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BillAdams

AT&T Unlimited Internet Service

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I tried to post about AT&T, the Mobley and the unlimited $20/month service in the past but things went sideways and I deleted the topic.  If anyone is interested, I am still seeing very good service here in Houston, TX.

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Bill/ I have an iPhone 7 with AT&T as the carrier. Have heard of using the service as a "Hotspot" with an iPhone. Flying blind . Do know that I am tired of marginal park wifi. Normally use an iPad not hooked to a carrier for surfing the web. Your thoughts please.

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Yes, you can use the phone as a hotspot but the amount of data you can use is highly limited in this mode and depending upon your plan you may not be able to tether at all.  There is software designed to overcome this limitation and you can look that up as I don't remember what it's called at the moment (FoxFi?).

For $20/month you get a stand-alone hotspot that will allow you to connect up to 5 devices and gives excellent 4G service (assuming you are in a good service area).  You can use up to 22GB per month with no restrictions and after that you will stay connected but can be subject to network optimization which only means if the tower you are on is crowded other requests will hit the internet before yours.  Thus far no one has reported any noticeable slowdowns.

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Bill,

Did the Mobley require you to sign a long term contract? I have heard that Mobley is very hard to find now.

Roland

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There is no contract.  The Mobley cost $99 at Best Buy.  They are getting a bit hard to find but they are still out there.

Here's a link to the ZTE website and the module.  https://www.zteusa.com/mobley

You then buy (or make) a 120V adapter that you plug the Mobley into and change the software so it never times out (like you would want it to do if it were in your car) and you sign up for the Connected Car service from AT&T.  $20/month plus a couple of bucks in taxes.  There is also a $25 activation fee but they waived that for me when I asked.  There is a detailed thread (a couple) in the Technology Topic on RV.net

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Got one ordered today.  I had to talk to 3 different AT&T sales people to make it happen.  First the Mobley device was not available, then the Connected Car plan was not unlimited data.  Finally the third sales person was able to find the menu option to get me all set up with an unlimited data package for the advertised price of $20 per month.  This was not available on-line at the AT&T website.  The website stated it was out of stock, luckily not so over the phone.  Hoping this is not one of those deals that are too good to be true.

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So far so good!  Even if it goes bad somewhere down the line no one will have spent much money.  I think I am on my 4th month now so it's well paid for!

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Got a voice message yesterday from AT&T, stating that my Connected Car plan and activation was cancelled and I should visit my local AT&T store to activate service.  Must have not connected with the correct service rep yet?

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It is advertised on Direct TV programs regularly. Of course AT&T owns Direct TV in case you missed it.

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Did you call this phone number?  866-595-1222

That is the Connected Car department and they should know what you have, the correct $20/month unlimited plan and the expertise to get it all setup.  A few folks have reported that they had to get a new SIM card at an AT&T store but it's pretty rare.

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Just to add to this conversation a bit, the Mobley is really good, and can become great.

This might be more than the average person wants to do, but for me and my wife, Internet is a must while on the road. You can open up the Mobley and add two things that were important to me: 

  • First off it has a USB port that you can use with a lot of wifi routers. This allows you to almost double your speed, and also allows me to do multi-wan. Now that is a lot to get into, but basically it gives me the option of using whatever wifi signal is around, in conjunction with the Mobley to deliver the best speed. 
  • The second item it has is external antenna ports. This allows me to mount a bigger antenna to my roof so that I can try to maximize the signal so that it will work wherever I am at. The idea is to get the best coverage or at least some coverage everywhere I go. If you do this make sure to check the frequency specs and get something that is focused on the bands that the Mobley uses. Also it needs to be a dual antenna because the Mobley uses MIMO LTE so two antennas at a time.

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Are you saying that these connections are inside the "hard candy shell" of the Mobley?  Do you have pictures?

While I get the advantage of an external antenna, I have doubts that running a USB to a wireless router would double your speeds.  Most folks are already reporting 20+Mb up and down in good 4g areas.

 

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Ugh, nothing but frustration.  Stopped at the ATT store to get info on the Mobley... got the deer in the headlights look from them, all they wanted to do was change my service so I could make my phone a hotspot... No thank you.   Came home, called the number suggested in a previous post and they said I had to buy the Mobley online first, of course it is out of stock online.  The person said I got one gig for $20 a month... I suggested otherwise and she then finally found that it could be unlimited but she couldn't help me with obtaining the Mobley.  On the ATT site the chat help could not tell me when they would be restocked.  I give up! 

 

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Wow, you give up?  You didn't try very hard.  You do need to find a Mobley as they are having problems keeping them in stock at most locations including AT&T.  Once you get one, the rest is not too difficult but it's worth it.  Have you also looked into the new FMCA unlimited plan through Verizon.  While it's twice as much it might still be a good choice as the National coverage for Verizon tends to be better than AT&T.  I have all 3 and here in Thornton, CO (Denver suburb) the AT&T is best.  Verizon is pretty slow, in fact and Sprint is nearly unusable.

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In preparation for buying the Verizon plan I just cancelled my nearly worthless unlimited Sprint plan.  It was almost $50/month with fees and I will have to pay an $80 cancellation fee but that's better than paying for such crappy service for the next 8 months.

I am doing just fine with my Mobley so there's no rush to pick up the Verizon plan.  I am also a Verizon phone customer so I wonder if this can be rolled into my existing Verizon account somehow.  Since it's billed through FMCA I am guessing not, but it's worth looking into.

Thanks for all your hard work FMCA.  If this plan doesn't get blown out like some of the past RV plans have this should be an excellent option for RVers.

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Att has the Mobley in stock with 2-3 day shipping. Ordered mine today. Had enough with FMCA fiasco, will see next year when time to renew if I will.

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Ordered two Mobleys yesterday. We plan to combine them with the upcoming FMCA data plan from Verizon. Looks like affordable connectivity is finally becoming a reality for us.

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I looked into the Mobley, and found that the device does not have those capabilities built in. The capability to combine two services has been around for several years, it requires the use of a router with two or more wan ports with load balancing capabilities. These can be acquired for about $60.00 and up, depending on just what you are wanting to do. This is not hard to set up and can be done with any two services, if you have one service that is 10 meg speed, and one with 20, the unit will combine the two and result in a total of 30. If anyone has the desire to take this on, I will be happy to assist over the phone. This is not complicated to achieve.

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I could be mistaken but I think he plans to use 2 Mobley's with 2 lines of AT&T service (44GB for $40) plus the Verizon MiFi on the FMCA plan for an additional 25GB for $44.

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