Looking for AT&T / Verizon / Sprint WWAN service impressions - on or off-list replies welcome

Wed Apr 15 18:02:16 UTC 2009

Crooks, Sam wrote:
> I'm considering use of AT&T / Verizon / Sprint WWAN services and the
> Cisco 3G router interface cards/integrated module in C880 routers for
> primary or backup WAN network connectivity for routers.
> 

I haven't used the integrated cards with cisco gear. However I do have 
300+ cards deployed throughout the United States (EVDO USB modems on 
Linux boxes).

> I'm looking for information from users of these services on the
> following: 
> 
> - addressing - Do these WWAN services use dynamic, PPPoE or static IP
> assignment typically? Any of the 3? All?
>    - is static IP assignment available?

We have static IP assignment for our Verizon cards. Sprint cards aren't 
static.

> 
> - do these service providers use NAT within their network?

Verizon doesn't. Not sure about Sprint. T-mobile doesn't either.

> 
> - How is the service reliability?  In most cases, is the service
> available for use when you need to use it?

We have found it to be quite reliable, although a small subset (about 15 
to 20 connections) have been giving us issues. I posted on this last 
week or so. No resolution from Verizon as of yet.

> - How is the service coverage area?  Do you have problems getting
> sufficient coverage in the deplouyment location to support desired
> speeds (say 512kbps up/down as a minimum)?

Frequently you will need to deploy an external antenna as a booster. 
Dunno if the Cisco cards have the option, but I would imagine they do. 
It's almost a necessity in the vast majority of indoor deployments.

> - is ESP / IKE / IPsec permitted through un-rate-limited and un-molested
> by the providers?
> - If you build a IPsec/GRE tunnel over these services, do you have
> frequent issues with the tunnel dropping, or a dynamic routing protocol
> running through the tunnel going down frequently?
> 

We use OpenVPN without incident. Dunno bout GRE/IPSEC.

> Also interested in similar information on impressions of similar EMEA
> WWAN service providers, particularly Vodaphone and T-Mobile, if anyone
> has experiences with these.

I have used T-mobile EDGE via Linux with great success (even ran a skype 
conference call over it). See my blog post on the configuration at:
http://charlesnw.blogspot.com/2008/10/blackberry-pearl-8120-linux-ubuntu-804.html

Speed tests I did gave me 126k. So you would most likely want HSDPA for 
sure. I have yet to try HSDPA but hear excellent things about it. They 
recently released a USB dongle which does wifi/hsdpa/edge. See 
http://www.i4u.com/article23865.html for more.

I agree with the other posters about POC and site survey. All sorts of 
strange environmental issues can pop up and wreak havoc on signal.

This for branch office environments? Retail? Industrial? (My deployments 
are retail locations).