Verizon Mi-Fi

[Elchucko]

I am considering replacing my Hughesnet service with a Verizon Mi-Fi. As a full time RVer I am experiencing more RV spots with nearby trees that are stopping me from getting a signal with my roof mounted Motosat dish.

I would appreciate any serious feed back from any knowledgeable source.

Thank you

[grohgreg]

Would you be comfortable with paying the same price as satellite - for less bandwidth? Not including the cost of the device and a two year contract, they want $30/mo for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, $80 for 10GB. Then add another 25% in taxes and fees. And when I tried their 3G service, it proved considerably slower than my HughesNet connection. Only had it for 3 days, took 6 months to get my money back.

//greg//

[triumpht140]

I had hughes net for 2 years and hated it,200 mb down load per 24 hours and so slow I would not have it back if it was free,I have had verizon for 2 years now and like it very well,just changed service over to a used myfi 2200 $23.00 from ebay and now saving 10.00 a month 50.00 for 5 gb and it will keep up with most utube flicks.

[grohgreg]

For clarification, my $80/mo HughesNet ProPlus is regularly delivering 2000kbps down and 300 kbps up. I own the equipment. The FAP is ~13GB per month, with 5 FAP-free hours daily. There are no taxes, no fees. As long as I stay under 13GB/mo, there are no penalties of any kind - either to performance or to billing. I've had this HN7000S ProPlus plan for least 5 years now, and never once paid more than $79.99 per month.

Last year I upgraded my pre-paid cell phone service to a 3G smartphone contract with Verizon. Given that it was a bit faster (on the net) than previous phones I'd owned, I subsequently thought I'd give their USB Mobile Broadband service a try. The Verizon $80/mo 3G plan I tried was limited to 10GB/mo and came with major excess-use charges. Taxes and fees added another 20% or so to the monthly bill. Upload speeds were marginally faster than satellite (400-500kbps), but download speeds sucked; we're talking 700-900 kbps. Tried two different Verizon USB modems too, the second was even worse than the first.

I cancelled after 3 days with a greater appreciation for my satellite connection. That said, I may try 4G if and when it ever becomes available here. But my first experience with Verizon Mobile Broadband was not a good one.

//greg//

[Elchucko]

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll stick with the Motosat for a while.

[truckracer]

your better off to stay away from mobile carriers for broadband. They have too many hang ups with if's and and's. Too many nickel an dime charges with penalties. The mobile carriers are having a hayday right now. their bottom will fall out after people get tired of their scam contracts. A company's product an customer service should keep the customer, not a legal document with a disconnect fine.

[mcintire123]

As with most things this is another one of those "Individual experiences may vary". I had hughes at my old house out in the sticks and it was the most horrible service I ever had. It seriously at most times was like having the old timey dial-up connection with constant server disconnects and time outs with a usually optimistic 500kb/s download speed, for the minute or two it would hold up. I switched to Verizon MiFi 3g (This was 2 yrs ago btw) and was amazed at the difference. I did not have high hopes for a wireless service just out of common sense but I was very surprised by it. As I said I lived in the stix so even with it in a second floor window on the side of the house nearest the local tower I was only getting about half signal strength but amazingly I was able to pull out close to 800 kb/s download speeds and even play MMO's with reasonably low lagging. I personally will never again even consider satellite internet after the massive headache that hughesnet gave me. If you have to deal with wireless and a 5gb a month limit you just have to watch what you do. grin and bear it. But thats just my experience, actually speeds may vary (haha)

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

All of the cellphone guys are sharing your ISP service with Data/text bursts and Voice. Keep that in mind when is slows and speeds up and disconnects on you. Also technically, 3G by technology (EVDOREVA) can not go any more that 1.6 max and you must have a good signal to do so. Most i have tested (and i have a 3G air card and a 3/4g Hotspot) are 250K -900K. Once i had good signal it did go 1.2-1.5ish.
3G is basically a digital or 2G on steroids. 1G being analog cellular...

The 4G is using a very high frequency. it wont go that far from the tower (few miles at best) and they have to have a lot of users to make back the investment. Not happening in rural America due to population demographics. At least for now. And it is still sharing with Text and Voice. Voice is still the Cell Phone carriers main $$$. They are doing ISP just to support the Voice.