Me and My Red Rocket Stick

I have been using my Rogers red rocket stick for high speed wireless internet access for close to a month now. The “rocket stick” is actually an Ovation MC 950D USB modem. All you need to do is plug the rocket stick into an open USB port on your laptop/notebook (or workstation/desktop PC) and the Novatel MobiLink software will create a 3G connection to allow your web browser to access internet sites on the world-wide web. This can come in handy when you need internet access away from home and/or outside of a wi-fi hotspot zone.

For the techies out there, the rocket stick has a built in quad band receiver and is EDGE and HPSA compatible. You can also use it to access a remote server via VPN.

I signed up with Rogers on a one year contract basis and received the rocket stick hardware (normal retail price $299.99) at no charge. I am committed to a basic $10 access plan plus a $30 month data service plan which allows me a maximum of 1 GB of data exchange per month. If this data limit is exceeded you pay 3 cents per additional MB. Since I do not plan to routinely use the stick with upload / download intensive applications, I do not expect to exceed this monthly limit most of the time. However, to test its limits, I did upload a set of close to 300 photos to the Kodak Gallery. So far I have not received my first monthly bill—we will see!

Where have I been using my red rocket stick? Not at home (since I already have rogers@home internet lite service there) or at work (since my employer provides an internet connection through the company’s LAN server (although many sites (including most mail servers are blocked) or wandering the streets (since I have a blackberry). Where then? Well, twice in my car (not when I was driving… once I had my son look up driving direction on mapquest; a second time when I was sitting motionless and parked waiting on passengers) and once while visiting in a hospital ward (hopefully it did not interfere with pacemakers and patient monitoring equipment!) I have also used it out of town once (to test how long distance charges are applied. Rogers assigns a specific phone number in a particular area code to your rocket stick receiver, even tho you do not use it to place or receive voice calls)

The speed that websites open and data upload/download speeds seem comparable to the internet-lite speeds I am accustomed to at home and the LAN speeds at work.

So far I do not regret by buying decision (although I am on tenterhooks awaiting receipt of my first bill with baited breath!)