Sprint has done the unthinkable and launched a USB modem, the U1901, that only works on WiMAX. That’s right. Roam outside a WiMAX area and you’re left without coverage. This seems like a step backwards in terms of progress, and it’s why without even reviewing this product I can recommend you stay far, far, far away from it.
When TeliaSonera launched their LTE network in Sweden and Norway late last year, all they had to give customer were Samsung LTE dongles. They didn’t go 3G, or even 2G, just LTE. Wanting to appease the early adopters, anyone who had that LTE only dongle could get a free upgrade to a newer version of a Samsung dongle that roamed across the various wireless technologies once it became available during in Q2 of this year.
Think to yourself what if you’re in a car, on a train, taking a road trip, taking a holiday in the country side, and so many other use cases, this is why I’m going to warn you once again to avoid the U1901 like the plague.
Sure, it’s tiny at only 3.15 inches tall x 1.2 inches wide x 0.59 inches deep, and it weighs less than 1 ounce, but … I’m not going to repeat myself. You can pick it up for $50 on a 2 year contract. You can buy a dock for it in case you want to keep it near a window to improve reception. Speaking about reception, it’s supposed to get up to 10 megabits per second … but expect between 3 megabits and 6 megabits on a good day while connecting.
You’re much better off getting the T-Mobile Rocket. Not only will T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network give you speeds that are similar, and in some cases faster than Sprint’s WiMAX network, but it’ll also work under EDGE and even GPRS should you be stick in a cabin somewhere in the woods and need to bang out a few emails everyday or tell the 15 people who read your cooking blog how to prepare squirrel.