Compare These Top Vendors for Wireless Internet Service Providers

Laptops are getting lighter and work is going mobile. Your neighborhood Starbucks some mornings can look more like call center than a coffee shop.

Get ready for an explosion of roving Internet users. Wireless Internet service is rapidly spreading in popularity and dropping in price in order to compete with its location-specific predecessor, known as Wi-Fi. The big difference is range. Wherever your cell phone works, you can log on with a wireless Internet service.

In this guide to wireless Internet access:

1. Major wireless Internet providers
2. Regional and rural wireless Internet access
3. Handheld devices that use wireless Internet service
4. What's coming from wireless Internet service providers

Understanding wireless Internet service basics

Wireless Internet access is, in this case, not the same as seeing a Web page or e-mail on your phone. Instead, wireless Internet here means a true broadband connection to a laptop or desktop computer via radio or cellular signals.
Internet service providers at Business.com.

Wireless Internet got its start as an alternative for rural users

Since the phone companies weren't in a hurry to build out DSL and cable was slow off the market to compete, a lot of smaller, regional wireless Internet providers spring up in the Midwest and Western states. You might get a better deal on rates if you compare.
wireless internet service providers at Business.com.

Wireless Internet access is not limited to laptops

While nothing can really beat the robustness of a nice strong laptop for most office use, the fact that wireless Internet access is being realized over cellular networks has given new life to the moribund handheld computer, or PDA, category.

What wireless Internet providers will do next

Think of wireless Internet service in stages: Wi-Fi connected us in so-called hotspots like hotel lobbies, then wireless Internet service reached out through cellular. Next up is Wi-Max, a Wi-Fi standard that can reach for miles and through natural obstacles like buildings.

• If you expect to use your laptop to surf the Web using a wireless Internet provider, you will first need a PC card, which fits into a side slot on most laptops and picks up the cellular signal. Your wireless Internet service provider should sell this to you cheaply.
• "Broadband" is a slippery concept, but your wireless Internet service connection speeds should be many times over the dial-up but might slightly lag compared to your office connection.
• Pricing for wireless Internet service has been higher than household DSL or cable, but look for prices to drop once businesses accounts have been served and wireless Internet providers have no one left to sell to but home users.