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Google to test 100x faster Internet service
Google must feel like we do about average Internet speeds in the U.S., declining as other developed nations enjoy increasing speed. The "don't be evil" Googlers plan to build and test an "ultrahigh speed broadband network in trial locations across the United States" for at least 50,000 people, and maybe up to 500,000. Best of all, Google wants to offer this service at competitive prices, and share what it learns about mass-market fiber optic networking with everyone.
How fast is ultrahigh speed? Try 100 times faster than what most of us have now, fiber-to-the-home connections zipping along at 1 gigabit per second. To give you an idea, the Internet service you're currently using to read this is probably somewhere between 5 megabits (Mb) per second and 15 Mb per second, if you're lucky. The U.S. average is currently 3.9 Mbps. A gigabit is heckuva site faster than that, equal to 1000 Mb.
This is my sixth post here in a row - somebody else post something, dammit!
Anyway, Virgin Wireless now has a prepaid plan for mobile broadband: [link]
How do their prices compare with other mobile broadband providers?
Also, if I were to, for example, use the $20 plan, how much browsing would 250 MB be? They say 12 hours. But if I mostly use it for b.org and Google Reader (i.e. stuff that's mostly text) I wonder if I could stretch that out to more than 12 hours....
Hmm. I used to have web access on my Virgin phone, but I remember it was a daily/monthly usage charge. (Insanely cheap at the time, like $1/day, $5month.) But the service was pretty smooth.
I don't know from usage though - my usage on my BB last month was 46M, and I use it for web browsing all the time. Don't know how relevant that is.
Oh, I see, this is for your actual computer. Carry on.
Isn't the 250 MB based on how much data is going back and forth? How can they give a time estimate?
I just checked in my phone. I mostly use Borg, lj, and facebook, with some reading of nytimes thrown in. But I admit, I do it a LOT all day long this month, since I've been traveling. I've used 107 mb this month so far (my billing cycle starts on the 1st). According to last months bill I used 262 for the month.
Isn't the 250 MB based on how much data is going back and forth? How can they give a time estimate?
They take the average time for a room full of monkeys?
Last time I checked the Virgin Mobile prepaid mobile broadband didn't work on Macs. Don't know if that's important to you.
I have a Verizon MiFi with a 5 GB plan, and with moderate use I've been surprised at how much time that actually equals. Consider that a CD full of uncompressed music is 700 MB, so you can actually do quite a bit of light surfing within 250 MB.
Last time I checked the Virgin Mobile prepaid mobile broadband didn't work on Macs.
Currently they say it does.
is anyone else having trouble loading mobileme mail from the website?
ETA
Never mind. Had to clear cookies. Did the cache, but not the cookies. better now.
