Interesting. And thanks for the link! Geez... How many sites does Engadget have?

The other thing that should keep us on our toes up here in the 49th state is the fact that AT&T and AT&T Alascom are not the same company. Alascom is still relatively independent of the mother ship. Not as much as in the past (pre-SBC), but it's definitely different.

Duncan -- GCI could end my dilemma by offering true high speed service (5Mbps+) without the bundles. Having spoken with lots of people on Twitter and in person, the bundling aspect is what bothers a lot of us. I'm forced to subsidize GCI business lines that, apparently, can't survive on their own. I understand the practice -- and GCI certainly isn't the first to come up with the bundling approach -- but it still bothers me and others I know. I'm quite satisfied with GCI's service, with the exception of the bundling aspect. Others have complained about customer service or tech support or whatever, but that's never been an issue for me.

I should also be clear that AT&T's WiMAX service, for now, has no bandwidth caps in place. The 10GB cap on GCI's 2MBbps service would likely trip me up more than once, thus raising my cost. I know that's unusual for most customers, but I'm not most customers (how many customers know what an ISP peering relationship is?). So while the GCI 2Mbps service is much closer to the apples-to-apples comparison you seek ($57 vs. $60), there's still the key difference of caps (AT&T wins) and latency (GCI wins).

This certainly is a fascinating area for discussion, though. I had no idea this would stir up so many comments!

Duncan -- One of the problems is that it's impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison for so many reasons. One is speed. Another is delivery technology. Another is price, then bundles and customer service and on and on. Then there's the needs/desires of the user. For example, if I were a hardcore online gamer, I wouldn't even consider trying a WiMAX solution, let alone using it exclusively. The latency is too high and dropped packets will always big a bigger (though not huge) problem.

In my presentation I was pretty clear that saving $1,000/year comes with the "price" of slower overall speed. It's a trade-off and there's no way around that. I'd love to compare a 2Mbps Internet-only service from GCI against a 2Mbps Internet-only service from AT&T, but the GCI side of that comparison isn't available.

You're quite welcome! Mobility isn't my chief concern at the moment, though I can imagine it would be if I were a mobile consultant or a student or something like that. If mobility is your chief concern, I'd look at EVDO or similar cell-oriented technologies. GCI offers EVDO in Anchorage, but I'm not sure if it's in Fairbanks.

Ah, yes the jitter and latency problem. I don't really have a tool for testing that kind of thing directly. Got any recommendations? Because that's the thing I'm concerned about -- already I occasionally get delays when requesting web pages or making other connections. Wireless tech is naturally going to lose connections more randomly, but I don't have a strong tolerance for regular failures.

How can I fairly test for latency and jitter problems in an automated way over an extended period?

I thought about blurring the IP address, but decided to leave it alone. I've already seen 3 different IPs since setting up the device and anyone truly trying to break in will just scan whole ranges of IPs anyway, looking for vulnerabilities. I figure I'm behind the AT&T network, then behind a NAT firewall, then on a Mac with a firewall. So if "they" can get me, I suspect hiding my IP in a presentation won't do much good.

Interesting... But wouldn't it make more sense to do a femtocell rollout in commercial environments rather than in homes? And if so, wouldn't you use gear that's more rugged than a consumer WiMAX modem? Or maybe I'm missing something...

Right now, the WiMAX device they provide is a semi-bulk cable modem-sized device. You can take it around town, but it has a big AC adapter and the coverage isn't terribly complete. I was told coverage doesn't reach south of Tudor Road yet, though it's growing slowly. It's really intended for fixed home use.

Currently I'm pulling 6Mbps from GCI. AT&T maxes out at 2Mbps. That's a big difference. But so is saving $1,000/year.