jpmihalk

I don't mean that I am canceling my FMCA membership. What I mean is that when it says UNLIMITED it may very well be, but I am an IT professional who needs way more than 25GB per month that is USABLE. With my AT&T plan, when it gets throttled, it goes to 3G. I was expecting this Verizon plan to be the same. I got this to backup my AT&T plan, since we don't always get good coverage and Verizon happens to have coverage where we currently are. Maybe I am the minority. I am simply repeating what I went over with the Verizon rep who read the plan info back to me. If you think waiting 10 minutes for a web page to load is ok, then enjoy! For those who aren't big consumers of data, it is a great deal. Even the Verizon rep said he wanted to join FMCA for the deal. I did take it back yesterday to the Verizon store 20 minutes away. They confirmed what I found out with tech support and also said they do have other data plans that are "uncapped" and go from 4G LTE to 3G. For me, they were way too expensive. All I wanted to point out is that it seems like a fantastic deal UNTIL you hit the 25GB limit. Then it becomes so slow it doesn't work. I could live with 2.7Mb speed, but sadly that isn't what I found. 70kbps is way too slow to do anything. So don't say UNLIMITED when for all intents and purposes it isn't. I'm not hating on anyone. I just want to be clear about expectations.

I can tell you after talking with Verizon engineers at length that this plan is basically CAPPED at 25GB. When it says you will be downgraded at 25GB, it is to 1G standards (70kbps.) That is not even close to unlimited as that is unusable in the modern world. Web pages take minutes to load. I got my Jetpack on Thursday, watched some movies, played some Xbox games... and the next thing you know, it just simply stopped. Checked my data usage and it said 25GB... as a former IT manager I did some troubleshooting before calling Verizon. I did several speed tests which verified the 70kbps download speeds. They ended up telling me that the plan that was negotiated with FMCA is basically NOT unlimited as it is for all practical purposes capped at 25GB. After that it operates at dial up speeds. Since I am a consumer of a large amount of data (on my AT&T plan we regularly use 250-300GB per month) this strikes me as a very badly worded promotion... it is not UNLIMITED. I got this Jetpack as a backup to when my AT&T MiFi didn't have coverage - but it isn't going to work for me. Of course Verizon couldn't tell me how to cancel my Jetpack/FMCA plan without eating the $175 ETF but I am in the 14 day window and rest assured, it is being returned. The FMCA website NEEDS to be updated so this plan is not being misrepresented. I have been around cellular data for over 20 years. Other carriers may throttle down to 3G or even 2G speeds. This is worse. I wonder if anyone at FMCA was aware of that when promoting the plan. I posted this elsewhere on the forum (in the technology section) but want to spread the word so others don't think they will have UNLIMITED data. FMCA, please update the page at fmca.com/Verizon to truly represent the terms of the deal. At least be up front about what the data speeds will be pushed back to. We also need to know how to cancel in the 14 day satisfaction return window since we are being sent through a special link from FMCA.

We also installed a set of Snap Pads and they have worked great on gravel, grass, concrete and asphalt. It is great to not have to get down on the ground every time to set out pads or blocks to level on, especially when the weather outside is less than perfect.

US Navy Surface Warfare Officer 1986-1997 USS LaMoure County (LST-1194) - CIC Officer Special Boat Unit 20 - Ops Officer Instructor - Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic - Dam Neck USS Nitro (AE-23) - Ops Officer USS Saipan (LHA-2) - 1st LT

We use CoPilot for RV on either a tablet or smartphone. We also use Waze and other apps for routing and weather, traffic, etc. It helps if the real co pilot (in the passenger seat) can do some searching and/or Google mapping to help navigate. I wouldn't rely on just one system, I think using several apps with just one as a guide is what works best for us.

Name: John Mihalkovic Branch: Navy Time in Service: Nov 1985 - Feb 1997 Rank: LT / O-3 (Active Duty) Specialty: Surface Warfare Officer Stationed at: USS LaMoure County (LST-1194) Special Boat Unit 20 (SBU-20) Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic (FCTCLANT) USS Nitro (AE-23) USS Saipan (LHA-2) Served in: Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Desert Shield

I use the app on my iPhone and have found it to be pretty good. I did update to the ActiveTraffic and that does help the ETA feature become way more accurate. I also added the LowClearances POI database and have that in addition to the RV specific data.