Those of you who know me, readers of my blog and listeners of my podcast, all know that since I moved out to "the farm" I've been without high-speed internet access. It's been terrible. The fact that no ISP was providing high-speed internet access was killing me. All my PCs were sent back to the stone-age of dial-tones and 40k connection speeds.
Then I heard / read about a new offering from Rogers called Portable Internet. What is it?
It's high-speed Internet with the flexibility to go with you. In fact, you can use your Internet service in over 20 cities across Canada. The signal travels through the air, allowing you to go online anywhere in the Portable Internet coverage areas. No phone or cable lines are required.
I ordered this immediately online. 3 days later a modem was shipped to me. It looks like a regular cable or DSL modem with one exception. No wires. Instead it obtains access to the Internet over the Wi-Max network that both Rogers and Bell are deploying. I put the modem on my desk, plugged it into the power outlet and then phoned Rogers to activate the device. 2 minutes later, the green lights across the top stopped flashing and I had signal. I then plugged my laptop via Ethernet cable into the modem and I had a 1.5Mb connection to the Internet. All good. I took the device home last night, set it up next to my wireless router and connected the two devices. I plugged it in hoping against all hope that it would work here too out in Caledon. I was greeted by the comforting green lights that indicated that they had signal. My PCs and laptops all connected immediately and instantly the mip household left the stone-age-dial-tone hell and re-entered the modern world of highspeed internet access.
If you are in an area that doesn't have high-speed then this service is for you. If you are someone who wants to be able to take their high-speed intenet connection with them....this service is for you. I can, for example, take my modem with me when I travel. Let's say I was going to Montreal on business and didn't want to use the hotel internet connection. With my portable Internet from Rogers I'd have that great highspeed service with me.
For more info or to order Portable Internet, just click here.
Great to see the service working so well for you. You should really document the process in detail to highlight just how easy it was for you.
I forwarded your post to someone I know over at Rogers so that they can see the good coverage. Hopefully they will add some thoughts.
Posted by: Stephen | July 06, 2006 at 09:35 AM
Steven - can you also tell your friend at Rogers that there are several of us in Holmsville Ontario that don't know what High Speed is, and would gladly trade a few quarts of strawberries, several jars of zucchini relish and some hay to get the service on a tower near us!
A voltage inverter, a laptop and I have music in the tractor!
Posted by: TheBog | July 10, 2006 at 10:57 PM
I will get on it.
Posted by: Stephen | July 11, 2006 at 10:49 AM
Maybe MIP should go out to Homsville and test his out to see if it works and then you can order one from Rogers. I know I want to get one for my Dad for Toronto and Muskoka.
Posted by: Stephen | July 11, 2006 at 10:52 AM
I was happy to A: find your blog and B: find that you have and are using the Portable Internet from Rogers.
I have a question as to how you are finding the service and do you feel that VPN will work over it?
1.5Mb is a good line but what’s it really like?
Posted by: Chris | July 19, 2006 at 11:28 AM
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the comments/inquiry. The 1.5Mb is good. I've run speed tests and consistantly get the 1.5Mb. Would higher rates be better? For sure. But given there was no high speed out in the area I live in, the 1.5Mb is fantastic when compared to dial-up.
As for VPN, it works over the Portable Internet offing no problems. I've used it for VPNing into a corporate network with no problems.
Posted by: mip | July 27, 2006 at 11:03 PM
Mip,
Greetings to a fellow Caledonian.
I've been lucky in that I have line of site to a transmission tower near Inglewood, so have been able to use Zing-Net's ptp "last mile" broadband for the last year-and-a-half. It's limited to 512/256 though, and 1.5M/256 certainly sounds tempting.
I'm down around Olde Base Line Rd. and Hurontario, which is outside Rogers coverage area. Based on your experience, do you think that area is covered in reality, if not in theory? Are you located within the theoretical coverage area?
Posted by: Mark | August 16, 2006 at 10:54 AM
Hi Mark,
Thanks for you comment. Always nice to meet another Caledonian.
I'm in theory outside the coverage area, but the service works great. I keep it in my home, near a window facing south-east and get 4 out of 5 lights on the modem. The lights are like 'bars' you'd find on a cellphone. The more lights/bars, the better the reception. I live between Mayfield and King road as a point of reference. You seem to live further north so I'm not sure what the coverage would be like in that area.
Hope that helps.
mip
Posted by: mip | August 18, 2006 at 07:23 AM
Hello:
I just heard of the portable internet service, I live in Mississauga and thought if i hv this, I only have to pay for one internet service rather than paying one for home and one for my business.
How's the service so far, given that you had it since the summer, are you still happy with it?
I have never had high speed, just use dial-up to check email, I don't download anything, but surf a lot on the internet to research on business and product opportunity ( for my business). is the 1.5/256 a decent speed for what I do?
I heard this speed is comparable to a Rogers Light cable highspeed, is it true?
Do you know if I can get a second hand anywhere? Rogers said if I can get one, they would still give me the service.
I have a P4 laptop, do I need anyother hardware to use this service? I have a Gcard in the laptop already, do I still need to buy the ethenet card/cable to connect with the modem?
Any feedback will be appreciated. Thank you.
Posted by: Helen | January 05, 2007 at 11:43 PM
Hello MIP:
I also want to know if I use the portable service, can I still use MSN, I heard either Bell or Rogers, it's one of them, do not support MSN, is it true?
Posted by: Helen | January 05, 2007 at 11:58 PM
Hello Helen,
Thanks for your post and questions.
I've been really happy with the portable Internet offering from Rogers. The speeds are 1.5MB which isn't blazing fast but better than dial-up. Because I'm out in the country there was no highspeed offering from Rogers or Bell. The portable internet gives me a decent highspeed experience. You allude to using it at home and for your business. Do you mean you'd take the portable internet modem from your home to your place of business. You can of course do that which is what makes the portable internet offering from Rogers so nice. I primarily use it at home, but have on occasion taken my Internet with me. Case in point, my children take some art classes on the weekends, so for 2 hours I'm downtown waiting for them. What I do is bring my portable internet with me, plug it into an electrical outlet in a coffee shop and bingo, I have my Internet service.
When you ask, Can I still use MSN?, what exactly do you mean? Messenger or the funky MSN web browser that Microsoft launched a number of years ago? MSN Messenger you can definitely use - I use it all the time. As for the MSN browser/offering, I'm not really sure. My gut tells me you probably can, but I'm ot 100% sure.
Hope this answers some of your questions.
Ciao,
mip
Posted by: mip | January 16, 2007 at 07:38 AM
Hi there,
It's great to know someone is getting the most out of the portable internet service. I'm looking forward to when it will become available around Caledon's L7K 2B1 area. Right now we're not in the "coverage" area, so-to-speak, but after reading your comment about taking it to a caledon location and it working... it got me thinking. Do you think it would up as far as Charleston rd?
Glad to know it works wonders! I'll be looking forward to the Bell offering of a 3mb connection through wireless.
Thanks!
Andrew
Posted by: Andrew | February 23, 2007 at 06:27 AM
Rogers offers 1.5MB connection and Bell offers 3MB. Rogers has 30G cap per month (or almost a GIG a day) and Bell is 10G (330Megs per day), Rogers is 50 bucks a month, Bell is 60.
Rogers wants you on for 1 year to get the 99 dollar modem. Bell wants you for 2! Otherwise you can just buy the modem from Bell at $249 and go month to month.
Rogers gives you 30 days to decide, Bell only 2 weeks!
1.5 is a decent rate and if you are an avid downloader then you'll want the 30G but it's only $1.75 per G over for Bell as well.
Posted by: Michael | March 05, 2007 at 02:10 PM
Hi MIP,
I was looking into the portable internet from Rogers but was told I am just beyond the 5Km distance from a tower. Do you know how far you are from your closest tower?
Thx
Posted by: Jo-Anne | March 09, 2007 at 03:57 PM
Jo-Anne,
I'm not really sure how far I am to be honest. I do know that I am out of the boundary that the service is suppose to work. I am about 5km north of the area Rogers says would be covered and it works very well for me.
Where abouts generally are you located?
mip
Posted by: mip | March 10, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Hi Folks
Thanks for all this great info, I have one q....Does anyone know if my VOIP phone will work with this portable modem?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated
Thank you
Posted by: Nair | March 21, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Hi Nair,
VOIP works on Rogers Portable Internet as long as your modem has the latest software release.
Cheers
Posted by: Carpes | March 24, 2007 at 09:06 AM
I'm just about to move to London ON from Dublin, Ireland. Rogers Portable looks like it might be an answer to my hi-speed requirement.
Does anyone know if Skype works with Rogers Portable - particularly the webcam and voice?
I need to have visual and sound connection with colleagues in Ireland. If Rogers Portable won't work in this situation, what do you suggest?
Thanks.
Posted by: Andrew | April 24, 2007 at 08:26 PM
MIP,
I'm at Dixie/Olde Baseline and Rogers is telling me that they don't service that area (PC - L7C 2N4) even though they keep sending their flyers about the service to my house. If you're around Mayfield and King, you aren't that far off from me. You mentioned that your out of the coverage map...how did you get them to sign you up? They won't even sign me up as I'm out of their range.
Thanks,
Stack
Posted by: Stack | May 01, 2007 at 01:10 PM
it says in one of the comments that voip works with the portable internet as long as it is the new software release first of all it is a new product and, i was at a rogers store today and tried it on there demo version but it did not work
Posted by: mayor | May 18, 2007 at 10:23 PM
I have had the Rogers device for a couple of months. The mpron at Rogers where I pciked it up knew nothing. She said plug it in and it works, but gave me two boxes that she said contained CD ROMS that would allow me to set up accounts at Rogers. I told her I had my own internet at EOL and didn't want to change,so she said I didn't have to.
I am able to get on about 90) of the time, but the other 10% zilch. My Toshiba Satelite is fairly new, and I don't think its that, I just find Rogers hopeless in the service department, and wish that I hads bought gthe same prdcut through Bell, except they wanted a 2 year contract. Can't wait for the year to be up to dump this product.
Posted by: Peter | August 12, 2007 at 02:11 PM
I saw people asking about VOIP and SKYPE. If the download limitation is 10 gigs or 30 gigs; would it not be an expensive experiment to use one of these services over this portable network? My understanding is that usage could be around 1 meg per second when talking through a VOIP product, especially if you are transmitting and receiving video along with the audio. Any comments or clarification on this would be appreciated. Thanks.
Posted by: Neil Ellis | August 18, 2007 at 01:27 AM
For voice use, the usage rate should not exceed 200kbits per second (thats better than most MP3 quality!). If so, 30 GBytes translates to a minimum of 330 hours of continuous use. In reality it is probably a lot longer because the conversation is two way, and the bandwidth varies with the content. I expect that would be more than enough for most people.
Video is a different ballgame of course ... that wouldn't work well with a download cap.
Posted by: Charles | August 18, 2007 at 07:14 PM
Hey guys: Welcome to my nightmare
Having been through Bell Sympatico Unplugged, Bell WiMax, and Rogers Portable, the definate way to go is Roger's portable. Here's why:
1) Bell sell a 3Mb/s service and charge dearly for it. What they DON'T tell you is that you need 5/5 lights to get that speed. That is not always likely, so most of the time, you're surfing at 1.5Mb/s. At least Rogers charge for a speed, but guarantee it reasonably well within the coverage area.
2) NO CONRACTS: All of Bell's wireless services involve a minimum 24 MONTH contract! Forget it!
3) Installation. Bell INSIST that their WIMax (Outdoor antenna) system be 'professionally installed'. Well, after two weeks of waiting, the tech finally came around, walked the antenna around the house, and said "NOPE, it won't work here", then left. However, the Rogers folks SHIP you the outdoor modem and let you install it yourself - on the roof, up a tree, on a mast, on your head, whatever you want to get signal.
I'm on the VERY edge of the service footprint in Ashburn Ont, and I found 5/5 signal on top of my roof, but at street level, absolutly zilch. I have large foliage in my neighbourhood.
Hope this helps!
Posted by: Andy | August 28, 2007 at 09:14 PM
I did not see any mention of Bell High Speed Unplugged that I got in the spring, 2007 so I could have high speed in Muskoka and Oakville. I had to buy the modem for $99 and no contract and an introductory rate of 19.95 for six months. After that it was cheaper that my DSL in oakville. It worked like a charm for me in Oakville, Muskoka, markham, Halifax. Not so good in Moncton.
I am thrilled with the Muskoka connection. I have it plugged into my wireless router and Stephen, Mike and I can all be on at once. Skype workes great with it so life is great.
Another benefit was if it did not work I could get my money back on the modem in 30 days.
No more sympatico dial-up at the cottage.
Posted by: Jim | August 29, 2007 at 09:47 PM
I just got Rogers Portable Internet in Sheffield,ON. Getting the service was a complete nightmare. It was like my address doesn't exist in the universe!!
Anyway once they gave up and used someone else's postal code life was great. The speed is so much better than 28K dialup which is all we could get before.
Digital divide is finally crossed.
By the way does anyone know what software version one needs for VOIP to work??
Posted by: Charles | September 19, 2007 at 02:13 AM
Charles - what "voip" software are you using? Is it something like Vonage or are you using a Skype-like application?
Posted by: mip | September 19, 2007 at 07:34 AM
Hi Andy!
I just moved to the ashburn area and im looking into getting high speed internet. Even though rogers says im in the coverage area for portable internet using the $99 indoor modem, i only get 1/5 lights when my window is open. I am considering gettin the outdoor modem @ $250 but wondering how well this works?
Any help from anyone is greatly appreciated! I REALLY do not want to get dial up!
Posted by: Tiffany | September 21, 2007 at 03:00 AM
Anybody have this service working for them on the trip up to muskoka on highway 400 around wuabuashene/port severn? Rogers and Bell say im out of the coverage area for their wireless service, but i've heard a few people tell me it works with some signal tweaking. The service map only shows availability just north of barrie, wich is a pretty good distance from where I live on georgian bay. BUT, ive heard of people using it here. Maybe they are deploying towers and not yet saying they are offering it? If anyone thinks to try it on the way up that would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by: Mike | October 16, 2007 at 09:08 PM
Suffering in Caledon on snail mail.40kps. There is a huge void between King st and north part of Caledon.
Posted by: Mac | October 26, 2007 at 08:28 PM
I'm glad some rural people can get high speed. I live in Trenton Ontario just out of range of any DSL service. I checked both Rogers and Bell but there's nothing available here. Their Customer Service say they are developing portable Internet for "Rural" areas first. I don't think Toronto and big cities are "Rural" and that's where they seem to be developing. People in cities have enough choices for Internet. It would be nice if I had more than dialup as a choice.
Satellite is out of the question financially and wireless has too many catches to sign up. I'm stuck with dialup.
It's sad to think Trenton is home to a very large amount of Military people and there's nothing available for them. People outside the city cannot communicate with family over seas. They can send emails but dialup makes video calls impossible. Sending pictures is so slow, it's almost not even worth trying.
Posted by: Mark | October 27, 2007 at 10:24 PM
You can't use most VoIP services on Rogers Portable internet. Most use the SIP protocol which Rogers won't support on Portable although they do on the regular internet. They offer their own VoIP which uses H323 - surprise that they don't support the competition's more popular protocol
Posted by: Len West | November 04, 2007 at 11:45 AM
After broken promises from Bell for the last 5 years about impending high speed I recently ordered a Rogers Outdoor Modem. I live 5 km south of Alliston. I am getting 4-5 lights lit up on the modem. I have had trouble getting online and have talked to 5 or 6 different support staff over the last week and a half. After some fiddling around they seem to be able to help me connect, but if I cut power to the modem for any reason I can't get an IP address again without calling support and going through the same process over again. This means any time there is a power interruption I will lose my signal. When I have the connection it is great! Has anyone had similar experiences?
Posted by: John Schmelefske | December 19, 2007 at 09:12 PM
After broken promises from Bell for the last 5 years about impending high speed I recently ordered a Rogers Outdoor Modem. I live 5 km south of Alliston. I am getting 4-5 lights lit up on the modem. I have had trouble getting online and have talked to 5 or 6 different support staff over the last week and a half. After some fiddling around they seem to be able to help me connect, but if I cut power to the modem for any reason I can't get an IP address again without calling support and going through the same process over again. This means any time there is a power interruption I will lose my signal. When I have the connection it is great! Has anyone had similar experiences?
Posted by: John Schmelefske | December 19, 2007 at 09:14 PM
My parents use ViopStunt all the time on rogers portable internet with no problem. they lives near Sherbrooke, quebec, and no one offers wired high speed internet to their home. So when i find out this portable stuff, i immediately ordered one for them and all works.
(after power interruption too). with 4~3 green lights
my question is: I have trouble verifying the internet usage, Rogers.com always says "Internet Usage is not available at this time for the account you are trying to check." did any of you had such problem?
Posted by: ruQ | January 13, 2008 at 03:21 PM
Have read with great interest your article on WiMax.I too live in Caledon,up onto of Mount Wolfe Hill,3.5 Km from the Bell tower at Hwy 9+50.My WiMax Modem Had 4 lights on but still wouldn't work,even taking it outside and connecting to a laptop 50 feet away from the house.There are dead areas close to the tower. Bell is coming to try an outside modem on the roof, wish ME lucky aol dialup is killing ME slowly. Mike
Posted by: Michael Smith | May 02, 2008 at 05:49 PM
I live in Tamarack Estates (Horseshoe Hill Road south of Hwy 9). There are 100 homes in this development. No cable. No DSL. Zing networks seems to be popular, but it's reported to be painfully slow at peak times. I also hear the owner is quite annoying -- curtailing torrent traffic, among other things. Zing is also over-priced for the slow speed ($50 for 512/256). He'll lose all his customers when/if DSL arrives.
So ... I use Rogers WiMax. I'd describe it as "flaky". Latency problems and inconsistent speed. I've got 3 out of 5 lights on. Sometimes I've got 2M service. Sometimes I've got 100k. Upload is particularly bad (50-100 kbps). Several times I've taken my modem right beside the cell phone tower a few km away. No difference -- "flaky". I think Bell and Rogers (Inukshuk) don't have their WiMax deployed properly. WiMax is supposedly capable of 70M. They should be able to service a large number of customers with a fraction of that speed.
I can't wait for DSL. This is nuts.
Posted by: Paul | November 12, 2008 at 05:13 PM
After 2 years of living with Xplornet and VPN which doesn't perform very well with a satellite connection I decided to try the Rogers portable modem option. It took over 6 weeks of constant calling to Rogers before they were finally able to add my address to their system. Their customer service just didn't seem to have a clue. In the end I went to the local Bell store and inquired and they were able to find my address as listed. I then gave Rogers my address as Bell had it listed and Rogers was able to locate me and add me to their system. I'm surrounded by trees and located over a hill not far from the tower at highway 9 and 50 so opted for the outdoor modem. I first tried installing it on a pole on top of the roof and managed to get 1 light but no usable connection. The next option was to run a cat5e cable out past the treeline and mount the modem up in a tree on the edge of the neighbors lot. That gave me 3 lights and speeds that fluctuated between 200 and 1632 kbps and finally allowed me to work from home more often. I am now in the 4th month of using this service and unfortunately the past 3 or 4 weeks have seen the service degrade on an almost daily basis. At 4am in the morning speeds are quit good but as the day wears on they get slower and slower with the evening being less than dialup. Pinging various addresses indicates 25 to 100% packet loss during these slow periods. I have contacted Rogers twice and gone through the usual rigmarole. Reset your modem, bypass your router, disable your firewall etc. etc. etc. Last night the so called technician told me the problem had to be my PC even though the slowdown was being experienced by my desktop and 2 laptops. He kept telling me he could get a signal from my modem so everything was okay on their end. Well they may be getting a signal but I can bet you it's not a good consistent signal. I checked at 4 am this morning and everything is okay again so in my opinion this is definitely related to the time of day and usage on the network or something of that nature. It's frustrating to deal with Rogers as they will not acknowledge that the problem may be at their end when everything points to that fact in my opinion. Could it be that they have oversold the bandwidth on that tower or that Bell's Wimax has priority at certain times of the day. Not sure but if this continues I will be canceling the service and going back to the satellite as the lesser of two evils.
Posted by: | November 14, 2008 at 01:09 PM
I was in the same spot, finally I bit the bullet, went out and bought the outdoor wireless modem from rogers,$295.00
got 5 lights, great signal, the inside modem wouldn't even give me one light, I pay $27.00 tax included a month for ultra ligh, which gives me 300-450kbps, compared to my dial-up at 31kbps,it's a dream, go for it. Peter
Posted by: peter susin | February 28, 2009 at 02:47 PM
I love my rogers portable internet... it's just a little slower than i'm used to.
One question: does rogers charge if you go over the 30gb cap? I've been afraid to do too much because I don't want additional charges.
Posted by: aer | March 17, 2009 at 09:12 AM
I don't think any portable internet users have been able to actually check their monthly bandwidth on rogers website. It just doesn't seem to work. I think they don't have a reliable means of measuring the amount of data that a portable internet subscriber uses...so I think its impossible to be charged 'overage fees' My portable internet light comes with 10 Gigs of allowable monthly bandwidth, and i know for a fact just adding up some files i downloaded that i went over that by several gigs. No overcharges! but they don't want you to know that!
Posted by: Nick | March 23, 2009 at 05:54 AM
oh another thing, these motorola outdoor modems are kind of flaky, i already had one replaced under warranty because it no longer picked up a signal (just sort of faded over the months to nothing)..it was a defective unit. Also, be careful because the outdoor modem likes to give you a nice little zap if you touch it while its powered on. Likely due to the 2 watt RF output.
Posted by: Nick | March 23, 2009 at 05:58 AM