Company Forums » Companies beginning with S » Slingshot Communications > Replacement modem?

Replacement modem?

Sorry to bump, but I just went to »www.slingshot.com to complain and their site is down! Perhaps that's why I can't connect?

reply to OmegaWolf747
I believe this company is kaput. See my post on the Slingshot Communications thread on complaintsboard.com

»www.complaintsboard.com/complain···492.html

GMTA! I posted in that thread too! It does seem like they are out of business, which sucks because it was nice while it worked.

I guess my only hope now is that Virgin Mobile will start offering prepaid mobile broadband or that Cricket will come to my area.

I don't suppose there's any chance Slingshot will at least refer us to another wireless broadband provider?

Thanks for replying.

reply to OmegaWolf747
Identical problem to those posted above. I agree Slingshot is likely toast or about to be(if someone finds out definitely please post here and also on Howard Forums). Only 1 week is left on my data-pass and have Juno dialup, wifi and AT&T Medianet as backup so it's not a big loss. Too bad, it worked great for a few months. Hope another company offers something similar in the future, but with better tech support and customer service.

And what really sucks is I had just put $59 in for the next month. No way to get that back, is there?

Sorry to hear that.
You may have legal recourse through your credit card company for failure to deliver goods and services. Tougher if a debit card was used. Contact your card issuer ASAP and say you want to contest a charge (please be polite, the credit card company is on your side).
Not worth the hassle in my case to recover a week's worth of service.

It was a debit card.

Tougher because money has already been transferred to Slingshot. You could contact your bank and see if they can do something. Department of consumer protection for your state, and BBB are other resources available you could file a complaint with.
I'm tempted to partially dispute the charge for my last refill but I used 3 of the 4 weeks including a very heavy Sprint download of MS updates for my laptop, and some roaming on Verizon that I suspect Slingshot will stiff Sprint on.
You could sell your modem on Ebay to recover part of your loss but please make clear that it would need to be reflashed to be used on a CDMA carrier or MVNO other than Slingshot (there is carrier software that can do this including Houdini and likely Novatel downloads).

I filled out a complaint to the FTC.

I might go that route, or try getting it flashed myself. If I had the modem flashed over to say, AT&T, could I use it on their network without the two-year contract and just pay the monthly fee?

Good for you. Don't know how the Fair Credit Billing Act applies to debit cards, but at least you've brought the problem to the federal government level.
Don't think it can be used on AT&T(it could be reflashed in the US for AllTel/Sprint/Verizon/Pocket/MetroPCS/Cricket I think). AT&T is primarily GSM/GPRS/HSPDA. Their highest speed 3g I think is wideband CDMA based but I'm pretty sure it's incompatible with AT&T.
You might want to consider the Acer netbook on sale at Radio Shack (see front page of their website) for $49 if you sign a 2 year contract with AT&T for $60/month (plus some nuisance fees and taxes). They have an extensive nationwide network and it can also roam internationally (but at higher rates). Please note they are not 3G ultrahighspeed in some areas (only slower Edge with is still 3-4x faster than dialup) and you will be competing for bandwith with iphones in some metro areas. Still an excellent value for someone on a budget. Radio Shack and AT&T have been around for years so I think this is a safe bet.

I'd rather avoid contracts, as those involve cred checks, which I'm opposed to.

If I had the modem reflashed to Sprint, could I use it on their network without signing a contract?

Thanks for the help, by the way.

Understandable. They also will sell the laptop outright if you didn't want to do a contract. AT&T does do prepaid data as well, but it's limited on data phones (100 mb/$20 or $5/1mb that I buy for my AT&T tilt as needed) and there is an iphone prepaid plan they don't publicize much.
If you reflash modem to Sprint they might let you go without a contract because no equipment subsidy, or you could try a reseller (maybe Millenicom or a local cellular dealer that does association and business group deals if you qualify?).

I just filled out the Millenicom page to have them send me info on if their service is available in my area. If it is, I'm signing up!

reply to OmegaWolf747
Hey OmegaWolf747,

I called millenicom's customer service and talked to a guy that indicated that we could probably use the Slingshot novatel modem with their service, so long as they ESN had "cleared" with Sprint (otherwise it wouldn't allow them to utilize the device). He recommended calling Sprint to confirm it. He did say that their coverage is "nationwide" but wouldn't divulge which networks they use. They had coverage for the Maryland/Northern Virginia area I predominately need though. Interestingly, I remembered visiting Millenicom when I was researching Slingshot previously, and he said they were one of slingshot's resellers, but have no other connection to them, so that's good. The value of trying to use your old Slingshot modem with Millenicom is not going to be more than $50, however, as you can buy their modem for $100, and they would charge you a $45 activation fee if you BYOB.

I don't want to use the stupid Slingshot modem because of all the problems I've had with it. The thing was defective out of the box, deactivating itself while plugged into my USB port and such.

If anything, I'm going to drop it from an upper story window and watch it go smashy-smash. XD

Thanks for the info though.

reply to ehittle
I am pretty sure the carrier that Millenicom uses is Verizon, not Sprint. You can see the Verizon coverage area on their website. Verizon coverage is very extensive but not super high speed 3G in all areas. When I looked at the Millenicom website a while back, I noticed that they also included international roaming capabilities (for countries with CDMA), but warned it was at higher rates (refreshing for a carrier to say this up front).
Might try Millenicom as a replacement but not in a rush (really need a replacement for my 7 year old laptop first, and waiting for Mac Snow Leopard or MS OS7 to come out first). Will use Juno dialup/AT&T prepaid wireless off my Tilt/Wifi in the interim.
It is promising you could get a live CSR at Millenicom...more than you can say for Slingshot at the current time.

It seems like Millenicom uses Sprint and VZW. At any rate, they emailed me back, saying I'm in an excellent area to get their service, so that's all I care about.

That and the fact that they actually have an account I can log into to check my balance and usage. These guys definitely seem more on the ball than Slingshot.

Looking at the Millenicom forum, it looks like you are right...they offer both Verizon and Sprint, and someone mentioned they are frequently roaming off an AllTel tower. Get what works best for you.

I may sign up with them myself once I get new computer equipment but will go with Verizon as primary carrier in my case rather than Sprint. Coverage near my house is strong Verizon or AT&T but Sprint is a weak 20% signal. Pocket, T-Mo or Nextel are too far away. This led the Slingshot modem to try to occasionally attempt a Sprint tower (too far away) that would result in an annoying stalled connection. Was fine on Sprint at my office(at very high rev A speeds), but home or travel are my primary needs for wireless broadband.

Since your state borders Canada, be careful when near the border...your modem could roam on Bell Canada or Telus Mobility at higher rates.

Agree good customer service and online billing are a good thing.

I think I'm too far from the border for that to be a problem. I hope so at least.

Can I choose which carrier my modem uses?