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From: Jeffrey Siegel (no email)
Date: Thu May 29 2008 - 08:24:50 EDT
> We had to be sure the phone was always charged...
>
Comparing apples to apples, you have to make sure your laptop is charged
then for an aircard. If you're plugging in your laptop in order to use your
aircard, you could just as easily (with much less power) plug in the phone
to have it charging too. In addition, most phones charge themselves by
being connected to the laptop over USB - grabbing power in the exact way
that the aircard gets power.
Not to pile on, but keeping your phone charged is a safety consideration
anyway. Almost every phone that I've ever seen can be charged with a 12V
cigarette lighter adapter - I'd hope that most people have their phones
charged and ready to go all the time.
> ...and we lost the use of it as a phone when we had it hooked
> up to the computer.
Almost all of the higher end phones today allow voice calls and data traffic
at the same time. It was true that you couldn't use the phone when you were
online - a few years ago.
> For the same monthly charge, we have unlimited broadband coverage
> with a USB aircard.
It's hard to compare all plans but in general, you need a new contract for
the aircard and it isn't always pro-rated. For example, we keep the data
plan turned off on my wife's phone until we get on our boat for extended
periods of time. Then we make one call and her data plan is turned on. You
can turn it on and off each day if you want and only get charged the
pro-rated data plan for that day. Not all aircard contracts allow this.
> We use Skype for much of our telephone communications and have
> been able to cut our cell phone coverage to the minimum plan.
If that hasn't gone away yet with your aircard, it will soon. The carrier
can block Skype and it's surprising that they don't. Sure, we use Skype all
the time - when we have a WiFi connection.
We also have the minimum voice plan for our mobile phones. But we take
advantage of AT&T's roll-over capability and haven't ever paid for a minute
of voice call time ever.
> We also have a marine antenna hooked to the aircard for
> better coverage.
In many cases, connecting just an antenna to a cellular device will degrade
the signal strength. It depends on the length of the cable. In most cases,
just walking outside is better than connecting to an antenna. An amplifier
changes all of that and makes a significant difference.
Going further...
When using an aircard, you have internet access to your laptop, period.
That's important and a good thing - I fully admit it. But what about when
you'd like access to your email, tide data, navigation charts, web access,
etc. when you're away from your boat?
How many people use their laptops on their dinghy? I don't think there are
many. And yet, on our dinghy, we have pretty much the same capabilities as
a laptop for internet access - because it's all on our phone. When we're
onshore and wondering if there's a change to the latest NOAA marine
forecast, a web favorite displays the current text forecast in about 15
seconds. When we're walking around an unknown place and would like to find
out about restaurants, etc., it's all available on our phone. Tap in an
address and TomTom will take me there by foot. None of this is practical
with a laptop.
And of course, when we return to the boat in the dinghy (using the phone as
a chartplotter if necessary), the phone connects to the laptop and we have
the same capabilities as any aircard.
The tide turned against aircards a couple of years ago.
==================================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine
www.activecaptain.com
Content, Communications, Community
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