A Wireless Modem That Charges by the Byte

By Roy Furchgott

Virgin Mobile is offering a prepaid wireless broadband phone modem, an apparent first in the United States.

It’s called Broadband2Go, and although prepaid, it’s not exactly a cheap. But it may be an economical choice for some people.

First you have to buy the $150 modem (sometimes called an aircard), which is the Novatel Ovation MC760, a U.S.B. device the size of a thumb drive.

Online use is charged by the megabyte. Charges begin at $10 for 100 megabytes, expiring after 10 days. It goes up to $20 for 250 megabytes, which expire after 30 days, $30 for 600 megabytes, expiring after 30 days, or 1 gigabyte for $60 expiring in 30 days.

Virgin Mobile estimates an hour of Web browsing uses about 20 megabytes of data, 100 e-mails without any attachments are about 1 megabyte, and one minute of streaming video is 4 megabytes. That means the plans would support 5 to 50 hours of Web browsing. If you want to watch TV, an hour show will wipe out the $20 card. You’ll get two, two-hour movies on the $60 card.

Clearly, these aren’t a bargain for heavy users, but it could be a good deal for the person who needs to connect during occasional travel.

Here’s the math: The big carriers start plans at about $60 a month with a two-year commitment. That’s $1,440 total over the contract. So even if prepaid costs more a minute, if you use less than $1,440 worth over two years, prepaid is the better deal for you.

The goal is always to buy only the minutes you use. Even if it’s more for each minute, your total cost can be lower.

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com