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

[BigBlue1]

If this pans out it will be spectacular for me. We live in an area where the only service is 5Mb/s DSL. Which is the optimistic best case. Any busy time of day like evenings or weekends the CO is a bottleneck and we end up at 1Mb or less. My ATT cell phone can get 50+Mb/s reliably here so the Mobley would literally be a life changer for us. Crappy internet is the one sole regret of moving out of the city to the country (far outweighed by the other benefits, but still a pain).

I ordered the Mobley through ATT and one of the AC adapters from Amazon so we'll see what happens! Thanks for this tip, folks!

Rob

 

[Soundguy]

Ordered Fri, shipped today after I called to verify my ID at their direction.
And you can always set up a repeater if the signal isn't strong enough, or if you need lan ports for some devices...

yup.. i have an extender at my house that has a wired port on it. it just grabs the wifi from the router, and sets up a new network.

 

[1stDeuce]

Well, it arrived. Already enabled, just plug in and surf. Still no activation fee so far... I HIGHLY recommend buying the device for that reason alone. Vs my $50/month internet bill, it'll pay for itself in 3 months, and save me $270/year after that...

I plugged it into my truck, about 30' from the camper. Went inside for lunch, and the signal was fine. Watched half an episode of Outback Truckers on Netflix on our super-picky Sony DVD player, so evidently the strength is pretty good! I think it would be similar to a wireless router if used in a house. If you need a wired connection, then you'll need to set up a repeater or client bridge, but if that is above your skill level, you can buy one off ebay ready to go for $30. We don't have anything with wires, so no need for us, though I may use a repeater to send signal out to the shop, and over to the garage once we're living in our home if this turns out to be our long term solution.

Oh, and I did a speedtest and it shows 11 down 10 up. (Outskirts of Farmington NM) That's 2x the down, and 10x the up that I get through Centurylink DSL!
I'll give a speedtest update for Mancos, CO, and our property north of Mesa Verde after the weekend just for kicks.
Looking awesome so far!
If it works this well up at our property, or even half as good, I'll be totally satisfied!

How do I send Zimy a case of beer???

 

[TractorGuy]

I wish AT&T had better service around here. Looking at 25 reviews on their web page for this item has 11 five star reviews and 10 one star reviews. I have plugged in several zip codes for my area and they all come back not available.

I have only had one personal experience with AT&T and it was a bad one. The wife was using Virgin Mobile for a while and her phone that was connected through Verizon quit working. We went and bought another and didn't pay attention to the image on the box which indicated the AT&T network instead of Verizon. When it had a data connection at our house it was poor and at night they just flat shut the data off. We kept it 3 days and returned it. For $50 more I bought the same phone on a Verizon prepaid plan and never looked back.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Thank you for this thread. Just got a hotspot vs our 1.5 mps service which is not working most of the time and costs $75 per month. With the hotspot, it was $20 and unlimited, water resistant and will go on road trips with us. Great deal

Brett

 

[newbury]

Well mine arrived and I'm trying to activate it.
So far -
the website included with the documentation doesn't work. Called the 800#
First operator passed me over to ZTE who couldn't do anything
2nd linked me to some spanish site that couldn't speak english
3rd linked me to an internal ATT support
4th answered, giggled and hung up
5th put me in a que of 20 that took me about 30 minutes to wait through
And when I finally got connected basically gave the guy my mobley phone #, set up a pin and password, and voila - registered.
Went outside, plugged it in, connected quickly.
Was only getting about 3Mbps but it's a LOT better than nothing.
THANKS Zim!!!

 

[techman]

And then I still need something to go from the 12v socket to the Mobley.

You need to get: 18deg Female Terminal 16 Pin OBD 2 II Connector Diagnostic Plug DIY Shell Adapter | eBay

You could also go to a junkyard and buy an OBD connector from a junk car.

The properly wire to the correct 2 pins. I do not know off hand, but you should find it on the internet.

Paul

 

[newbury]

I realize that. But I don't have a 12V socket and there are many different methods to hook stuff up. Just look at the threads on adding LED's.

Then there's the "ghetto method"
<snip>
Just snip some wires off an RC battery and jam them in.

/edit
I'm thinking it would be handy to to buy some Replacement Female J1962 OBD II 2 Diagnostic System Housings at $9@ and hook them up with just the two wires mentioned in the video to my tractors etc.
Like the guy in the video I've got a box of wal warts.

You need to get: 18deg Female Terminal 16 Pin OBD 2 II Connector Diagnostic Plug DIY Shell Adapter | eBay

You could also go to a junkyard and buy an OBD connector from a junk car.

The properly wire to the correct 2 pins. I do not know off hand, but you should find it on the internet.

Paul

Great idea, seems doing the same thing as what I suggested.

I'm thinking it would be handy to to buy some Replacement Female J1962 OBD II 2 Diagnostic System Housings at $9@ and hook them up with just the two wires mentioned in the video to my tractors etc.

The pin wiring is in the video.

 

[MossRoad]

And then I still need something to go from the 12v socket to the Mobley.

A 12V socket.
A 12V USB plug.
A USB converter for the mobley thing from ATT.

Auxiliary Power Outlet, 12-Volt: Model# 10241 | True Value

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Anker-24...0301&wl11=online&wl12=158217207&wl13=&veh=sem

USB Adapter for At&t ZTE Mobley – OBD LTE Wi-fi Hotspot Unlimited Data | eBay

Or you could just go 12V to OBDII directly with one of these...

12v cigarette plug AT&T ZTE Mobley – OBD LTE Wi-Fi Hotspot $2 unlimited | eBay

 

[Xfaxman]

I tried to order one on the Best Buy Website, but didn't have any luck. Even when I found a store that had them in stock, the price was $0.00 and no "Add To Cart" button.

So I went to eBay and ordered one from Best Buy: :thumbsup: AT&T - ZTE Mobley 4G LTE Wi-Fi Hotspot - Black | eBay