Headed in to verizon figure "tethering" to mifi.

Well that was pointless. Not only do they not have the mifi model, they could not explain why it would be limited to 10gigs, but just said it would be limited under the unlimited plan.

I should qualify my statement from earlier about AT&T having this.

Apparently they only offer this if you also have a qualifying DirecTV package. If not, you get a 10gb plan which I already have.

I ordered the Verizon MIFI7730L online Thursday and it came in Friday and I hooked it up...blazing speed and it comes with 22gb of hotspot data in 4g then drops to 3g after the 22gb...got this all guaranteed in writing from Verizon. Switched the phones over and they also have the 22gb and guaranteed that I can use that data as hotspot too. If Verizon does limit to 10gb of hotspot on my phone I have it in writing and will pitch a bitch

EDIT: Verizon customer service seems to not be consistent in their promises on the new plan...I guess I'll find out the truth of the plan when data is used up

If the mifi thing works, it could be an option for us. We only have two Verizon lines at the moment, but pay for internet at home where we are limited to 8mbps dsl due to location. 4G on my phone runs 25mbps. With two mifi as two more lines, I think we'd save money overall. It would be especially nice when we are on the go in our 5th wheel.

I have Sprint. I stream youtube 1.5 hours each day driving. My data usage runs 8-12gb per month.

We have an old Sprint unlimited subsidized plan we are holding onto. The price for 5 subsidized devises on it is $245 per month (plus $100-200 per phone purchased). If I went with the new Sprint pay for the phone each month plan month plan, the price would be about $350 for 24 months.

Verizon and the others offer plans that look attractive until you factor in the unsubsidized paying for the phone.

I switched just because it was a $5/month savings compared to my current 8GB/month plan. I stream Pandora while working, so I end up using between six and eight GBs each month.

Verizon angered and lost me when they bumped my Unlimited plan (which I never utilized) to $110 a month. As I never had used over 2gb, I thought it was the stupidist thing I'd ever seen. They effectively chased off a customer who was using way less that paying for. I went to Google Fi as my carrier and my bills average $24 a month.

I should thank Verizon for screwing me over, it got me off my ass to do something.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
What we have here is evidence that T-Mobile is giving Verizon's subscription base an ass woopin'.

Wasnt it less than a year ago that Verizon's CEO said they'd never again offer unlimited, and that they had no intention of competing on price?

T-Mobiles coverage sucks freaking balls!!!
I have had it for almost a year now. I switched from Sprint to save about $50 a month. At that it is worth it.
I just got a thing from Sprint wanting is back. Looks like I will be $10 a more going back to Sprint. I will gladly pay that to have coverage again.

The market is larger than just your coverage area.

I drive truck, so I get all over the country. I carry both Verizon and T-Mobile phones. Therefore, I'm well positioned to be objective about both carrier's coverage. It is true that Verizon has better overall coverage, especially for voice calls. However, I'd say that T-Mobile is as good as Verizon was just a couple of years ago. Also, where T-Mobile works, it usually works well. In some areas, I've had T-Mobile work where Verizon won't.

Verizon can dine out on their coverage claims for only so long. The others have nearly closed the gap, and the time has come where more people are unwilling to pay the significantly higher prices that Verizon charges. Well, used to charge. This new plan seems like an effort to bring their data prices down, at least for heavy users.

Hardware is another factor here. Now that most phones can work anywhere, users can jump ship much more easily. Verizon phones work just fine on other networks, so there is no longer a hardware lock-in for their subscriber base.

quote:

I live in a rural area. Verizon Wireless is pretty much the only reliable option for not only cell coverage, but home internet also. There's no wired broadband available, no cable or dsl. If you want cable TV or high speed internet, the only options are satellite or Verizon.

Can you or someone explain how this works for Internet access in a rural area with no hard line access for Verizon. Satellite is available but I was told its like having dial up.

sigcrazy, can you comment more on the data portion? I hardly use voice but data is important. When I was on T-Mobile 2 years ago, data was frustratingly useless 2G mode in many areas on drives across western states, on major highways. On smaller state highways and roads, it was even worse.

AT&T to me is much better in this regard. On my recent hunting trip, about 3 miles off I-10, 70 miles west of Houston, guys on T-Mobile had no real data connection whereas people on Verizon and AT&T had LTE data coverage on the field.

quote:

Originally posted by SSgt USMC/Vet:
Can you or someone explain how this works for Internet access in a rural area with no hard line access for Verizon. Satellite is available but I was told its like having dial up.

Mostly thru their wireless cellular towers. Verizon owns most of the upper C block of the 700 Mhz band, allowing it to cover most of rural areas with this really wide coverage band. I think there were only a few licenses in this frequency band that cover ALL of the continental USA and Verizon grabbed ALL of them. I think this was a real disservice that Bush's FCC did to the wireless consumers, allowing a single company to grab the entire low freq, wide band spectrum across the country. Other 700 MHz bands are more scattered in regions and not as wide band.

FCC is trying to correct this situation with the new upcoming 600 Mhz band. In general, the lower the frequency, the longer its propagation properties, thus less power is needed and less towers needed to cover a given area. However its effective digital bandwidth is also less than higher frequency bands. This is why you see Verizon deploy XLTE in major cities. These bands are mostly above 2000 Mhz, capable of handling high bandwidth needs.

Anyway that's my understanding on why Verizon is capable of covering most of the US, especially the rural areas and western USA so effectively whereas carriers like T-Mobile struggles there. For T-Mobile to cover rural western USA like verizon, it would need a magnitude higher number of towers to achieve that with the higher freq band licenses that it owns. It does have band 12, which is A block 700 Mhz, but it is narrow and it faces interference with TV channel 51 and thus limited in nationwide deployment.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
sigcrazy, can you comment more on the data portion? I hardly use voice but data is important. When I was on T-Mobile 2 years ago, data was frustratingly useless 2G mode in many areas on drives across western states, on major highways. On smaller state highways and roads, it was even worse.

AT&T to me is much better in this regard. On my recent hunting trip, about 3 miles off I-10, 70 miles west of Houston, guys on T-Mobile had no real data connection whereas people on Verizon and AT&T had LTE data coverage on the field.

At this point, if you are a frequent traveller, I would not rely solely on T-Mobile. I'd say that T-Mobile is good in about 80% of the places where Verizon works well. There are some areas where I simply have to rely on my Verizon phone. If T-Mobile falls back to Edge, it's worthless.

If I was an infrequent traveller, and T-Mobile worked well where I lived, I'd probably get me Verizon hardware, but use it on the T-Mobile network. The Verizon phones have all of the tech for the T-Mobile network (at least the iPhones do), plus additional for Verizon's network. I'd just have a plan for T-Mobile, and then buy a prepay SIM that uses the Verizon network for traveling. Best of both worlds. Or relegate an older phone to travel duties.

If you know someone who has T-Mobile service, you could ask to be a line add-on. Recently they had a promotion to add a line for free. I added my son, so his service is costing $4 a month (basically taxes). That's hard to beat.

I would be all over this if I could tether (hotspot) my phone, unless I do something like the Jetpack I don't see any advantage for me. I would love to drop my internet access at home, $60 p/m and just use the Jetpack but I'm not sure if it would meet the VZW requirements.

I guess I need to do some more research.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
So $80+tax for single line.

$180+tax for 4 lines.

What about 2 or 3 lines?

Here is the answer, 2 lines $70 per line per month
Linky

quote:

Originally posted by SSgt USMC/Vet:

quote:

I live in a rural area. Verizon Wireless is pretty much the only reliable option for not only cell coverage, but home internet also. There's no wired broadband available, no cable or dsl. If you want cable TV or high speed internet, the only options are satellite or Verizon.

Can you or someone explain how this works for Internet access in a rural area with no hard line access for Verizon. Satellite is available but I was told its like having dial up.

You would need a Verizon mifi for your internet access, the speed the mifi downloads to you is regular 4g LTE SPEED for the first 22GBS for that month. MG

Just wondering aloud, upgrade my iPhone to the unlimited plan and then use Apple TV for the big screen? Not sure about quality or sound, but it is something to research.

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:

You would need a Verizon mifi for your internet access, the speed the mifi downloads to you is regular 4g LTE SPEED for the first 22GBS for that month. MG

Can you or someone else elaborate on these details, please?

Right now and for the past several months my wife and I share a 16gb plan between our two iphones, and use the hot spot capabilities to tether to a desktop or laptop for home use. We have not gone over the limit, and it is our only internet connection for home use. We do not stream or watch movies or anything like that.

With these new unlimited plans there is a limit on tethering/hotspot use? Is that 10 gb?

If I would need to get another piece of hardware, or limit my hot spot use that would not make sense for me to change.

quote:

Originally posted by AH.74:

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:

You would need a Verizon mifi for your internet access, the speed the mifi downloads to you is regular 4g LTE SPEED for the first 22GBS for that month. MG

Can you or someone else elaborate on these details, please?

Right now and for the past several months my wife and I share a 16gb plan between our two iphones, and use the hot spot capabilities to tether to a desktop or laptop for home use. We have not gone over the limit, and it is our only internet connection for home use. We do not stream or watch movies or anything like that.

With these new unlimited plans there is a limit on tethering/hotspot use? Is that 10 gb?

If I would need to get another piece of hardware, or limit my hot spot use that would not make sense for me to change.

There is a 10GB limit for tethering at 4LTE speeds. After that it will still tether, just at 3G speeds.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
There is a 10GB limit for tethering at 4LTE speeds. After that it will still tether, just at 3G speeds.

Then it's a no-go for me. I'm not adding another piece of equipment, and the downgrade from 4 to 3G is too much.