Wifi?

MrWizard wrote:

wifi hotspots work on cellular network, but only allow for internet data connection, no phone calls

We have a little different situation with a lot of international travel but...

We could care less about voice. Everything goes thru VOIP services so our phone number for voice calls stays the same whether we are in Peoria, Rome or Dehli.

I expect in 5-10yrs, you will see the cell companies drop voice service as a separate item. It will all be data.

garmp wrote:

DSDP Don wrote:
I bought an ATT Mobley unit a few months back and get unlimited WiFi for $22.00 a month, al taxes included. So far it has worked really well.

OK you've got my interest peaked. Is this still available and just what is needed for this to work? Our RV is not WiFi capable, but we do use our tablet and laptop a lot when on the road. Do we need to get another unit to receive the signal or what? Any & all help is greatly appreciated.

the Mobley is just a 'hotspt' , by design it is supposed to plug directly into OBDII port in the car wiring under the dash and only work when the engine is running

the particulars don't matter, because that $20 plan was an att special that is No Longer Available

wifi hotspots work on cellular network, but only allow for internet data connection, no phone calls

in many cases adding 'hot spot data' to your existing phone plan works best for many people

I have a Verizon MiFi portable hotspot, and it works wherever I go, though it's sometimes slow. With that and the phone, and only an 8GB plan, they sock me for $130 a month. But it's indispensable when I need to work and wherever I happen to be doesn't have decent wifi.

DSDP Don wrote:
I bought an ATT Mobley unit a few months back and get unlimited WiFi for $22.00 a month, al taxes included. So far it has worked really well.

OK you've got my interest peaked. Is this still available and just what is needed for this to work? Our RV is not WiFi capable, but we do use our tablet and laptop a lot when on the road. Do we need to get another unit to receive the signal or what? Any & all help is greatly appreciated.

I bought an ATT Mobley unit a few months back and get unlimited WiFi for $22.00 a month, al taxes included. So far it has worked really well.

Verizon phones, unlimited plan $120 then $20 for each phone. We use our phones as hot spots to feed our main computer and watch movies. We use WELL over 100 gigs a month.

WE have both Verizon & ATT. In my opinion Verizon is terrible!. First off we only activate the hot spot when we travel. Verizon wants $35 to activate it if unused for more than 90 days, and then $50 for 5 gb of data. While on the road constantly cuts in and out. Pretty dependable once we land. But on the other hand ATT has reception most everywhere we go and no activation fee.
Just our experience.

We are full timers, and we use a Verizon jetpack for our internet connection. We are using the FMCA Verizon plan, so we get 25GB/mo for $50. The plan is marketed as unlimited, but it's not. It's 25GB, then if we go over that, it drops down to text only speed. (But you get to use as much text only speed as you want!!!)

Still, 25GB for $50 is not a bad deal. Then, we also have phones with Consumer Cellular. Our phones have sim cards that connect over the AT&T network, so we usually have at least one source of internet connection no matter where we happen to be.

I use Verizon's Prepaid data plan for my Hotspot. I don't stream, just have it for doing taxes, paying bills, and such on the laptop.

Uh, isn't that unethical?

The company is owned by Carlos Slim and operates under the Tracfone umbrella. Because of Tracfone being the phone provider for all of the affiliated companies, normally the hotspot is turned off because Tracfone doesnt allow it, (many tracfones dont have data in their plans) As they created straighttalk with WalMart, they tied all the customer service operations to tracfone for cost savings and to manage training and staff.
Now Straighttalk sells wifi hotspots and the data for them, Tracfone the last time I looked did not sell the device.
With them selling devices for this type of data usage, there is no differentiation on the ability to do so.
If they didnt want to sell the data, the straight talk sim card would be set to disable it also, but its not.
The whole thing is to allow a savings by large quanity buys on phones for all of the different companies.
Technically you could possibly call it unethical, but so are a lot of things we all do daily from speeding to grabbing an extra refill from the drink machine when you leave a fast food joint.