Originally Posted by
myfrogger
You will all be AMAZED at the time you save each and every time you check into a hotel if you get an EVDO wireless card. The cost is relatively minor if you pay for hotel internet more than ~6 times per month and it eliminates the need to figure out how to connect to each hotel's network.
Of course this only works in the USA, for the moment
I think Europe has EDGE but that is much slower and possibly more expensive.
Time, money and aggravation... but only if you're in an area where EvDO works as opposed to 1xRTT.
Time: for the reasons you mention.
Money: for the reasons you mention (plus use in the charge-for airline clubs like Crown Room and Admiral's Club, as well as those airports where concourse use is charge for by the day).
Aggravation: some of the hotel systems block VPN and SSH connections (which also does in Webmail). I've recently been in a Towne Place Suites where this was the case, with no option for a public IP. Spent an hour plus on the phone with tech support and no resolution. That pushed me over the edge to an EvDO card.
So far, so good. I've got -49dBm of signal in the hotel (helps to be right behind the Sprint store), and -59 to -65 in the office I'm working in. But I stayed in a hotel in a rural area this weekend where 1xRTT was the choice - and the hotel free service was the only way to go.