Most linux friendly 4G LTE wireless company?

[turtles]

The task of choosing a wireless data provider for a small firm of field technicians is not an easy one. The technicians at the firm prefer the ipad so that limits the data provider choices to verizon, at&t and sprint. Besides ipads however there could be any number of field devices needing Linux support as well as technicians whom run linux on laptops.

What in your opinion are the best wireless cards that support 4G internet that have source based drivers and what providers offer these cards?
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[solamour]

I believe all (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile) provide what you are looking for, although "4G" is something of a gray area, because strictly speaking, none of them are qualified as 4G; they are more like 4G-like speed. Anyhow, here is my opinion.

* Verizon: Not the fastest, but covers a lot of area, and the connection seems quite stable.

* AT&T: When it's fast, it's fast. No contest. But when it's not, it definitely is not. Quality fluxtuates somewhat.

* Sprint: There are just too many places they don't cover. I'm still waiting for them to service my area.

* T-Mobile: Has various plans. Might be a worthy choice, as long as you get good signal. I don't. And no iPads.

If you are looking for a flexible option, you might want to consider a rooted Android phone with unlimited data, so that you can use it as a hotspot or tether it with a laptop and use the laptop's WiFi adapter as access point. That way you can hook up multiple iPads and Linux laptops.

But most importantly, I also suggest you verify whether the service provider does cover your area with strong signal.
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sol

[turtles]

I need a website from a carrier stating that they will support the linux OS since this is a production environment. For example we have a intel 6250 in a laptop. Intel stopped supporting linux wimax. www.linuxwimax.org is down and there are posts referring to intel dropping Linux support for wimax.
Short of that I need really really good evidence that a card works although it is not officially supported. Like a demonstration in a meeting.
The hotspot idea was tried and rejected.
mainly the hotspot goes to sleep and runs on a battery. network traffic did not seem to wake it reliably without a human at the site.

Can you verify a carrier that works without windows and what device you are using?
I can only seem to verify the following:


Sprint is the only carrier to officialy support linux on there website: http://shop2.sprint.com/en/software_downloads/mobile_broadband/sprint_250u.shtml
However you need a windows PC to activate hardware which is getting to be a pain these days. More info on seirra linux support here

Verizion has community support https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/347794 but there are lots of dead threads along that road. like this one http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1645155.html Anyone here using Verizion 4g on Linux?

At&t 4G momentum looks like it works. https://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/devices/usbconnect-momentum-4g.jsp however does not mention linux support on the page.

Tmobile 4G and Linux looking like they are a no go: https://support.t-mobile.com/message/52814

anyone using 4G on Gentoo? carriers hardware???
Thanks in advance!
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[comprookie2000]

I use a hotspot from att
https://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/devices/mobile-hotspot-elevate-4g.jsp
I had one from tmobile but it kept dropping connections this one from att works good.

For the hotspot it doesn't matter what os you use. I don't tether to it at all, just use it like a wireless router.
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[djdunn]

sprint just started their 4g LTE rollout. also they are in the middle of converting their nextel towers over to the sprint network.

i get ~1 meg downish with sprint 3g,

i live on the east coast, sprint is fairly good out here. been all up and down the coast here and dont really have a problem with getting NO reception, some places tho i have to go outside to use the phone. but i suppose thats more to do with being inside a giant concrete building.

though sprint has the most fair data plan. only one left that does truely unlimited data
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[turtles]

An update on what I found.

Sierrawireless PCI Express PCI-e cards:
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirPrime/Wireless_Modules/High-speed/MC7750.aspx
For Verizon

and
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirPrime/Wireless_Modules/High-speed/MC7700.aspx

For At&T

Sierrawireless officially supports linux (the carriers do not).

Looks like both cards are about $200 on ebay

This is the best option for technicians whom easily break stuff like usb sticks.
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