Looking for alternative cable (internet)

[sliem]

Hi,

I'm in San Diego, California. I pay $43/mo for cox cable with speed of (up to) 3 mbps down and 1 mbps up (allowance is 5GB/mo). I'm looking to see if there are alternatives out there. I read about Clear Voyager and Virgin mobile and FreedomPop... they confuse me.

Freedompop:
No coverage in my area (says website) -- retried now it works. what the?
$20/mo (free 1st mo) - 4G speed 2GB allowance, after that it's 1c/MB or $10/GB (yikes)
$0/mo (free) - 4G speed 500MB only, after that it's $20/GB (omg!)

Clear Voyager:
http://www.clear.com/devices/details/id/devvoyager
$50/mo - speed up to 6mbps up and 1mbps down
$35/mo - speed up to 1.5mbps up and .5mbps down
This contradicts with pcmag review and amazon reviews saying the speed is sometimes 8 and 9mbps down. How is that possible?

Virgin mobile:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband-plans/broadband-2-go/overview/
$55/mo - unlimited on 4G and 5GB allowance on 3G speed
$35/mo - unlimited on 4G and 2GB allowance on 3G speed
They claim speed is 3-6mbps (4G) and 0.6-1.4mbps (3G).

At home, I currently have wireless router, voip and 6-8 other computers connected to the router (some via a hub/switch). I only use internet to email, web, occasional voip calls, trading (stocks and options) and video games (mmo like guild wars 2). I find 3 mbps is good and anything less (such as 1mbps) is not fast enough.

Thanks for all your inputs.

 

[hang-the-9]

You probalby won't be too happy with 4G service if you have cable, although your data cap is very low. No DSL option? I'd go with DSL before a 4G modem.

The wireless data services will have pretty high latency which is not good for online games, and you will need to buy a 4G router.

That service for the price from COX is horrible.

 

[sliem]

Thanks for answer, I've been waiting for days.
So my alternative is DSL?

Yes $43/mo for 3mbps down. For $55, I could get 18mbps -- much much better value per dollar.
However, I don't need that fast.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you can get DSL, better than wireless and it may have no data caps.

Two things with DSL, you want to be closer to the central station for your area and have good phone wiring where you live. Both of those factors can affect speed and quality (slow downs, random disconnects, etc...). Not to say that even if those two are borderline it won't work but DSL connections can be bad if you have old wiring and are close to the distance limit.