mobile LTE modem question

[blaczero]

Hey all, looking into mobile LTE modems at this point. Looking at pepwave products.

Anyone give some advice on a duo (2 sims active at once) cat 6 or should I go for a single cat 18 for the future? I realize cat 18 is not going to be taken advantage of yet by the carriers, but at $700+ I am not sure which would be best to go with long term.

[GrandpaKip]

blaczero wrote:

ajriding wrote:
LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

This is an interesting thing to bring to this thread.

I am no scientist but it's breast and brain tissue that's really affected by this. Never heard of hip cancer from carrying a phone in your pocket.

Anyway, I do agree with the fundamental idea that this stuff has an effect on us that we don't understand.

Aaaand back on topic... I just started browsing Verizon for unlimited plans and they're up to $70 a month for unlimited.

Anyone know a really good unlimited plan with great coverage in the Southeast?

We have a T-mobile plan for 2 unlimited lines that is $70/month including tax, fees, etc. It’s for 55 and older, I believe. Has worked pretty well and comes with hotspot.

[mobeewan]

blaczero wrote:

ajriding wrote:
LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

This is an interesting thing to bring to this thread.

I am no scientist but it's breast and brain tissue that's really affected by this. Never heard of hip cancer from carrying a phone in your pocket.

Anyway, I do agree with the fundamental idea that this stuff has an effect on us that we don't understand.

Aaaand back on topic... I just started browsing Verizon for unlimited plans and they're up to $70 a month for unlimited.

Anyone know a really good unlimited plan with great coverage in the Southeast?

You might look at nomadinternet.com. Some of the RV Nomads that have YouTube channels and upload videos are using it. They also do live streams using it. It is also being used by people in rural areas that only have dial up or expensive cell phone plans.

Nomad internet is truly unlimited and not throttled after reaching a certain cap. They have 4 different plans available using Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Plan prices range from $99 per month to $129 per month depending on which plan you use. The most expensive plan uses Verizon.

I believe Nomad Intertet is limited to 4G.

[afidel]

blaczero wrote:

ajriding wrote:
LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

This is an interesting thing to bring to this thread.

I am no scientist but it's breast and brain tissue that's really affected by this. Never heard of hip cancer from carrying a phone in your pocket.

Anyway, I do agree with the fundamental idea that this stuff has an effect on us that we don't understand.

Aaaand back on topic... I just started browsing Verizon for unlimited plans and they're up to $70 a month for unlimited.

Anyone know a really good unlimited plan with great coverage in the Southeast?

Visible is an MVNO owned by Verizon, much cheaper but you're a lower priority than post-paid which only really matters at things like concerts where there's 10s of thousands of people on the same tower segment. They're even getting 5g for no extra cost.

[n0arp]

blaczero wrote:

Anyone know a really good unlimited plan with great coverage in the Southeast?

A Grandfathered Enterprise Unlimited plan from a reseller. They're difficult to come by and expensive, but are the best. We pay $250/mo for AT&T and VZ plans packaged together, and use 600GB-1TB/mo.

There are lists of resellers on the respective provider's pages at rvmobileinternet.com:
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/att-unlimited-rental-plans/
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/verizon-unlimited-rental-plans/

[blaczero]

ajriding wrote:
LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

This is an interesting thing to bring to this thread.

I am no scientist but it's breast and brain tissue that's really affected by this. Never heard of hip cancer from carrying a phone in your pocket.

Anyway, I do agree with the fundamental idea that this stuff has an effect on us that we don't understand.

Aaaand back on topic... I just started browsing Verizon for unlimited plans and they're up to $70 a month for unlimited.

Anyone know a really good unlimited plan with great coverage in the Southeast?

[afidel]

ajriding wrote:
LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

I've been carrying a 4g phone in a pocket for ~18 hours a day for 12 years, still no issues.

Average power for LTE phones is 2 orders of magnitude less than old analog cellphones, 50% less than 3G phones. 5g phones are about 10% less than 4g phones. And all that power is non-ionizing meaning all it does is heat up the atoms at the surface of your skin a tiny fraction of a degree.

Plus OP is talking about cellular modems, 99.9999% of people don't hold those anywhere near themselves for more than a moment to turn them on and place them in a cabinet or other out of the way place.

[ajriding]

LTE is 4G, which is worse for your body tissue than 3G but not anywhere near as bad as 5G.
Put that 4G modem right on your tummy as close to vital organs as possible, you won't have anything to worry about in a couple of years...

[blaczero]

afidel wrote:
That's interesting since people have already travelled with beta units. I wonder if that's a planned future feature or just a CYA. Btw they are planning to sell to boats, aviation, and the military so mobility is going to be a requirement. Either way I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final product actually offers.

Any new technology will take some time to hash out, but that is a good point. We'll see how it goes.

For now I ordered the cat 18 and will try it out.

[afidel]

That's interesting since people have already travelled with beta units. I wonder if that's a planned future feature or just a CYA. Btw they are planning to sell to boats, aviation, and the military so mobility is going to be a requirement. Either way I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final product actually offers.

[propchef]

afidel wrote:
If you don't have an immediate need I'd hold off, Starlink is about to go live and it will cover all of North America for less per month than 2 data plans and the hardware is cheaper than $750.

From the Starlink website:
"Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address?
Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell.

Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing."

[afidel]

If you don't have an immediate need I'd hold off, Starlink is about to go live and it will cover all of North America for less per month than 2 data plans and the hardware is cheaper than $750.

[blaczero]

Thanks for the reply. These are tough costing ~$750, but I have no choice. Our last trip was amazing but the internet was painful as the kids were doing school remotely over phone hot spots. It was bad.

[n0arp]

Single Cat18 - and you will see differences on some towers. Sometimes speeds, but usually with availability.

I've found multiple sites where I couldn't get anything with a Cradlepoint Cat6 2x2 modem but could get usable internet with a Cradlepoint Cat18 4x4 modem. I have both AT&T and VZ SIMs.