Ubifi Rural Internet

[TheMan419]

Make sure you get at&t first

Well if that is the best signal at your house. We have decent ATT signal. No sprint or T-Mobile. Not sure about Verizon. There are similar products for all carriers.

 

[Welshman]

Well if that is the best signal at your house. We have decent ATT signal. No sprint or T-Mobile. Not sure about Verizon. There are similar products for all carriers.

Similar products, but does anyone else offer an unlimited plan?

 

[TheMan419]

Similar products, but does anyone else offer an unlimited plan?

Yes I could find unlimited plans with T-Mobile and/or Sprint. Took me a LOT of searching to find such with AT&T.

 

[MossRoad]

We've had T-mobile for quit a while now..... and our general observance (as I've mentioned many times) is if you can see a corn field, you won't have any service. :laughing:

I'm following this thread because if we ever move to our rural property, or even just put a barn up out there, I'm trying to find internet solutions for security systems at first, then our entertainment and communications needs. Good info. Thanks for pointing it out. :thumbsup:

 

[kcflhrc]

We've had T-mobile for quit a while now..... and our general observance (as I've mentioned many times) is if you can see a corn field, you won't have any service. :laughing:

I'm following this thread because if we ever move to our rural property, or even just put a barn up out there, I'm trying to find internet solutions for security systems at first, then our entertainment and communications needs. Good info. Thanks for pointing it out. :thumbsup:

I live rural and use the AT&T Mobley with an Asus router behind it. Works great for $22 a month. But the word on the street is that Mobley and plan are no longer available.

 

[jaydee325]

Yes I could find unlimited plans with T-Mobile and/or Sprint. Took me a LOT of searching to find such with AT&T.

I have a Verizon "Unlimited" plan. The phones are each limited to 20 gig before throttled. Phones can be used as a hot spot but are throttled after 15 gig. The MiFi I use for home internet is throttled after 15 gig. Apparently, in Verizon's eyes, if they don't charge you more but throttle instead, that is unlimited.

 

[Sysop]

I have AT&T for service. My plan provides 30GB per month (with rollover) for 3 phones and my home internet. I use a Netgear 4G LTE Modem and have two external antennas.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5ASNTE

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RJQ8RGC

 

[TheMan419]

I have AT&T for service. My plan provides 30GB per month (with rollover) for 3 phones and my home internet. I use a Netgear 4G LTE Modem and have two external antennas.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5ASNTE

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RJQ8RGC

Yep that antenna is what I am thinking I will put up in the spring. Life just got in the way of doing it before winter hit.

My goal is to drastically reduce the satellite bill and be one of those cord cutters that I hear the kids talking about.

 

[MossRoad]

I have a Verizon "Unlimited" plan. The phones are each limited to 20 gig before throttled. Phones can be used as a hot spot but are throttled after 15 gig. The MiFi I use for home internet is throttled after 15 gig. Apparently, in Verizon's eyes, if they don't charge you more but throttle instead, that is unlimited.

Similar on our T-Mobile phones, in that there's a couple gig of high speed, then it drops to an unlimited amount of 3G. It was pretty clear in the contract. It doesn't affect my wife and me. Our kids, on the other hand, well, they can always go solo if they don't like the free plan from mom and dad. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

So let's say you watch a couple/three episodes of The Walking Dead and 3-4 movies each week. How's that affect your data usage?

 

[STx]

So let's say you watch a couple/three episodes of The Walking Dead and 3-4 movies each week. How's that affect your data usage?

An hour of HD video will use roughly 1GB of data. We stream all of our TV, live and on demand, and we use over 100GB a month. It's better to just have an unthrottled unlimited plan and not have to worry about it. For us, TV and Internet combined is about $100/mo for every US, British and Canadian channel, including premium, sports and PPV (we don't pay extra for those), so it's cheaper than having satellite or something and trying to stay under some monthly data limit.

 

[Sysop]

Yep that antenna is what I am thinking I will put up in the spring. Life just got in the way of doing it before winter hit.

My goal is to drastically reduce the satellite bill and be one of those cord cutters that I hear the kids talking about.

I'm using one of the house-mounted satellite mounting poles for the antennas. That allowed me to rotate them and get them pointed at the best signal path. The connection quality and speed varies a lot. I generally see no less than 2mbps both ways. On a good day I'll get 15mbps down and a bit over 7mbps up. This is in a location that cell phones are virtually useless.

I was able to connect an Obi VoIP controller (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUV7C9A/) and switched my phone service to VoIP Provider Phone Power - Home & Business VoIP Phone Services. I now pay $14.07 a month (including all taxes and fees) for my full featured land line.

 

[Sysop]

An hour of HD video will use roughly 1GB of data. We stream all of our TV, live and on demand, and we use over 100GB a month. It's better to just have an unthrottled unlimited plan and not have to worry about it. For us, TV and Internet combined is about $100/mo for every US, British and Canadian channel, including premium, sports and PPV (we don't pay extra for those), so it's cheaper than having satellite or something and trying to stay under some monthly data limit.

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

 

[BigBlue1]

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

This is closer to my observation. About 3-4GB per hour of HD content from Netflix.

Rob

 

[STx]

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

I can tell the difference between the SD, HD and 720 or higher streams in KODI or Titanium, and some on Amazon. I really don't use Netflix anymore, we're going to cancel it. Anything they have is also available on KODI or Titanium.

 

[BigBlue1]

I can tell the difference between the SD, HD and 720 or higher streams in KODI or Titanium, and some on Amazon. I really don't use Netflix anymore, we're going to cancel it. Anything they have is also available on KODI or Titanium.

These other services also carry Netflix original content? Or did you mean they have any movies and series from non-Netflix sources? Asking because Netflix actually makes some decent stuff these days and it is nice to have access to that.

Rob

 

[STx]

These other services also carry Netflix original content? Or did you mean they have any movies and series from non-Netflix sources? Asking because Netflix actually makes some decent stuff these days and it is nice to have access to that.

Rob

They have all the Netflix original content as well.

 

[BigBlue1]

They have all the Netflix original content as well.

How do they manage that?

 

[STx]

How do they manage that?

Someone shares it. There might be a question as to legality but, it's all available, as is all the HBO, Starz and Amazon content and pretty much any TV show or movie you'd want to see.

 

[tractorshopper]

Installed the external antenna this weekend and tried it pointing in various directions, but eventually settled on the one with the most consistent signal strength. This one is maybe 6 miles from my house, but the best I can consistently keep is 2 bars occasionally dropping to 1 and occasionally increasing to 3. To be fair, it was overcast Friday when I set it up and has been overcast and rainy all weekend since I got it, but it has not been as big of an improvement as I thought it would be. I'm probably averaging about 11-12 down now. Almost always getting more than 7 down and once in a while getting 21+ down.

My closest tower is about a mile from my house, but there is a ridge and many trees between that tower and my house. One time I was pointing in that direction and I had 3 bars and speeds of 25-30 down, but it only lasted for a minute before dropping to 1 bar and speeds of 5-6 with the external antenna.

I am still way impressed with this over any internet I've ever had, but for my use, the antenna does work, but isn't a huge gain for my geographic location. Just knowing I'm so close to a tower and can't get a better connection anywhere than -110db is making me sure I will end up buying a signal booster as some point. I'm usually between -120 and -110.