Cheap $20 a month Stand Alone Unlimited Rural Internet through AT&T Wireless

[techman]

I have been an ATT wireless customer for years. Went to the ATT store and was told it was online only. I then tried calling to order, and after 5 transfers and 3 hangups, I was told again only online. I ordered it online, only to have the order cancelled within 15 mins. Went to the ATT factory store again and after 1 hour of them chatting to someone I was told I had a fraud alert and to contact a credit bureau. Left in frustration, went home and found and called the ATT fraud department. Helpful lady, found a wrong digit on my account number when I tried to order, which then triggered a new account buy, which flagged since I already had an account. She cleared it and said all is good, go and reorder. Reordered online, order cancelled within 15 min. Called fraud number again, they said there is nothing in the system and I was clear. Ordered again, again cancelled within 15 mins. Next morning called fraud line and again all was good. Ordered again and again it cancelled. Called fraud again, they said all was good and I tried to order again. Now ATT online said it was out of stock and would not take an order. Frustrated I checked BBuy and they had them in stock. Went to BBuy, after 30 mins and getting the ATT fraud people to say no problem (again) I was clear. Guy put in the order but did not have any ability in his system to give me the plan. Again frustrated I just bought the Mobley hardware ($ 80). Then went to ATT store again. Finally got a female rep who was really good. She cut through the crap and finally got the plan activated. She had to start with the 1 gig plan, and called and had it changed to the $ 20/unlimited. When I get the bill I will check to see if it was correct. Went home and called ATT fraud line again and again confirmed that all was clean, so I asked to be escalated to a manager to find out what was going on. I was told a manager would get back to me within 3 business days. 3 days passed and no call. Called ATT and was connected to the loyalty dept (every call you have to give your life history). Finally the guy on that call did a lot of digging, but could not find anything to cause the fraud alert or cancellations. He saw the notes from the fraud dept saying all was good. He was able to credit my account for the $80 BBuy purchase and waived the activation fee, so finally a break. More than a week for the ordeal. To top it off, I recommended it to a co-worker who has no ATT history. He ordered online, no questions or problems.

For power I ordered the $ 35 socket>USB plug off ebay. Works great. I did some digging and found the OBD plug on ebay for about $ 2.20 w/free shipping (from Hong Kong) and the USB plug, which contains a 5 volt to 12 volt converter in the plug (looks like a longer plug housing) for $ 1.70 on ebay, also free shipping. I ordered a few of each and will make up a couple for friends at work. Total $ 5 for the adapter. I paid for the first one and consider it a learning experience. I get 19-20 meg up and down at work and home. Firmware was updated and set to no timeout. Great deal.

I have to thank TBN for letting us all know about this deal.

paul

 

[sd455dan]

This looks very interesting, But how do you figure out if there is ATT coverage at your home?

We are on Hughesnet
175 Mb Per day and then the hard throttle starts .

Lucky to be able to even connect to this site on most days after hard throttle kicks in

We all have tracfones and- This may be a really dumb question , but how do I make sure we aren't in an ATT dead spot before ordering one of these ATT OBD2 hot spot devices

 

[techman]

This looks very interesting, But how do you figure out if there is ATT coverage at your home?

Either find a friend with an ATT phone, and check that you have LTE or 4G at your home. Alternatively if you google cell tower locations you can find sites that will show you maps and where cell towers are located. Just make sure you look for ATT towers.

paul

 

[sd455dan]

Thanks, will do:thumbsup:

 

[newbury]

<snip>

Wish I had a way to get my phone to tell me the signal strength at that window. <snip>

On my phone I go
Settings --> About device --> status --> Sim card status and there is a field for signal strength
There is also an app "Network Signal Info" by KAIBITS Software

 

[techman]

Thanks, will do:thumbsup:

If you are near a town of any size, see if there is an ATT store there and ask if you have LTE coverage.

 

[sodamo]

I get terrible AT&T phone service, have to use the M-Cell to get decent service. BUT, I have also seen 2 bars LTE standing on my roof. So I recently installed a MOFI 4500 with 2 external antenna. Signal usually in the -90 dub range, but I see dl usually in high 20's plus. Ordered the Mobley along with external power and antenna connection and hope to see decent results with the possibility of replacing my $80/mon plan with the $20/mon.

 

[dalroo]

I was intrigued by this, but went to the local AT&T store and after lots of discussion, the store mgr told me there would not be any real advantage, other than battery life, to going with the mobile wi-fi instead of just hotspotting from iphone. I already have a pretty robust data plan, and can stream video, do online meetings, etc. from hotspot, so I just left well enough alone.

 

[techman]

I already have a pretty robust data plan, and can stream video, do online meetings, etc. from hotspot, so I just left well enough alone.

I bet you pay a good chunk of coin for your "robust data plan" !

paul

 

[newbury]

I get terrible AT&T phone service, have to use the M-Cell to get decent service. BUT, I have also seen 2 bars LTE standing on my roof. So I recently installed a MOFI 4500 with 2 external antenna. Signal usually in the -90 dub range, but I see dl usually in high 20's plus. Ordered the Mobley along with external power and antenna connection and hope to see decent results with the possibility of replacing my $80/mon plan with the $20/mon.

I understand the external power but what is the "antenna connection" and can you provide a link?

 

[BigBlue1]

I was intrigued by this, but went to the local AT&T store and after lots of discussion, the store mgr told me there would not be any real advantage, other than battery life, to going with the mobile wi-fi instead of just hotspotting from iphone. I already have a pretty robust data plan, and can stream video, do online meetings, etc. from hotspot, so I just left well enough alone.

AT&T doesn't have an 'unlimited' plan for your phone that has 'unlimited' data for your phone's hotspot. They recently came out with "Unlimited Plus" which gives you the (potentially capped at 22GB) 'Unlimited' data for your phone and another 10GB for your hotspot. This Mobley has its own plan allotment which means a minimum of 22GB at fast speeds, though AT&T isn't currently enforcing that limit. So, yes, there is a difference.

ETA: Unless you're on some grandfathered plan that has no hotspot limitation that I haven't heard of.

Rob

 

[BigBlue1]

Has anyone who has a Mobley been able to get download speeds above 25Mb/s? I just got mine today and it is working well, though testing shows that it can't get more than 24.xx Mb/s, even though my phone, right next to it with the same number of bars, is getting 60-75 Mb/s using the same test site. I'm wondering if the Mobley is internally capped at 25 or if its technology just can't do more or ??

Thanks,
Rob

 

[MossRoad]

So.....

NetFlix says HD video requires between 3 and 7 GB per hour.

7 GB per hour translates to about 2 MB per second.

Why would anyone need 60-70 MB per second? That's over 200GB per hour. You'd hit your 22GB monthly limit in about 6 minutes.

Sources:
How can I control how much data Netflix uses?

Megabytes Per Second to Gigabytes Per Hour | Kyle's Converter

 

[BigBlue1]

So.....

NetFlix says HD video requires between 3 and 7 GB per hour.

7 GB per hour translates to about 2 MB per second.

Why would anyone need 60-70 MB per second? That's over 200GB per hour. You'd hit your 22GB monthly limit in about 6 minutes.

Sources:
How can I control how much data Netflix uses?

Megabytes Per Second to Gigabytes Per Hour | Kyle's Converter

There are a ton of other usage scenarios that don't involve streaming audio/video. When you need to download a large file, Windows update, whatever the faster the better. Everything you do in a browser is faster with a faster Internet connection. Is it 'needed'? Certainly not. My family has been getting by on mediocre service in the <1Mbps to maybe 4.5 at good times and it has worked OK. But the reason for my question has nothing to do with 'need', it is the fact that the device isn't behaving as expected (i.e. getting similar speed to my phone on the exact same network signal).

Rob

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I can tell you how being grandfathered in an unlimited Verizon plan worked out.

I had one yrs ago when they first came out with LTE. However it seemed they would throttle it down, even though it wasn't stated that they would. and an additional fee to enable hot spot. About 2 yrs ago they started charging an extra $20 to keep the plan. Essentially they priced the plan so it was cheaper to use a new plan with limits. I was only using about 5 GB month because of no hotspot and being throttled down. It was cheaper to switch plans.

 

[zimy]

Here is another place that sells the mobley as Best Buy seems to be out of stock on eBay now.

If you live in Michigan you can pick up in store.

Mobile Hotspot Device with Connect 5 wifi devices at ABC Warehouse - Online Store

 

[sodamo]

Cheap $20 a month Stand Alone Unlimited Rural Internet through AT&amp;T Wireless

I understand the external power but what is the "antenna connection" and can you provide a link?

AT&T Stand alone AT&T Unlimited ZTE Mobley Hotspot now only $20!!!!!. This would be a good place to start. First page loaded with info.

 

[sodamo]

So I got my Mobley today. Bought online with AT&T. The $20 standalone plan, but linked to my regular account. Activated and worked right out of the box. Didn't receive my external power cable or antenna connector yet, so just plugged into our 2001 sequoia parked in the drive. Didn't really have much expectation of it working as I wouldn't get phone service there without my M Cell. Signal was -111db, LTE connection, 1st speedtest in mid teens. I'm impressed. That's better than my regular ISP. Able to sit in the car, set it up on my iPad. Later I turned it on again and logged on from my computer while sitting in my bedroom, 20+ ft and thru a concrete wall.
Anxious to see how it performs in the house. At this point I'm thinking I will try to use either Picostation or Nanostation M2 to get the wifi available at my cottage about 300 away. Hoping it's the Picostation as that should also make it available at my tractorshed, which is closer but 90° to the left. Picostation might even given me a connection while mowing at this point, I'm clueless how these would hook up other than reading it's possible.

 

[newbury]

Re: Cheap $20 a month Stand Alone Unlimited Rural Internet through AT&amp;T Wireless

AT&T Stand alone AT&T Unlimited ZTE Mobley Hotspot now only $20!!!!!. This would be a good place to start. First page loaded with info.

That was probably the second link I read from back about 12 April.

mexican-bum doesn't provide links. The antenna he refers to "Mobley uses MS156 connectors, thanks to "tentious" in the Rural internet thread for the correct connector." doesn't have a link.
The search function on howard forums is worse than TBN and is seems most posters post from their phones in a "stream of consciousness" mode resulting in over 2,000 posts to try and wade through in two months.

Are you opening up your Mobley to add and an antenna with MS156 connectors? Are you adding an "external" antenna like a Wilson?
Can you just give us a link to what you bought?

Buying stuff off ebay from an unknown seller is haphazard. If someone I trust has bought from them it reduces the risk.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Has anyone who has a Mobley been able to get download speeds above 25Mb/s? I just got mine today and it is working well, though testing shows that it can't get more than 24.xx Mb/s, even though my phone, right next to it with the same number of bars, is getting 60-75 Mb/s using the same test site. I'm wondering if the Mobley is internally capped at 25 or if its technology just can't do more or ??

Thanks,
Rob

I checked on the ZTE site and it's supposed to do all of the AT&T bands, just like the phone, and should be capable of 100 Mbps. I had wondered it it were limited to particular bands or were a lower category device, not capable of higher speeds, but that's not the case.

The most likely reason for the limitation is that the ZTE is accessing a different band than the phone, and that band doesn't have the capacity of the other bands. For example, if the ZTE has poor antenna (it probably does), it may be camping on the 700 MHz band, which would have lower speeds than 1900. 700MHz has better penetration than 1900, so the device will see a better signal on that band. If the phone sees 1900 well enough, it will "prefer" to stay on 1900 even if there is a better signal on 700. The ZTE may not see 1900 well enough to stay there, so it hands off to 700.


What kind of phone are you using for the comparison?