Review by IowaCowboy  - Location: Indian Orchard, Hampden, MA, USA
- Cost: $60 per month (24 month contract)
- Install: about 1 days
Best Mobile Broadband Service Out There
Costs more than the competition
Go for it, if you have the extra money.
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After having frustrations with the new mobile broadband service (marketed as Comcast High Speed 2go) that is offered by Comcast and runs on the Sprint Network and many issues with the customer service (and lack there of), I canceled it under the 30 day customer guarantee and went with AT&T Mobility's mobile broadband offering. I purchased the new Novatel MiFi 2372 from AT&T which is now part of their official lineup of mobile broadband devices. The device is 149.99 with a $100 mail in rebate with a 24 month agreement. AT&T is the first GSM carrier in the USA to offer MiFi devices and the other two that offer MiFi devices (Sprint and Verizon) operate on CDMA networks. I choose AT&T because I have had them for 6 years for cellular phones and I am happy with their service and the coverage is excellent (New England area). I ordered the 5 GB limit laptop connect which is advertised at $60 per month. I am averaging 2 mbps downstream and about 500 kbps upstream. I went to the AT&T store in South Portland, Maine while visiting my Grandma's and they were very helpful and I had my device in less than an hour. It was immediately activated and I took it home to where I was staying and it is so much better than the Comcast High Speed 2go and the speeds are much faster. The MiFi is so handy I can get rid of the separate data plan on my iPad and put the smartphones on the AT&T basic data plans since I can connect them to the MiFi so it will save me money in the long run. I wish we could have had this technology years ago when I got my first laptop in 2003 and have little or no options to connect to the internet on the go (what's the point of having a portable laptop when you cannot connect to the internet). I do however plan on keeping my Comcast Cable Modem service because AT&T limits bandwidth consumption to 5 GB per billing cycle and I have heard horror stories about people getting bills in the 5 and even 6 digit figures for excessive data consumption on their cellular modems. So I find AT&T to be the best mobile broadband service out there. As for the home modem, I just wish Verizon would deploy FiOS in the Springfield, MA area. Update: I ended up returning the device (in the 30 day guarantee) and going with Verizon Wireless Broadband Access instead, mainly due to cost. The AT&T LaptopConnect was good for the service but is more costly than other providers.
member for 13.5 years, 6204 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 13.1 years ago
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Other ProvidersYou could check out www.millenicom.com for their Verizon Wireless mobile broadband no contract plan, $60 a month and a 20GB bandwidth cap instead of the contract only 5GB cap that Verizon offers. | |
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Review by thefloyd - Location: East Northport, Suffolk, NY, USA
- Cost: $50 per month (24 month contract)
When you're somewhere good, it's better than everyone else
doesn't work at my office, barely works at home
Make good use of that 30 day return period. Try the service EVERYWHERE you might need it.
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I've been an AT&T customer since the Cingular days in 2004. I've had a 3G dataconnect card since 3G was first available in NYC (an old UMTS pcmcia card via my employer, later on my own usb card) around 2005 or so. It used to be really awesome. I have an iPhone 4 and a 3G dataconnect SIM currently in a MiFi device. I'm paying over $130 a month, which I know makes me far from AT&T's biggest customer but it's no small chunk of change out of my monthly budget. I get *terrible* service at my home. I get NO service at my office. I have 5 bars nearly all the time. My phone can almost never transmit or receive data. MMS messages fail 9 times out of 10 from my office. Ditto for my dataconnect card. Pinging a local server on the internet yields 1-2 _SECOND_ round trip times _when the packets actually get through_. I can't use something that's costing me over $50/mo when and where I need it the most: at work. I've used the "mark the spot" app. I've started calling customer service only to be brushed aside with "well we're deploying more towers near you by the end of the year" END OF THE YEAR?! It's FEBRUARY! I HAVE TO WAIT 10 MORE MONTHS PAYING $130 A MONTH FOR NOTHING? AT&T: please help me out here. Please explain to me why I'm paying $130 a month for service I struggle to use. Please do something to let me know you really do value my business other than the empty words the CS reps spit out every time I call. Please make this right.
member for 18.1 years, 76 visits, last login: 353 days ago
lodged 13.2 years ago
Review by (hidden by request) - Location: Leawood, Johnson, KS, USA
- Cost: $45 per month (12 month contract)
The store representative was the only person that knew what she was doing.
None of the departments are on the same page.
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My experience with at&t u-verse has been a nightmare. I called on a Sunday to set up my wireless internet. I was told my monthly charge would be $30 and my one time installation would be $150. On Monday I receive an email saying my monthly charge was $45 and my installation was $129. I called the u-verse department. The lady I talked to told me, "Not to be misleading but sometimes the sales representatives were not up to date on promotions." That is definitely misleading. I then was transferred to another department to cancel my order. The gentleman I talked to confirmed the cancellation. On Tuesday I receive an email confirming my order. I disregarded the email since I was told my order had been cancelled. On Wednesday I receive a package from UPS. The package is my airport from at&t. I call at&t again asking what I am suppose to do with this package. I am told there is a sticker with the return address in it and I will not be charged with the shipping. There is no sticker. On Thursday I talk to Marie at the 8885734107 number and she tells me I can drop the package off at an at&t store. She then says that she will cancel my order since it was not cancelled in her department. I then call the at&t store by my house and they tell me that is incorrect. I am suppose to go to the UPS store with my confirmation number and they will pay to ship my package back. At least the representatives working at the stores know what is going on.
(review was emailed from domain erickson.com)
lodged 13.4 years ago
 Mike_
join:2003-06-24
Philadelphia, PA |
Mike_
Member
2010-Nov-11 10:38 pm
Here's the Problem...Not only are you in the wrong review (you are in Wireless, i.e. Cellular broadband, your review should be in AT&T U-VERSE), but you don't seem to realize all companies have systems and those systems are complex and large scale. Canceling right after ordering is asking for trouble since everything needs to be undone. Everything that was in motion, needs to be reversed. Things that come in the mail, were IN TRANSIT while you canceled. Hence why you still received product. Different departments, are not up to date on your cancellation as it takes time. All of this is expected no matter what company you deal with. Don't go complaining because of quick actions you took too soon. I know you felt mislead, but you should ALWAYS ask to see promotions/deals/prices in writing verifying what you setup. | |
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Review by tman852 - Location: Lancaster, Fairfield, OH, USA
- Cost: $65 per month (24 month contract)
- Install: about 5 days
Fast download speeds for 3G
Very spotty coverage, low 5GB cap prevents any real normal usage.
Don't waste your time and money
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Download speeds typical of 2-2.5mbps, upload was about 700kbps until July 4th weekend with that software glitch At&t had that limited HSUPA and HSDPA devices' upload speeds to 100kbps, they said it would be temporary and still IS NOT FIXED. To add to the problem, latency is through the roof, 300+ms ping times average now as of 4th of July weekend too. Oh and don't forget the 5GB cap each month with $0.05 per Megabyte overage charges. Keep in mind this review is on their 3G wireless with a USB Lightning laptop card, but all At&t 3G devices share the same fate as this. Also, expect your supposed $59.99 monthly charge to be at least $65 if not more, because of taxes and other BS fees they throw on there, and even more if you go over your data cap. Tech support is completely worthless, I actually had to tell the lady about her own company's network and how it's all over the web with that Alcatel Lucent software bug that started july 4th weekend, and how the minimum upload speeds of HSUPA and HSDPA devices are much higher than the 100kbps I was getting. She continued to tell me my communications manager program was messed up even though I confirmed my issue on multiple computers, different devices and SIM cards of friends, and in different locations and different firmware/software versions. Well guess what lady, 100kbps upload with 300+ms ping times doesn't cut it when I need to video conference or do remote work on servers. **UPDATE 8/11/2010** Upload speeds and ping times finally fixed. 4Mbps download speeds and 1.5Mbps upload speeds, with 100 ms ping times to most places. Not bad, but still the terrible 5GB cap per month. **UPDATE 10/30/2010** Still going good. 5GB Cap is what ruins it. My employer pays for the service anyways so I suppose it's not all bad. Attachments:
member for 13.7 years, 1634 visits, last login: 3.6 years ago
updated 13.4 years ago
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All US wireless carriers use 5GB capeither hard or soft.
Even Virgin Mobie's "unlimited" is not really unlimited and it is soft capped at 5GB/s. Thats the nature of cellular, 3G and caps are common worldwide. Even "4g" clearwire service does not allow you to use too much. There is no free lunch.
You want truly unlimited, I suggest you use fixed broadband. | |
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Re: All US wireless carriers use 5GB capVirgin Mobiles is truly unlimited. I've used well over 20GB on it, so have others, and it is fine. I would use fixed broadband, but guess what, it isn't available where I am. At&t DSL, U-Verse and Road Runner blanket my area but will not cover my road. So until I'm offered one of those alternatives, this is my only option. I'm not even in a rural area to top it off, far from it. | |
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Re: All US wireless carriers use 5GB capI guess you must be isolated and there is not much neighbors on your road. No telco or cable will put new costly deployments to only few people. Sometimes they do when you are willing to pay for extra costs in installations. | |
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Re: All US wireless carriers use 5GB capYea Road Runner cable lines stop about 1000ft down from my home. From the point where it stops till then end of our road, it's about a quarter mile distance and 15 homes including mine. So, I guess we're SOL until more houses come about. | |
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Re: All US wireless carriers use 5GB capAt least 15 homes should give some heads up to your local city/village hall and see if they push the cable to deploy further. And what about phone line? I cannot believe they would not do that, especially since its still important for 911 calls (it can't quite replace cell phone, bc its more accurate). And since you mentioned you have DSL/U-Verse in your area, it should be available once you have phone line.
You guys pay taxes and should be entitled to your voice. It may mean some local tax increase but a slight tax increase is better than losing your grandma from a heart attack! | |
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Re: All US wireless carriers use 5GB capWe have digital phone lines all the way down to our houses, problem is, they say the line is 33k feet long which is almost twice the distance limit for DSL unless they put another repeating station in somewhere along the line. I'm still doing some digging to hopefully find an alternative... | |
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Review by malett - Location: Colebrook, Litchfield, CT, USA
- Cost: $50 per month
- Install: about 1 days
mobility
low throughput
expensive
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dsl not available, didn't want to go cable. We go camping alot so this made most sense. Data, 5gig per month, up to 3g where available. Usually edge at home. Went fine, until tried to install on xp64. AT&T software woundn't take. Used Sierra's software fine. Sierra 881U Bought ant. to help with signal. about 5 times faster than old copper connection.
member for 17 years, 53 visits, last login: 10.4 years ago
updated 15.1 years ago
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