Verizon Air Card in Alaska

[darin2]

I have a Verizon air card that I plan on taking next week on our cruise from Whittier to Vancouver on Carnival Spirit. If anyone has ever used one of these in this area I would appreciate some feedback. I'm pretty sure I wont get broad band access, but would like to check emails, etc. Also if there are any known issues with roaming using an air card on the cruise ship, please let me know.

 

Darin

[Sumy]

Hey Darin.. Have you checked verizon's coverage map on their website? Im taking an AT&T aircard from work with and I checked their website and they have home coverage in most if not all of our stops.

 

By the way you should post over in the roll call thread for our carnival spirit cruise. We are having a meet and greet on the 4th on the lido deck and all.

 

-David

[darin2]

I checked their website and they show limited coverage for the air card, but I wanted some first hand experience from someone who may have used one there. BTW I have been posting on the roll call thread for several months now. Hope to see you there :)

 

Darin

[greatam]

I checked their website and they show limited coverage for the air card, but I wanted some first hand experience from someone who may have used one there. BTW I have been posting on the roll call thread for several months now. Hope to see you there :)

 

Darin

 

I use mine all over Alaska (I am in Alaska at least 2 times per year for business). But DON'T use it on the ship!!!!! No different than a cell phone. You will be charged at least $2.49 per minute connecting on the ship. That is the normal charge for calls made from cell phones or using an air card ON THE SHIP.

[Pssunshinegal]

Unfortunately, I had to work on my cruise as well. I also use a Verizon aircard. One cool thing is, we wanted to check something about Talkeetna, and so we drove out their drive way and I was on line in the backseat. I used it in every single port. It was posted that the ships are required to turn off their towers (or whatever their equipment is) when you are in port. I have not had any charges and I used it extensively. Unfortunately I was required to use it in Vancouver, and got a $30 charge but business is business. Now on my Verizon cell phone, no extra charges.

 

Since I was moving rather large voice files over the net, I was a little concerned about the speed. It was the very same speed that I get when I have to use my laptop here.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

Janice

[darin2]

Great, that answers my question. So as long as I am using my air card while in port, I should be able to get online and have no extra fees. Thanks Janice.

[Sumy]

Well now after having actually tried air cards in Alaska, all I can tell you is, GOOD LUCK.

 

The Sprint card worked (albeit roaming, though it was free roaming), in Anchorage and Whittier. The AT&T card which i thought would work everywhere worked like total CRAP. It would connect in all the ports of call, but it worked slower than a 28.8 modem. I t was so slow that it was un-usable. Your Verizon card will be just like my sprint card, unesable as well. Sprint and Verizon are both CDMA based cell tech, so youll be roaming to the local providers. The card will show a good signal strength, but wont work. The reason being is there will be voice services avaiable for roamiong, but no data service is available. The software tries to conenc tthen will tell you that the remote server is unavilable, aka there are no data servers to service the roaming data request.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I just experienced it first hand and figured I would let you know.

[greatam]

Well now after having actually tried air cards in Alaska, all I can tell you is, GOOD LUCK.

 

The Sprint card worked (albeit roaming, though it was free roaming), in Anchorage and Whittier. The AT&T card which i thought would work everywhere worked like total CRAP. It would connect in all the ports of call, but it worked slower than a 28.8 modem. I t was so slow that it was un-usable. Your Verizon card will be just like my sprint card, unesable as well. Sprint and Verizon are both CDMA based cell tech, so youll be roaming to the local providers. The card will show a good signal strength, but wont work. The reason being is there will be voice services avaiable for roamiong, but no data service is available. The software tries to conenc tthen will tell you that the remote server is unavilable, aka there are no data servers to service the roaming data request.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I just experienced it first hand and figured I would let you know.

 

I am currently in Homer, Alaska for business. I am posting from my laptop with my Verizon air card. I was in Juneau and Ketchikan this week and had no problem connecting with my laptop. I sent a large packet of Bills of Lading to our office in Missouri via the laptop. That used mega bandwidth. BUT when everyone on the ship is using their cell phones, the bandwidth get used up pretty fast. So I believe that is most likely the problem.

 

PS-your air card is nothing more than a phone connection. I don't care what Verizon says about Broadband. No, you are still using a dial up connection-fairly slow in a lot of places.

[Pssunshinegal]

I am currently in Homer, Alaska for business. I am posting from my laptop with my Verizon air card. I was in Juneau and Ketchikan this week and had no problem connecting with my laptop. I sent a large packet of Bills of Lading to our office in Missouri via the laptop. That used mega bandwidth. BUT when everyone on the ship is using their cell phones, the bandwidth get used up pretty fast. So I believe that is most likely the problem.

 

PS-your air card is nothing more than a phone connection. I don't care what Verizon says about Broadband. No, you are still using a dial up connection-fairly slow in a lot of places.

 

I posted this before, but I want to add it again because the question was asked about Verizon air cards and I answered about Verizon air cards. I signed on successfully even more remotely than Greatam and had connections every place that I tried to use my laptop. I had to move up to three hour voice files, which are considerably LARGE files, and yet I had no problem. So I can't help it if AT&T or Sprint aircards don't work, but Verizon does.

 

Janice