YAYS or NAYS on Straight Talk ZTE 288C LTE Mobile Hotspot

Be careful dealing with Straighttalk. They advertize that you have access to the worlds fastest 4G LTE network. What they dont tell you is that all of their equipment is only capable of 3G speed.

Dont get me wrong. We use them for our cell phones and love them. We used to have US Cellular untill the big billing scam a couple years ago, and we told them to take a flying leap. Straighttalk has just as good of reception, but the dead zones are just in different places.

There is a 6 page thread here: (Woodalls version) LINK
I think this quote from that thread says the most with the fewest words:

1985air345 wrote:
Skylark,

The Z288L has the red map indicating the Verizon network.
It also has "LTE-V" in the bottom left corner.

The Z289L has the blue map indicating the AT&T network.
These also have "GSM" in the bottom left corner.
(**AVOID THIS ONE **)
...

I had (and returned) the AT&T version and it did not work reliably because Straight Talk runs these through a proxy in Florida that will only connect to a few web sites.

I understand the Verizon (288) model works but it IS throttled well below LTE speeds.

In the day we all used the Verizon AIR CARD plan and it was truly the only way to go when you had to get off the beaten path. Was working on Comm Projects for the govt and visited the US/Canada border on many occasions. VERIZON never let us down...

I finally upgraded to the VERIZON MIFI 3GB plan for a few years and still using it grandfathered in for a measly $27 a month. Think we go to year 2036 being grandfathered... This is perfect for us to check-in with the kids, pay some bills on-line, and do some surfing of the internet. This gives us a 5-device local SECURED WIFI HOTSPOT.

Was just going to change over to MILLENICOM and VERIZON bought them out and cancelled the program I think.

We will probably go for the 20GB VERIZON JETPACK PLAN as I would like to start downstreaming some TV PROGRAMs... This is probably the absolute minimum GB PLAN you can use downstreaming things. Most MOVIES will eat up a good 1GB of data...

We do pretty good just picking the Standard BROADCAST channels using the OTA BATWING from the local towns but everynow and then Momabear wants to watch some USA TNT and other CABLE MOVIE CHANNELS not available on the Natl Broadcast channel line up...

Always something to dump more hard earned money into hehe...

Roy Ken

Thanks for your reply larry cad. I have a Net 10 phone that operates from Verizon towers and I love it! I especially love the per month cost and am looking for something similiar for WIFI. For me, at this time, $60 per month is not something I want to pay.

We pay $60/month for 15GB/month from Verizon, using a 4G aircard and can get the same plan with one of their Jetpacks which would cost $49. To me, I have a much better deal and I deal directly with Verizon.

Thanks RoyB! I'm with you on the Verizon Towers. I had Millenicom for about 6 months and I never failed to connect, whether I was in Arizona, New Mexico, Yellowstone or Glacier National Park. I spent 4 months in Montana working and Millenicom certainly made life more enjoyable. Now that I'm getting ready to do several extended trips, I'd like the biggest bang for my buck!

Found this on GOOGLE SEARCH that might shed some light...

Haven't looked into any of it yet but need to start looking here... Would not get anything other than the VERIZON NETWORK for our on the road Internet usage.

Our monthly cell phone plan costs is way too big for us and seems to be getting bigger everyday haha...

STRAIGHT TALK at WALMART