How bad is Verizon 3G?

Hi Jim,

Be aware that all the cell companies are moving away from 3G in their towers. Other than that I found 3G adequate for all my needs. Congestion is an issue with all cell networks.

Grandpa and I use VZ 3g exclusively. I can tell you that with good reception and low traffic I see spikes up to 2.5 mbps, with average speeds roughly 1.5 mbps. With poor reception and/or heavy traffic it is not unusual to see 500 Kbps or less. A "typical" decent connection is in the range of 800 kbps to 1.1 mpbs.

800 kbps is good enough to stream SD video from amazon or dishanywhere.com. When you see sustained speed in the 500 kbps range you can expect buffering.

If you don't have a Wilson Trucker antenna, get one and mount it high enough for a clear shot. I have one mounted on a short pole and I can go from 2 bars to 4 bars just be walking it around a bit.

I used Verizon 3G from about the time it was added until we stopped full timing a couple of years ago. It wasn't bad at all - most web pages loaded fast enough that it wasn't a problem
The only exception was when we were in an area where a lot of people were using a given tower at the same time - Quartzsite AZ during the RV show for example. It slowed down enough to be a bother then.

Hi--have been using Verizon prepaid hotspot purchased from Ebay for about five years now. DW and I both use the same hotspot and I stream all day long with no problem. It'll work just fine!