>>>> kind of device you can go to your VZW account online and see your data
>>>> usage to date during the billing period.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Dave
>>>
>> But he would also need to consider that Sprint has much poorer coverage in
>> many areas and from what I understand you can't roam on to VZWs network to
>> compensate with a data connection. Also Sprint still hasn't turned up EVDO
>> in many of their markets.
>
> All of these statements are incorrect.

Except the ones that are true of course. There is no EvDO in my market
on Sprint. I compare notes with the people I meet here and in the nearby
states where I travel and VZW definitely has superior DATA coverage in
those locations. I just don't understand how Sprint excels at data as
you say. As far as I know they add data capability to their voice sites
the same as VZW and don't have additional data only sites. So if you
have poor Sprint voice coverage the data will also be poor.


Sprint actually has more data
> coverage than Verizon and their data coverage has been rated to be better
> than Verizon. Data is the niche where Sprint really excells. You are also
> wrong that you cannot roam on Verizon's data network. I am doing it right
> now on a laptop that is sitting on my desk. I heard all of the horror storys
> when I switched to Sprint data and was very worried. After several years, it
> turns out that none of them were true. Interesting huh?
>
> Sprint has horrible customer support but since their network is good and
> they have the best roaming agreements, I never need to call customer
> support.
> Don't believe everything that you read. Get a Sprint and a Verizon laptop
> card and give them a try.
>
> Jar-Jar
>
>
>

On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 22:24:57 -0800, "Jar-Jar Binks" <jarjar@nospam.com>
wrote:

>If you are concerned about data usage, you may want to go with Sprint. They
>have true unlimited data plans for the same price as Verizon data plans that
>have a cap.
>
>
>"Dave Rudisill" <denali@alaska.net> wrote in message
>news:87thq3l9fgf78ruirptequv0qcpmq1ti3c@4ax.com.. .
>> >Dave <david.f.jenkins@usa.net> wrote:
>>
>>>I may want to make a shift to using VZ Mobile Broadband for Internet
>>>access from home and on the road. The Verizon plan makes it clear
>>>that they reserve the right to throttle down service rates if the
>>>total byte count exceeds 5GB in a month. (Shades of dealing with
>>>Earthlink and its FAP - I thought I had rid myself of that long ago!)
>>>
>>>This prompts a couple of questions:
>>>
>>>1. Is the "month" a rolling 30 days? A calendar month?
>>
>> Per billing period. See:
>> http://b2b.vzw.com/broadband/bba_terms.html
>>
>>>2. How can I establish my current internet traffic volume? Is there
>>>some handy utility that will sit by and measure bytes counts as they
>>>go by?
>>
>> If you are talking about a cell phone, you can dial #DATA. With any
>> kind of device you can go to your VZW account online and see your data
>> usage to date during the billing period.
>>
>> --
>> Dave
>
Verizon is not a true nation wide data plan. When you go into roam the
speed will be very slow..Not the rev a you pay for...I am a over the
road trucker and find that unless I am within 40miles of a larger city
rev a is there...so its the slow national plan and if its on another
network its slower yet. Sprit sucks with the way they handle customers
but they are faster over all in more area's.

Pete <no@spam.net> wrote in news:sgljq35ifmgm82gal2p2e7bc4jenpc2lp7@
4ax.com:

> Verizon is not a true nation wide data plan. When you go into roam the
> speed will be very slow..Not the rev a you pay for...I am a over the
> road trucker and find that unless I am within 40miles of a larger city
> rev a is there...so its the slow national plan and if its on another
> network its slower yet. Sprit sucks with the way they handle customers
> but they are faster over all in more area's.
>
>

All this is VERY dependent on where you are. Across NC/SC, noone beats
Alltel's EVDO for service and speed. The only time it drops me is when I
cross that imaginary line between systems when it issues me a new IP from
the new system. That forces me to reconnect, of course, to whatever
streaming radio station I'm hooked to. I'm simply amazed at how far out in
the boondocks EVDO reaches on Alltel, here. Verizon and Sprint aren't even
close.

http://content.alltel.com/business/i..._scarolina.gif

It also works very well in Florida:
http://content.alltel.com/business/i...nk_florida.gif

Here's the other state maps they cover:
http://content.alltel.com/business/e...k_coverage.jsp

I travel in the boondocks of eastern SC very often. When Alltel converted
to EVDO, they did most all of it, not just the big markets.