Yeah, I get paid to do this from home.
Well, not blogging, but I do get paid to work on my computer from home. A few months ago, I started dabbling in online freelance work on a couple of the big freelance sites, Guru.com and Elance.com. I upgraded my membership on Guru.com so I could bid more aggressively and hoped to get a job or two out of it. The upgrade cost $80 for three months, so I figured the odds were in my favor I could make back the $80 within three months.
Then my “real world” job fell apart (long story) and I went the freelance route full-throttle. In less than a week I had secured three projects that combined paid more than my “real” job had. Needless to say, I made my $80 back. That’s also about the time our RV dreams began to flourish.
Yesterday, we bit the bullet and signed a cell phone contract with Verizon, for no other reason than have portable EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) Internet access. We’re starting with just a phone, but in a couple months we’ll be adding an EVDO ExpressCard to our account which will give us speedy internet just about anywhere we can get a Verizon signal, which is most of the U.S. Speeds in digital coverage areas are faster than DSL and are rapidly approaching the speeds of cable internet. Couple with an EVDO router, we will have a portable WiFi zone wherever we go for just $60 a month.
$60 a month! To have internet wherever we can get a cellular signal. This was unheard of just a few years ago, and without these kinds of advances in technology and drastic reductions in the prices for mobile broadband, our Unending Adventure would not be possible.
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August 13th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Kool technology! Does the $60 monthly charge include cell phone and data plan and does VZ provide the router and cellular card? I am looking to the same thing. Thanks.
-Bill
August 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Actually, the $60 is just for the data plan. All our family uses Verizon phones, so we can get by with the smallest voice plan they have: 450 minutes at $39 a month. We were spending $45 a month on prepaid minutes.
The data plan includes “just” 5GB of data. That’s just another downsizing I’ll have to get used to, since I am used to Time Warner’s “virtually unlimited” plan. In July of 2008, I downloaded over 190GB of data. The trick will be to utilize campground and other free WiFi spots when I need to move larger files and just be conservative with our 5GB allotment from Verizon.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:09 am
I wonder if the camp grounds have some download limitation? I will most likely go with the same set up you mentioned, it’s pretty close to what we already have.
The smart phone I purchased from VZ has IE on it. The very first day I had it I was playing around with the settings and must have pushed the wrong button - my bill came back with a $700 data fee. Not cool. I explained to them what had happened and fortunately, I didn’t have to pay the entire amount. Threatening to send everything back and go return to my previous cellular provider must have worked. I have since disabled the ‘feature’ on my phone to avoid other potential cash depleting events. So, be careful with the 5 GB VZ plan. They charge $0.25 per MB if you exceed your limit ($250 per GB - Ye-ouch)!
-Bill
August 14th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Not sure which verizon evdo phone you got, but many of them can operate attached to a cellular router like the Cradlepoint CTR500: http://www.EVDOinfo.com/CTR500
The CTR500 allows you to share the EVDO connection with more than one computer… not just computers… anything with WiFi — like PSP, DS, iPod Touch, Archos 605, etc.
CTR500 also is the only portable cellular router with an actual expresscard slot that will be useful for when you upgrade to the V740 expresscard.
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the EVDO Experts are at http://3gstore.com
August 14th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Yeah actualy the CTR500 is what I’m looking to get. I just snagged a brand new V740 ExpressCard for $70. I think we’ll sign up for the EVDO contract in September, the month we’re planning on canceling our cable, TiVo, etc…
August 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Well, I’m looking at the CTR500 or the MBR1000.