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

[zimy]

I don't see that as any worse than my current provider. If a couple of heavy streamer are on before me my speed suffers greatly. Don't know about now but thought it was pretty common known in the early days of cable that more users equaled slower speed. T
I think the deprioritization will be quite individual by location with city folk impacted more than less populated rural. Seems much better to me than the old throttling method.

I agree, its much better than the old throttle after using so much method, anyone that has used satellite internet knows about that. The thing with using this in a rural area is tower congestion will rarely be a problem. Using the mobley during rush hour in new york city after 22 GB probably would be a trickle.

 

[sodamo]

Using the mobley during rush hour in new york city after 22 GB probably would be a trickle.

Hmm, not on MY bucket list for sure, so not a great concern LOL

 

[sodamo]

Sorry, but if they drop my speeds down to a trickle after 22GB and there are only so many hours in a month then I'm greatly more limited than if I was not "deprioritized".

Well, not to be hard hearted, but anyone that sees that as a hardship should put their money where their mouth is and just pay the most for what makes them happy. Not saying that's you from my own experience, this is better than anything in my experience. Heck, I can remember when dial up cost more!!!

 

[BigBlue1]

It's NOT UNLIMITED. I am paying for 22GB and change, the change is up to the good graces of AT&T.

You're right and you're wrong. It's called unlimited and subscribers should have the ability to pull down all the data they can. Yes, AT&T reserves the right to slow it down, but if they do that they are going to get themselves in a pickle because doing so (to the promised 2G speeds) would effectively render the connection useless and cause all sorts of angst and bad publicity towards them. I do believe AT&T would apply limit in extreme situations, like Comcast has done in the past, but at the very fringes like many hundreds of GB used repeatedly, not someone who runs up to 50 GB from time to time.

But don't let AT&T off too easily by going with "it's not unlimited". They sold it as unlimited. That's what it is.

Rob

 

[davrow]

I ordered one yesterday. The plan was $20. Today it was canceled,said they can't confirm my identity. Have to go to store and show proof of identity.

This happened to me today (except my email didn't say why). My email also shows going to the store as the only option. Of course, the store manager already told me this plan doesn't exist... could be fun (not!).

In post #23 zimy gives the phone number he called... for me it said "no longer in service" when I selected the 'activate device' menu option.

I will try 866-565-1222 tomorrow (business hours only). That's the AT&T Mobile Connect number.

I do have some signal here in the sticks, but until it activates no way to know if it will be enough.

Oh, I bought at eBay store for Best Buy, tried to activate online. It did ask about my car, but only so they could show me where the OBD port was to plug in to. They had a long list of cars in which it wouldn't work... like Audi (I think that's what I saw in passing, frankly wasn't looking very closely). I thought the online activation was going great until at the very end it said "cannot complete order". At that time it did not provide any resolution path, not even "visit store". Had to wait for the cancellation email for that message.

I hope no one will be offended when I say that AT&T really sucks. :laughing:

 

[sodamo]

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

My first order was cancelled for ID, then I tried again and had to call this number: 866.267.4510 to finish it. Don't know if it would help, but you can try.

My AT&T phone service still sux. Dealing with customer service was bad enough they gave me a $25 credit when I complained.

So far, I haven't read about any actual slowdown after 22gb from anybody in that situation, even after 100's of gb. Of course anyone without actual experience can proffer any theory they please.

My AT&T data plan thru 4GAS has the same 22gb language, I'm at 44.49gb, twice the limit.



Guess I'd better protest my deprioritization. Oh wait, that's my best test today. Darn.

 

[davrow]

Success! Not instantly or easily, but I'm connected with the $20 unlimited.

I tried the AT&T Mobile Connect number - they sent me to the ZTEUSA website (to activate an AT&T plan? Huh?). Tried the 866-267-4510 number. selecting option 4 to activate still says "number no longer valid, hang up".

Called the Mobile Connect number again and got Clarissa. Finally, someone with a clue! She set up my account (I wasn't with AT&T) and activated the Mobley. Even she couldn't select the $20 plan right off, she had to set it up on the $30, activate the device, then change the plan. But she knew not just to do that, but how to do it.

All I can say is, if you want this device and plan - persistence pays off.

Now to go try it out.

 

[sodamo]

Congrats on your success.
Just checked 16/2 this morning, no complaints.

 

[coldsteelva]

It is definitely MUCH easier if you already are an AT&T wireless customer and can order direct through your log-in

 

[sd455dan]

I agree, its much better than the old throttle after using so much method, anyone that has used satellite internet knows about that. The thing with using this in a rural area is tower congestion will rarely be a problem. Using the mobley during rush hour in new york city after 22 GB probably would be a trickle.

I agree on throttling being a real problem , especially with some satellite providers

after 175mb Hughes on a high load day will not just hard throttle- but slow the download to the point that the connection times out repeatedly.
There are days that getting on line has been impossible for over 18 hours out of a day. (satellite connection and uplink are fine)

I tried to order the Mobley from ATT and the connection just kept timing out so tried the Best buy link, had to pay $99 even though trending said $79?

So got one ordered.
Any way hope this works after checking and finding one ATT tower and reading a coverage site blog that rated ATT # 1 and Verizon #2 in our local town. Fingers crossed.

Would have just gone to the local ATT store but after reading the internet only comments and others of them having no knowledge of the device or plan figured I would just walk in with the Mobley and try to get it activated.

May be looking for an antennae next:laughing:

 

[fordmantpw]

I work from home and have been using mine all day and remote desktop is working just as well as my normal connection. I'm planning to connect it into my dual WAN router for a load-balanced/failover connection. Then, when we go camping, we can just unhook the Mobley and take it with us. Good times!

 

[zimy]

I agree on throttling being a real problem , especially with some satellite providers

after 175mb Hughes on a high load day will not just hard throttle- but slow the download to the point that the connection times out repeatedly.
There are days that getting on line has been impossible for over 18 hours out of a day. (satellite connection and uplink are fine)

I tried to order the Mobley from ATT and the connection just kept timing out so tried the Best buy link, had to pay $99 even though trending said $79?

So got one ordered.
Any way hope this works after checking and finding one ATT tower and reading a coverage site blog that rated ATT # 1 and Verizon #2 in our local town. Fingers crossed.

Would have just gone to the local ATT store but after reading the internet only comments and others of them having no knowledge of the device or plan figured I would just walk in with the Mobley and try to get it activated.

May be looking for an antennae next:laughing:

It was on sale at best buy last week for $79, as my friend ordered one. I guess the sale is over and best buy is the same price as AT&T now.

 

[zimy]

I work from home and have been using mine all day and remote desktop is working just as well as my normal connection. I'm planning to connect it into my dual WAN router for a load-balanced/failover connection. Then, when we go camping, we can just unhook the Mobley and take it with us. Good times!

Could I use a dual Wan router with load balancing to connect 2 of the mobley's at the same time? My connections is fairly decent, getting 20's down all the time but if I had another one would I be able to get 40 down? I understand it would be an additonal charge but $40 ($20 x 2)a month for 40 to 50 down would still be a good deal if possible.

 

[fordmantpw]

Could I use a dual Wan router with load balancing to connect 2 of the mobley's at the same time? My connections is fairly decent, getting 20's down all the time but if I had another one would I be able to get 40 down? I understand it would be an additonal charge but $40 a month for 40 to 50 down would still be a good deal if possible.

Well, you could use a dual WAN router with 2 mobley's, though you would likely have to use another router for one of the connections because routers don't support two USB WANs (none that I know of but there may be some). Now, once you get past that hurdle (not difficult really), you won't get twice your speed. Your ISP has to support bonding, and so does your router, and we're talking lots of $$$ here. However, with load balancing, two users would be able to see 20 down each, but without bonding, the most any one user would see is 20. Also, if you run two speed tests simultaneously on the same machine, they may each show 20, meaning you are getting 40 total, but each session is only pulling 20.

Does that make sense?

 

[BigBlue1]

Could I use a dual Wan router with load balancing to connect 2 of the mobley's at the same time? My connections is fairly decent, getting 20's down all the time but if I had another one would I be able to get 40 down? I understand it would be an additonal charge but $40 a month for 40 to 50 down would still be a good deal if possible.

My understanding is that most dual WAN routers have just one USB connection. That's how the Mobley will hook to a router. The other connection is an ethernet jack for a normal cable modem or DSL modem input. You could look to see if someone makes a multi-WAN router with 2 or more USB WAN inputs though.

I don't think dual WAN routers aggregate the traffic, which is what you need to get 40 mbps from two 20 mbps connection. Your choices normally are to either have one connection be a primary and the other the failover (if/when primary fails the secondary is put into service) or load balanced where traffic gets routed to one or the other WAN connection based on some algorithm. What I've seen is usually a weighted ratio. So if you had two identical connections you'd weight it 1:1. If you had one low-end 2 mbps connection and one better 20 mbps one you'd weight it more like 1:10. There definitely are devices that can aggregate connections for additive throughput but I think they are not your typical hobby-grade devices.

I could be all washed up on this, since I've only been researching it for a short while...

Rob

 

[BigBlue1]

I work from home and have been using mine all day and remote desktop is working just as well as my normal connection. I'm planning to connect it into my dual WAN router for a load-balanced/failover connection. Then, when we go camping, we can just unhook the Mobley and take it with us. Good times!

Which dual WAN router are you using?

Rob

 

[zimy]

Well, you could use a dual WAN router with 2 mobley's, though you would likely have to use another router for one of the connections because routers don't support two USB WANs (none that I know of but there may be some). Now, once you get past that hurdle (not difficult really), you won't get twice your speed. Your ISP has to support bonding, and so does your router, and we're talking lots of $$$ here. However, with load balancing, two users would be able to see 20 down each, but without bonding, the most any one user would see is 20. Also, if you run two speed tests simultaneously on the same machine, they may each show 20, meaning you are getting 40 total, but each session is only pulling 20.

Does that make sense?

Yes that makes perfect sense, so if one of the grand kids is hitting my network hard with their online gaming or tablet streaming my computer connection would still be really fast.

Honestly this hasn't been a problem at all so far, but I like to learn all the options.

 

[fordmantpw]

Which dual WAN router are you using?

Rob

Well, I've got a couple that I'm working with. One is an Asus RT-AC68U. I'm having trouble with it working like I need. I have port forwarding set up because I have a server set up to host websites, and when I turn on the dual WAN, the port forwarding fails. My other option is an old Cisco RV042. It only has ethernet ports, so my plan is to use a router with a USB port for the Mobley connection (Netgear WNDR3700) and feed that into the RV042 via ethernet, then let the RV042 handle the dual WAN portion. The RV042 will handle the port forwarding to my server. I'll then repurpose my AC68U as an access point behind the RV042.

EDIT: Another note: the option of using the WNDR3700 for the Mobley connection gives me the added benefit of putting the Mobley where it gets the best signal instead of in the middle of the house where my AC68U needs to be for the best WiFi signal throughout the house. That also makes it easier to grab and take with us when we go somewhere too.

 

[Xfaxman]

Tried to activate online, first one asked for my Onstar car number, I told her she was not in the right connected car plan, got transferred several times, finally got to the right person but she could not verify me since I didn't have my drivers license number handy. After a total of 57 minutes on the phone, she assigned a cell phone number and a eighteen digit case number and said go to the AT&T store.

Took the eBay/Besy Buy Mobley to the AT&T store in Stillwater yesterday. Megan met us at the door, sat down at a table and in about 15 minutes had it activated. She said I might get Billing to wave the $25 activation fee. Total monthly bill will be $25.94 with all of the extra fees.

Got home, plugged it in to the power supply, It works! Got a weak signal of -115 dBm, 130 kbps down, 10kbps up.

Speed increased when moved to a stronger signal, this is -106 dBm:

And -100 dBm:

Kinda slow, but faster than Hughes Net in the evening hours. :thumbsup:

Still have a lot of places to try for a stronger signal.

 

[sodamo]

I found I could join the Mobley wifi via an apple express which gives me Ethernet access via wifi not wire.
I want to usb tether to a router so I can Ethernet from an externally mounted Picostation and expand to cover my cottage 300ft away. A lot to learn as I haven't a clue LOL