I recently moved back home to Indiana from Houston and I'm trying to get some decent internet for work as the best we currently have available is a DSL connection that has a 4.5 Mbps down and .5 up with 22ms ping. I finally completed installation of all the hardware for wireless LTE system after doing a lot of reading on the forum and am now trying to figure out what provider I should get for a SIM card. My neighbor installed a similar system earlier this year and went with a post paid ATT unlimited plan which has been working great for him. My plan was to follow suit, but after reading the forum it seems a lot of people have been having issues with ATT and have been driven to explore other options including T-mobile. Also seems like the policies of these companies are constantly changing so I' wondering what company currently has the least headaches and ease of setup. The following is a summary of my hardware and situation.
Hardware
2x Bolton UltraGain 26 Parabolic Grid Antennas mounted on the roof with 30ft LMR 400 Cable
Router with a Sierra Wireless 7565 Cat 12 Running Golden Orb
Signal Strength
Historically ATT seems to have the strongest signal out where we live. I am currently on Google Fi which uses the T-Mobile network. It's spotty, but I get signal on my phone up on the roof where the antennas are mounted. We also get signal on Verizon, but it's probably the weakest of the three carriers. Given the antennas I have I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get a decent signal with any network. There is a tower for all three networks within 3-6 miles and there are a bunch of towers in town which is about 8-10 miles away.
Both T-Mobile and Verizon's LTE home internet services that they started offering are currently unavailable in our area. Plus those specific offerings don't seem to have a BYOD option.
Data needs
I probably only need 100-300 gb/month. I mainly use the internet for work. We do light streaming and no video games. Some of the software I use is cloud based but seems to be relatively tolerant of low data speeds and latency. It works on our current DSL connection as long as no one is doing anything else on the internet. Video conferencing remains borderline and often painful.
In addition to selecting a provider, what is the process of activating the sim card and installing it in the device? Are the companies accepting of this or do I need to be a little shady? I've read some threads on the forum with people suggesting they simply plugged the SIM into the router and were off to the races while other people suggest plugging it into a phone first and then moving it over to the router after it has been activated on the phone. It sounds like other people have had to call up the company and give them the device IMEI in order for it to be granted access. I currently have a spare unlocked Pixel 2 that I assume I can use to activate it if needed. Just wondering what has actually worked for people as I've seen so much varying information and can't tell if the providers are locking SIMs to IMEIs or if they don't care once its been activated, you pay your bill on time, and aren't using crazy amounts of data.
T-Mobile vs ATT Post Paid Unlimited Plan
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No internet reseller is permitted to market their services. No Exceptions.
Re: T-Mobile vs ATT Post Paid Unlimited Plan
No I believe he is using one of the ATT unlimited Elite or Unlimited Extra plans. I believe ATT was running a special over the summer where they were giving you a free Iphone for adding an additional line onto your plan. So I believe he took that deal and when the phone arrived with the SIM he took the SIM out and put it in his router and gave the phone to his mom. His system has been working great with that SIM. They use around 100-200 gb/month so I'm unclear if ATT is straight up cool with using a sim from one of their regular unlimited plans (Elite or Extra) for this purpose or if they are only going after people who are using a ton of data each month.
He helped another guy get setup with a SIM in August and in that case the guy added on one of the post pay tablet plans. He said that the rep at the ATT store gave him a lot of trouble and wanted him to bring in the device for them to install the SIM at the store, but eventually he convinced him just to give it to him. So I was thinking of trying that since its obviously the most cost effective, but from what I've seen on the forum lately it seems like ATT has been recently cracking down on the tablet plans which made me hesitant to go down that road especially since I would have to switch over my regular phone service to ATT and then add on a tablet. I'm not opposed to switching services, just trying to avoid spending the time and money to do it just to find out they are going to block my router. The tablet plan sounds like a great cheap solution if it works, but I'm more than fine paying for a regular unlimited plan just so I can have decent internet.
At the end of the day I'm wondering if either of these companies have clear policies on what plans they will allow you to do this with or if its sort of random or dependent on whether you are abusing your monthly data usage. Some of the posts on the forum make it seem like T-Mobile is more friendly to this sort of thing, but I haven't really seen much definitive.
He helped another guy get setup with a SIM in August and in that case the guy added on one of the post pay tablet plans. He said that the rep at the ATT store gave him a lot of trouble and wanted him to bring in the device for them to install the SIM at the store, but eventually he convinced him just to give it to him. So I was thinking of trying that since its obviously the most cost effective, but from what I've seen on the forum lately it seems like ATT has been recently cracking down on the tablet plans which made me hesitant to go down that road especially since I would have to switch over my regular phone service to ATT and then add on a tablet. I'm not opposed to switching services, just trying to avoid spending the time and money to do it just to find out they are going to block my router. The tablet plan sounds like a great cheap solution if it works, but I'm more than fine paying for a regular unlimited plan just so I can have decent internet.
At the end of the day I'm wondering if either of these companies have clear policies on what plans they will allow you to do this with or if its sort of random or dependent on whether you are abusing your monthly data usage. Some of the posts on the forum make it seem like T-Mobile is more friendly to this sort of thing, but I haven't really seen much definitive.
Re: T-Mobile vs ATT Post Paid Unlimited Plan
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any carrier officially lets you move a phone or tablet SIM to a router/modem.
The reality is that it seems to work but there are no guarantees.
The reality is that it seems to work but there are no guarantees.
Re: T-Mobile vs ATT Post Paid Unlimited Plan
That right.
It is all good and fine till it isn't.
Have heard you can get post pay tablet plan independent without having phone plan.
Go for that. Cheapest solution and if you lose it you lose it. Got nothing to lose cause you got nothing now.
