I want mobile internet for an RV. I have a NEXP1GO router with a EM7565 modem. I've been playing with various options for the last year or two but this week has been the first real world experience away at a campground. We're still here, going home tomorrow. I will soon also have a Cudy LT18.
I have the AT&T $20 standalone tablet plan. There's a reasonable AT&T signal strength but the tablet plan has been close to useless with speeds often less than 2 Mbps. I guess the local tower is congested. I'm over the 22 GB mark for the month. It's back in the tablet now and still very slow.
My phone on Visible does speeds which are up and down but on average much better than the AT&T tablet plan. I came prepared to experiment which included a couple of Net10 activation kits ($1 each on Amazon). Based on Visible performance, I assume Verizon is better here than AT&T so I activated Net10 on Verizon ($50 for "unlimited") on an old iPhone 6s and put that in the router after suitable adjustments.
Net10 has been working pretty good. I think those activation kits are good to keep as "emergency" supplies. Very easy to activate on either Verizon or AT&T. Speed is not great but usable. 10 - 25 Mbps most of the time although very slow sometimes.
I'm looking to improve longer term as we use the RV more. I know the best options for priority are top of the line post paid which I'm able to get if necessary but we're still part timers so I'm trying to find the best prepaid that I can just not pay when not using it.
Is it true that AT&T's own prepaid is better priority than the likes of Net10 etc? Instead of Net10, guess I could have simply brought a suitable unused AT&T SIM and activated it here: https://www.att.com/prepaid/activations/ . Would that have been better than the tablet plan?
For Verizon direct prepaid, I can't figure if they have something equivalent where I can keep a blank SIM and activate it when required. I went through the motions on verizon.com this morning to start signing up for prepaid. I "joined" Verizon but if I try to go any further, the site returns a Java null pointer exception error.
I guess my rather vague questions are:
Am I missing any better prepaid plans?
Considering the slow tablet plan speed, is it likely that AT&T prepaid would be any better?
Am I always going to be fighting a losing priority battle with prepaid with and post paid being significantly better?
I have a Poynting antenna on the roof but it doesn't do band 71 so I haven't really considered T-Mobile.
