the wife and i use Alltel with the usb cables. we each have our own laptops and cell phones and use them daily. we are out of Arkansas but "longtiming" it in the Washington DC area. as long as we can get a cell signal of at least 3 bars we can use our laptops. here we are getting 230 kbps data rate. at home we were using cable modem but cancelled the service since we were going to be gone so long.