Verizon EV-DO shoots, scores!

It's finally cool enough to sit outside at a cafe in Phoenix. My favorite noctural coffeehouse closed it's doors earlier this week (Farewell!) so I am at the Willow House. This place has odd, interesting people and the coffee is good. The WiFi is free and really: you get what you pay for. It seems they've blocked all ports but port 80 and the connections feel throttled.

I don't worry, though. Why? I got my Motorola Q Smartphone and Verizon's EV-DO tethered connection. I am sitting on my TabletKiosk eo writing this.

I decided to run some tests using the modem as a tethered USB connection, a Bluetooth DUN connection, and the local free WiFi. Here are my results:

Here's the UMPC on the cafe's wifi: 293K

And here it is on the USB tethered DUN connection: 605KB

The UMPC on a Bluetooth DUN connection: 448K

My Nokia 770 on the local coffee shop wifi: 301K
Finally, the 770 on Bluetooth DUN to EV-DO: 305K

There's a little bluetooth overhead but not enough to make it any less worthwhile. I think I've found my favorite internet carrier away from home. I can even use this all at home when my Cox cable modem goes out, as it is prone to do.

Remember my set of tests with the T-Mobile GPRS and EDGE? Verizon's data service puts it all to shame.

Rumors are strong that Sprint may be releasing an EV-DO USB device. While this won't help Nokia 770 owners, UMPC owners should be plenty pleased.