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

[TractorGuy]

The Velocity had become finicky and needing a frequent restart was why I ordered the Netgear to begin with. My conclusion through all the transition back and forth is that both units are probably reliable but ALL my issues were most likely tower related.

 

[kcflhrc]

Too bad you didn't get better results TractorGuy. Still a **** of a deal for $22 a month.

 

[DKCDKC]

I have a Mofi modem fed off a house-mounted yagi antenna (cheap one) and get a steady five bars off a Verizon antenna five miles away over some hills. Pleased with that. I use the Verizon Pre-paid Unlimited Internet for $60 a month. There is technically a 22 gig level beyond which speed may be slowed. I have never noticed the speed slowing for that reason, although we use a lot more than 22 gigs a month. The problem is that the speeds during peak cell-phone usage hours slow to as low as 1 to 3 mbps. In other hours and late at night it runs 6 mbps up to 20 mbps - sometimes even more. I don't like the slow periods but the speed is still better than the speeds on the DSL I used to use. Since I am a mile off the highway - although there is a exchange box a half mile away - the splices along my drive required constant Verizon maintenance and kept speeds as 1 to 2 mbps no matter what I did... And cost more considering I had to have a land line before I could get DSL. BTW, my mofi modem feeds my computer via Ethernet and uses a Netgear Powerline Extender to feed a Netgear Nighthawk about 45 feet away in the middle of the house. A couple of tablets and two smart TVs draw off that router. We've had to adjust to times we can actually do streaming but that seems to be the cost of living out in the country.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I decided to keep the netgear LB1121 I bought. I will try to move the sim from the mobley to it later, when my internet is not as critical. Right now I need to work from home so I don’t want AT&T to screw it up.

 

[TheMan419]

I have a Mofi modem fed off a house-mounted yagi antenna (cheap one) and get a steady five bars off a Verizon antenna five miles away over some hills. Pleased with that. I use the Verizon Pre-paid Unlimited Internet for $60 a month. There is technically a 22 gig level beyond which speed may be slowed. I have never noticed the speed slowing for that reason, although we use a lot more than 22 gigs a month. The problem is that the speeds during peak cell-phone usage hours slow to as low as 1 to 3 mbps. In other hours and late at night it runs 6 mbps up to 20 mbps - sometimes even more. I don't like the slow periods but the speed is still better than the speeds on the DSL I used to use. Since I am a mile off the highway - although there is a exchange box a half mile away - the splices along my drive required constant Verizon maintenance and kept speeds as 1 to 2 mbps no matter what I did... And cost more considering I had to have a land line before I could get DSL. BTW, my mofi modem feeds my computer via Ethernet and uses a Netgear Powerline Extender to feed a Netgear Nighthawk about 45 feet away in the middle of the house. A couple of tablets and two smart TVs draw off that router. We've had to adjust to times we can actually do streaming but that seems to be the cost of living out in the country.

usually with the MoFI you can log into the router and play with what band it is locked to. Some times you get better results locking to a specific band. Other times you get better results just letting the MoFi choose what band.

 

[DKCDKC]

usually with the MoFI you can log into the router and play with what band it is locked to. Some times you get better results locking to a specific band. Other times you get better results just letting the MoFi choose what band.

Actually I have toyed with the MoFi a lot and have it locked on a band at the moment. I find that speeds are good with a locked band for a week or so and then the tower seems to detect that I am not a cell and can slow me. So I switch to the auto function for a time. The Mofi software is easy to use. I wish I understood some of the more technical capabilities of the Mofi because I might be able to squeeze more speed out of it. Overall I am very pleased with it.

 

[TheMan419]

Actually I have toyed with the MoFi a lot and have it locked on a band at the moment. I find that speeds are good with a locked band for a week or so and then the tower seems to detect that I am not a cell and can slow me. So I switch to the auto function for a time. The Mofi software is easy to use. I wish I understood some of the more technical capabilities of the Mofi because I might be able to squeeze more speed out of it. Overall I am very pleased with it.

Yeah I wish I understood it more too. However just adding a simply bought on Amazon Yagi dramatically increased speeds. I did not put it up on a tower. I had a pole in the ground that is maybe 4 feet tall. I just hung it on that. Have an app that tells me the direction of the nearest tower. I used that to eye ball it. I have not played with the MoFi and used its signal meter to dial things in any better.

Went from 3mb on the high end speed to now having 10 mb as my low end and usually 15-20 mb.

The antenna is pointed right at a tree maybe 25 feet away from it. If I were to cut down that tree (a small pine tree) I suspect even better results would occur.

 

[DKCDKC]

Yeah I wish I understood it more too. However just adding a simply bought on Amazon Yagi dramatically increased speeds. I did not put it up on a tower. I had a pole in the ground that is maybe 4 feet tall. I just hung it on that. Have an app that tells me the direction of the nearest tower. I used that to eye ball it. I have not played with the MoFi and used its signal meter to dial things in any better.

Went from 3mb on the high end speed to now having 10 mb as my low end and usually 15-20 mb.

The antenna is pointed right at a tree maybe 25 feet away from it. If I were to cut down that tree (a small pine tree) I suspect even better results would occur.

I mounted my yagi antenna - also from Amazon - on the corner of my house next to my office. I know the location of the tower and that location has a straight shot except for a strip of forest. I have a constant five bars now, so the setup is working. The limiting factor seems to be how many phones are hitting the tower at any given time. Since I have a pre-paid plan, the only Verizon truly unlimited plan, I have a lower priority on the tower than if I had a straight 10 gig plan - for a lot more money. Right now it's running 5 down and 15 up, but sometimes, late at night, it jumps to 20 to 50 down. But I just have to live with it because I am about out of affordable options - until the fixed wireless folks come into this area.

 

[Barry 1]

Two days ago,my Mobley lost signal.Never had a problem in 3 years.There are no outages,I'm on auto pay,nothing wrong with the device.Some one turned it off at ATT,and I've been on the phone for 2 days getting the run around. Connected car dept.tells me it is no longer supported,and all I get is the run around.Must of talked to 20 people and got nowhere.They tell me it is active-yea,my account is active but the mobley is not. I have another new mobley,and i swapped the cards,and same thing-it powers up,but no signal.The problem is with ATT and all they do is transfer me from one person to the next and none of them ,including connected car,have even heard of a Mobley.Any one have some magic phone number the gets me to the right person ???

 

[jcummins]

Two days ago,my Mobley lost signal.Never had a problem in 3 years.There are no outages,I'm on auto pay,nothing wrong with the device.Some one turned it off at ATT,and I've been on the phone for 2 days getting the run around. Connected car dept.tells me it is no longer supported,and all I get is the run around.Must of talked to 20 people and got nowhere.They tell me it is active-yea,my account is active but the mobley is not. I have another new mobley,and i swapped the cards,and same thing-it powers up,but no signal.The problem is with ATT and all they do is transfer me from one person to the next and none of them ,including connected car,have even heard of a Mobley.Any one have some magic phone number the gets me to the right person ???

Don't like hearing this. No longer supported?