Verizon Jetpack "Hot Spot"

[rgolding]

We have a Verizon Jetpack "MIFI". This is our 3rd Jetpack "Hotspot' in about 8 years. It works well. It is used quite a bit and provides excellent service. We have been in some places of the United States, where Verizon service is not available. The Adirondacks and some parts of Michigan. Because of date streaming, we sometimes use up our monthly allowance for high speed streaming.

I'm considering getting another "hotspot" and with a different carrier. Considering ATT, because they have service exclusively in the Adirondacks.

Does anyone have experience in this type of idea of having more than one carrier?

Thank you in advance for your considerations.

[WeRJuliian]

I can offer you a negative comment (sorry!) on the AT&T hotspot...

Very poor performance, throttled data and poor coverage.

After that, I realised that it's cheaper just to use a phone in hotspot mode, and add some data to your existing plan as you need it.

[norty1]

We used to have a Verzion MIFI but when we upgraded our phones years back, we saved the 10 bucks and now use the hotspot built into the iphone and have unlimited data.

It suits our needs when we are traveling.

[SloPoke]

We have a SIM card for T-Mobile and a SIM card for Verizon that we use in our Mikrotik LTE router. If we end up camping in a place that has poor coverage by one, we swap the SIM and try the other. Since we work our of our Motorhome - we MUST have decent service. If we can't get decent service by either (or if we are in a place w/ good WiFi) we move on to a new place where we can work.

One thing we noticed in our travels... there are some places in Florida that are only 4-miles from Interstate-10 that have no service on either carrier.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by norty1

We used to have a Verzion MIFI but when we upgraded our phones years back, we saved the 10 bucks and now use the hotspot built into the iphone and have unlimited data.

It suits our needs when we are traveling.

Many of the older Verizon JetPacks worked with the Analog bands. Verizon was known as the leader in coverage back then because they had all of the legacy analog coverage when the other carriers were all digital. Verizon still is permitted to use the remaining Analog they may have in service, but it has been allocated to other uses by the FCC and won't be there forever.

For us in the west... there is surprisingly some Verizon Analog signal still available, mostly in remote areas of the state on Federally owned lands (BLM, USFS) but you MUST have an older MiFi device with Analog capabilities to access it.

[WeRJuliian]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

One thing we noticed in our travels... there are some places in Florida that are only 4-miles from Interstate-10 that have no service on either carrier.

There are quite a few places, only a few miles from I-10, and elsewhere, where nobody lives... So there's no incentive for the carriers to provide the infrastructure.

I imagine this will be even more true of 5G, when they do finally roll it out properly... individual cells are small, and the technology is expensive

[Big1]

Originally Posted by WeRJuliian

I can offer you a negative comment (sorry!) on the AT&T hotspot...

Very poor performance, throttled data and poor coverage.

After that, I realised that it's cheaper just to use a phone in hotspot mode, and add some data to your existing plan as you need it.

Bingo! ^^