Verizon EVDO In The Sticks

I get kidded occasionally that I live out in the sticks. Trust me, compared to some places not to far from me, I don't live out in the sticks. Even so, I am occasionally left out of some things like, say, wireless broadband. Mainly because our market, while adjacent to Seattle, is not exactly a huge market. Cingular doesn't think so. Sprint is out here, but according to their street-level maps, I am just outside the footprint by a mile or so. Verizon appeared to have me covered, though had I seen street-level maps, I would have been more assured.

Because it was needed for a project I am working on, I had recently ordered a Verizon EVDO card. Today, after lots of delays, it finally arrived. Much like a kid on Christmas morning, I ripped open the box, found the V620 card and CD stashed inside, and dutifully installed the software on my laptop and prayed that Verizon's coverage maps were accurate.

As you can see by the attached screenshot of a speed test I did with Speakeasy, I am using EVDO. Signal strength is 3 out of 4 bars, which is certainly reasonable. The downstream is a respectable 500kb/s. The upstream is a piddly 30kb/s. Probably not quite enough to do a voice call with Skype, though you can bet I will try it at least once.