[Droid 2 General] matjmonk:
I've been reading all the posts on most of the DX sites regarding this information and it's beginning to make my head hurt!!!!!! This is also beginning to remind me of the fraudlent debate on healthcare, the big boys/girls will do what they wish no matter what us commoners say and/or do. I too have been with VZ for many, many, many years mostly because no one else has a reliable cell signal out here in my part of the boondocks. I'm also in a position where we are evaluating cellular modems from the three major carriers in Central VA and there are two things I've seen:

1. as long as your in or very close to the metropolitan area there is very little difference in coverage or speed (and we have tried the Sprint LTE/4G) but as you get more than 10 to 15 miles west or south-west you fall out of the footprint and get stuck with 1X most of the time.

2. Customer service with Sprint is fairly good, VZW is fairly bad and ATT just plain S*&^s (keep in mind we aren't talking one or two devices but a lot).

I really like my DX, it doesn't do some thiings as well as my BB but the screen is great and I like playing with ROMS and trying to figure out the intracies <sp I know> of ADB. If there is fault for folks using free teathering, I lay it at the feet of those folks running things that have promises nationwide high-speed internet keep taxing us to pay for it and then never deliver. I have NO access to high-speed internet other than through the DX or work BB (I'll address satellite in a second). I understand the economies of scale and why it is not profitable to run fiber or cable to everyone but my understanding is DSL is not much different from regular phone lines and I can't get that here no matter how much I complain to VZ. I have looked into the satellite internet provider (there is really only one) and the speed is not that great compared to the cost, but the biggest deal breaker (and they admit that quite freely) is that you can't run a VPN session over their service without seeing some major degradation on speed. This is due to the heavy encryption they put on the signal to get their speed which would then be encrypted a second time over the VPN connection. Of course the 1.5 second round trip between me and the satellite can't help much either, but you can't overcome the limitations on the speed of light. I have no solution for the problems P3 sees coming down the road, I hate the idea of tracking even though I know it goes on for just about everything I do in day to day life. I don't like the fullbody scanners at the airports either but again, I have no practical solution other than flying. I also don't have much faith in our judicial system looking out for the interest of common citizens vs. big corporations, 20 or 30 years ago this was different, but no longer. I'll just keep following the threads and see what develops. I know I can change devices but I don't have a real choice in cellular providers as long as I live in the boondocks (again that is my choice and one I will not change anytime soon, even with the price of gas going back to the absolutely unjustifyable rates of a couple of years ago). I applaud WUG, P3 and the others for their work and for making the DX the best it can be.

Keep up the great work folks and don't let the off spring of unmarried parents keep you down!