Vitor Rodrigues

In a country where UMTS/Edge is only a dream and a really expensive GPRS plan is the best wireless data plan you can get, there is solution that becomes very handy for those living in the Greater Toronto Area. The name is Rogers Portable Network, and it consists of a wireless modem capable of receiving rogers wireless internet signal anywhere in the Toronto area. You just need to plug the modem to the power outlet and voila, you have internet access at 1.5Mbps. The modem can then be connected to your laptop/desktop using an ethernet cable.

After just a few hours of use, the pros and cons I found are:

Pros:

• ease of installation. It only takes a few seconds. Just plug to the power and it works. I’m still questioning myself why don’t I have to insert my username anywhere. Maybe Rogers does modem based authentication and since I  activated my modem at the store, it assigned it to my account.
• promotion prices. First month for free and $20/month for the first 6 months.
• just get a car AC adapter and you have internet anywhere in Toronto. Imagine parking your car in front of Lake Ontario and surf the net.
• portability: you can take your internet with you anywhere you go. Starbucks, friend’s house, etc…

Cons:

• speed. Although the advertised is 1.5Mbps, some online tests only reported about 750Kbps download and 125Kbps upload.
• price: after the first 5 months, the price is $50/month.
• connectivity: only 1 ethernet port. I would be great if it had an integrated wireless router, allowing you to have a wireless home network. You need an additional wireless router to achieve that.
• size: it is slightly bigger than average DSL modems. A pcmcia card version would be just great.