Yeah, so it’s been a week since I sent my kid to cop the (not) new Virgin Mobile OVATION MC760 device with the BRAND NEW $40 unlimited monthly wifi service that was launched last Thursday.

Just to give you some background, there was a leak on Virgin Mobile’s Facebook page about two weeks ago that showed the new $40 plan replacing the formerly available $20 and $60 dollar plan. Previously, all of the former plans had expiration dates and ceilings on the data amounts available per payment but not anymore. The $40 dollar plan is now UNLIMITED, which if you are a internet junkie like me, you realize the sky can’t be the limit if my data plan is restricted. I need to be free, dammit!

Okay, first things first. While at the store, my daughter was initially offered the comparable Sprint mobile wifi plan until I asked her to put the salesman on the phone at the store. “Mom wants to speak to you” turned into a very pleasant exchange with a nice sales guy who hooked her up with the Ovation MC760 and sent her on her way. I rubbed my hands together like a cartoon villain. I would soon have my internet!

FAST FORWARD NEARLY A WEEK LATER!!

Man, where should I start? The packaging of the device was crappy with a cheap paperboard box and not much by way of instructions. That might explain why it took nearly a week to figure out how to install and activate the service.

It is not plug and play! Maybe it is…but sure didn’t wanna play with me and my one year old laptop! The modem and user guides are all saved on a folder within the device. That does nothing for me when the device failed to work once it was placed in my laptop’s USB port. My computer would occasionally recognize the device but the software failed to install each and every time.  After three days of searching for the meanings of various error messages on Google I was finally able to do the proper code in the CMD (Google it) field that updated my what ever to allow the software to install. Apparently I wasn’t the only person having this issue as a Google search returned plenty of hits of questions left by confused and frustrated users wondering how they can get their Virgin Mobile USB device to work.

So at least I’m not the only one who was lost.

At 9:40 PM on Sunday, I got my Virgin Mobile driver to work. I went out with my new muse just to celebrated the event!

By Monday I was home and clicking around and got the Ovation to connect to the Virgin Mobile site. I presumed that since I was pressing the “ACTIVATE” button there would be some prompt for me to enter my credit card information to purchase time…and there was. I just didn’t get to that screen until I lugged my laptop BACK to work to access the internet from there. It was then that I was able to actually get the payment page to LOAD enough ao that I could read it.

By 12:12 on Tuesday, my Virgin Mobile Ovation USB Broadband2go was operational. I still had the audacity to get excited as I dragged my 60 pound laptop via a train and a bus BACK home.

After a shower and a martini, I approached my laptop like a long lost lover….ready to move my hands all over it and get re-acquainted.

I was only offered a quickie from the Ovation. Now I won’t say I took my laptop outside and moved around enough to honestly test how position and location affect the download/upload speeds but I clearly realize that I’ll have to scale back my use of multiple browser tabs when I am using the Broadband2go.

Am I unhappy with the service so far….meh? I’ll write an update after I’ve taken it on the road cartrip2010PT2 because for now I can’t honestly say that I’m unhappy with it.

Yeah, the concept is great and the price is right, but will it I spend (potential) productive time staring at the screen while waiting for the browser to load? Even if it only offers a steady connection while I am out and about traveling (which is often) I’d be willing to consider it an upgrade to my current internet-less quality of life. But for now, like any new relationship …me and Ovation are still getting to know each other.

I SURE DO HOPE THIS ONE WORKS OUT!

© 2010, Tracy Renee Jones. All rights reserved.