;)
As fixed high speed internet is a ubiquitous thing these days, mobile high speed on wireless 3G networks has gained ground as viable broadband solution for mobile users, particularly the Smartphone set.
Like an ongoing afterthought, however, rural internet users are often left with few options, either stuck with good old fashion dial-up, ad hoc wireless solutions using 2.4Ghz cordless phone technology patched to a fiber optic backbone in the nearest town, or woefully expensive, installation intensive, contract exhaustive, so-call "high speed" satellite solutions like Xplorenet in Canada or WildBlue in the US, more commonly referred to as "a joke."
Enter the Ericsson W35 (www.ericssonw35.com), a mobile broadband modem/router particularly accommodating to rural homes and businesses as a fixed solution utilizing mobile networks (3G broadband or GRPS/EGPRS in a pinch).
Sporting four Ethernet ports, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and one USB port (for print or mass storage server), the unit tested here is available as the Rogers Rocket Hub, available exclusively from nationwide Canadian carrier, Rogers.
Set up in a variety of locations from Vancouver to Calgary, including outlying towns of Abbotsford and High River, the unit performed pretty much as advertised right out of the box, sim card loaded and configured to hit the ground (er, airwaves) running, with only the odd fit of outright flakiness to remind the user that it is, after all, an evolving wireless technology.
The Rocket Hub is technically capable of 7.2 Mbps downloads and 2.0 Mbps uploads, though real world testing revealed speeds closer to 3 Megs down and 1 up on average. That's still much spiffier than the current small town LAN solutions offer by Telus and Shaw (at comparative pricing, anyway), western Canada's Telco and cable company currently more concerned with a nickel and dime price war than actually improving rural broadband solutions - but hey, they now offer Satellite TV, too, sorry about the archaic DSLAM.
Anyway...
While speeds were closer to as-advertised in the big cities, Rocket Hub doesn't quite compete with urban internet solutions - though it isn't mean to - which are just as fast if not faster and more consistently so (darn signal-blocking office towers).
As a rural broadband network, Roger's nationwide 3G coverage is fairly extensive, veritably complete if you ignore the large expanses of uninhabitable bedrock and tundra that is the Great White North. For the most part, this makes the Rocket Hub the best, most cost-effective rural broadband solution going for the majority of Canadian bumpkins. Exceedingly countrified or downright pastoral dwellers might be under-served still, though Rogers does offer a roof-mounted antenna solution (not tested here) installed to point at the nearest cell tower on the vanishing horizon in order to glean a decent signal or boost. However, even without the signal-focusing hardware, Rocket Hub still works as a dial-up internet alternative - a slightly faster option, in some cases. As a rule, if you can get a cell phone signal at your location, you can use the Rocket Hub in some capacity or t'other.
But here's the kicker: Rogers Rocket Hub will also replace your phone line with a mobile number (even "porting" in your original home phone number) while still obliging your regular home phone handset, cordless or otherwise, via a phone jack in the Rocket Hub itself.
With an unreservedly aggressive rate plan of $50 per month for both voice with unlimited local calling, plus 3 gigabytes (GB) of data/internet, Rogers puts most other Canadian rural solutions to shame and actually betters some of the entry-level city-based phone & internet bundles, too.
As the Rogers-branded Rocket Hub, the Ericsson W35 costs $150 with a 2-year contract or $400 on a month-by-month plan. There are no installation fees unless the aforementioned antenna option is required - just plug it in and you're up and running.
Otherwise, a generic W35 sells worldwide by itself for a whopping $500 and will take a SIM card from any carrier offering similar data plans (though not necessarily tailored to the W35 solution specifically).
Uniquely, Rogers also offers a "Flex Rate" service that will bump your billing up and down to other rate plans at $60 for 3GB - 5GB and $75 for 5GB - 10GB if usage happens to increase or decrease month by month.
Without the phone option, you're looking at $35, $45 or $60 per month for data only. In any case, 3GB - 10GB or less is plenty of bandwidth for typical email, photo posting and web surfing needs, though users intent on peer to peer (P2P) file sharing or streaming high-def movies through an Xbox 360 are going to blow the lid off that cap in no time, at which point they should consider moving out of the parents' farmhouse and getting an apartment in town.
Note that the Rocket Hub isn't too swift with online gaming, either, mainly due to latency issues inherent with wireless networks. Testing averaged a 175ms ping (laughably, that was still better than Telus' DSL solution in High River), so your Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer deathmatch is going to be a miserable affair. It's just fine for casual gaming, however - Farmville on Facebook is a go, as is YouTube, gmail, Flickr, MySpace, Yahoo, etc., all in a blink, not an hour.
Reviewed: Dec. 17, 2009
Type: Hardware, Network
From: Rogers Wireless
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