Millenicom → News from Millenicom ....

From Corporate:

"Millenicom is adding an Unlimited 3G/4G Plan that will work over the Sprint footprint starting February 1st. They are using the Franklin U600 (USB device with 4 external antenna ports). Pricing stays the same as their regular Unlimited Plan at $69.99/month with the normal $99.99 device purchase fee, $49.99 activation fee and $15.00 shipping fee. Customers currently using the Unlimited Plan can upgrade to 3G/4G by purchasing the new device (the activation fee is only $19.99 for current customers), they should check their address with the coverage locator on the Millenicom website to see if their location can get 4G service. Millenicom will be able to activate Sprint 3G/4G devices on their BYOD Plan for the same $69.99 rate."

Now the smartest 4G plan has arrived, too bad no 4G towers are near me.

Great deal/news! 4G is utterly useless with Verizon- whats the point of having the speed capability with a 10gb (or 5gb) cap? It;s like a fire truck showing up at a housefire with a 25 gallon water tank.......

The bad news for me is Sprint does not have 4G coverage in my area- the closest I've seen is 30 miles away. As with every other provider they are targeting highly populated areas that already have three or four other BETTER options for high speed internet.

No coverage, phone or data, from Sprint where I use Millenicom either. But good news for those who can get a good Sprint signal on an uncrowded tower.

Is the cap for "unlimited" still 50gb? Will you be able to get all your data through 4G or is it like the Verizion plan and split it with 3G?

EDIT: I see that Sprint doesn't even have 4G coverage in the Detroit area. I thought they were a major carrier? We'll have to wait for LTE? If this is Wimax, why even bother?

AWW MAN, I sporadically get VZW 4g, but not even close for Sprints. darn.

If Millenicom could come up with a Verizon unlimited 4G plan it would be a game changer! I'd sign up tomorrow!

Verizon is not going to offer any re-seller a deal like that. They may cut the per GB price down to $0.30 on a bulk buy, but they are not going to give it away and they will not give up caps, so Millenicom will not be offering any real unlimited Verizon based LTE. There might be a 200GB for $60 plan.

4 external antenna ports?!? Holy crap.

I would jump on that plan so fast... Hell I would take anything in the range of 50GB or more. I might try and get WiMax to work, first attempt was met with failure. Does anyone know if there is a amplifier out now? I do know LTE works, had a friend brag about it when he was over.

Yups, I am sur Max will shoot you a link when he reads your post but in the mean time google "Wilson 700 Mhz Amplifier" and you should get some results. I saw on dsl reports just the other day that Wilson had released a 700 Mhz LTE amp,

Problem with a 700 mhz LTE amplifier is that Verizon is expanding the LTE signature to 850 and 1900 mhz as well . The 700 was just for the initial rollout . So If you get bumped to 850 or 1900 due to tower or network traffic you are out of luck . A true LTE amplifier will cover all those frequencies . There is not one out yet but all the amplifier manufacturers are trying to develop them as quick as they can . Keep in mind the unit has to be designed , FCC approved and then manufactured so there is no definitive time line.

Hmmm glad you brought that up because I may have to get an amp at some point in the future and I will want to get one that will cover both 3G and LTE when I do. Luckily I think I will get a good signal for 3G for now and a while to come, question is how far the LTE signal reaches. I read alot of conflicting reports, some say it extends the range of a tower and some say it doesn't reach as far and yet others say they can't tell the differance, LOL. I should get my hotspot today or tomorrow and we will see if my one spot in the house for a good signal work with it as well.

Just learned that the new 3G/4G Unlimited Plan with Millenicom will be using the Sierra 250U

According to their map, I get Sprint roaming only and havn't heard good things about their roaming service and prolly never will see a tower or 4G here. Will prolly have Verizon 4G sometime in the future though and 10 GB is better than no GB plus I will still get 10 Gb of 3G which to me makes the whole deal better than satellite, LOL.

has anyone out there pulled the trigger on this offer? even though not in 4g area, close but not close enough, may go ahead and upgrade to the sierra u250, it's time to retire the cdu680.

I'm not about to give up my CDU-680 unless it dies. It's performance is much too good to toss it.

I wish it ran off Verizon lte... Id kill for a unlimited Verizon lte service.. 5gigs a month is crazy for a 20mb service...

Guess I'll be stuck on Millenicom's 20 GB plan a while longer. I don't get Sprint coverage here in my neck of the woods.

Hello, Is it possible to esn swap it with the (already activated 3g/4g unlimited plan) sierra u250 in the Sprint Novatel MiFi 4082?

or

Is there a way to connect the sierra u250 in a android phone like Samsung galaxy s2?

Thanks!

The new offering means they'll be able to offer the BYOD Plan to people with Sprint 3G/4G mobile broadband devices. The device being enabled would need to be a completely dormant device, not one with a current Sprint account.

I speak with the customer service chat ago and he said they're not offering the BYOD 3G/4G plan, only 3G BYOD plan!

What now?

Don't like the device they are offering 3G/4G with?

I just spoke with Customer Service and they said Yes they could activate 3G/4G Sprint devices.

That's odd. I just went to the Millenicom web site, and looked at the terms of the BYOD plan at »members.millenicom.com/m ··· oduct=84 . It states specifically "Customer must own a non-active 3G mobile broadband device (not a 3G/4G hybrid nor 4G) of the appropriate upstream carrier."

In other words, if the web site is correct, the BYOD plan does NOT offer 4G, only 3G.

In light of what you've said about customer service, I called them up just now to see whether that has changed.

He immediately said that my hybrid 3G/4G device WAS eligible for the BYOD plan. Being cautious (or paranoid, if you prefer) I pressed him on whether this BYOD plan was only 3G regardless, meaning my hybrid device would only connect to 3G through Millenicom's BYOD plan. He said absolutely not, that once a device was connected to Millenicom, that device would be capable of connecting to any network to which it was normally capable of connecting in my area, meaning I absolutely would get 4G.

Still not quite believing it, I then pointed out that Millenicom's own web site indicates that the BYOD plan does not allow hybrid devices, only 3G devices.

He sounded quite surprised, and took a look for himself to verify what I had said.

After reading it, he said something like "Wow, I guess they don't allow your device then; but that's strange, cause I can't think why that would be the case."

So I then offered a possible explanation:

"I think that TOS page for the BYOD plan has been there for a few years. It may not reflect what happened just a month ago, when Millenicom finally offered a 4G plan. They may have just forgotten to update the BYOD plan page. So maybe a hybrid device is perfectly fine for BYOD after all."

He replied "Well, that might be what's going on, yes, but I can't swear to it. I would email them to see if you can get something more definitive."

So that is what I will do.

In the meantime, it also occurs to me to wonder what the difference is between the Millenicom unlimited 4G non-BYOD plan and the Wireless 'N' WiFi unlimited 4G non-BYOD plan. Millenicom's costs $70 a month while WNW costs $60 a month. Not sure on what basis I would decide between them.

If the only difference is cost, then I suppose I should go with WNW.

If Millenicom is a more reliable or more stable long-lived company, then I suppose I should go with Millenicom.

Also, if the BYOD plan offers 4G, as the customer rep I spoke to said at first, then does the savings from not having to buy a device offset that extra $10 bucks a month if I pick Millenicom rather than Wireless 'N' WiFi?

You know, a year ago, the availability of unlimited 4G was rare -- only Sprint offered it. Now that Sprint no longer offers it, unlimited 4G Wimax seems to be growing on trees. Ironic.

Technically Mcoms "unlimited" sprint/wimax plan is 50GB monthly.

Clear (of which sprint owns a giant chunk) is still unlimited.

I have yet to see much information on the "WnW" company, I would still expect to see a customer or two talk about them at least... and yet nothing.

If you are just choosing between Mcom and WnW, I have heard of Mcom

If it wasn't for your need of 3G fallback I would go with clear.

Actually there has been some feedback postings on WnW. A person calling herself Aussie Girl posted at »WiMAX Plan 150; $40/month with some very positive feedback on their service.

Regardless, frankly, in spite of much positive feedback on Millenicom, I remain somewhat reluctant to deal with ANY of the resellers, no matter how ethical or reliable a company they may be. The idea of having a middle man impose themselves between me and a network, with the headache of going through a third party if the network in my area has technical problems that need to be reported and repaired, gives me the willies, frankly. I just see that as being a heckuva chance to take, no matter what company it is, which is why I and my lawyer are still hoping to bring Sprint back to the straight and narrow so that I can stay with them.

The bottom line is that, in spite of themselves, I stand here as someone who effectively has had unlimited 4G with Sprint right up to the present day. The one month when they imposed overage fees I refused to pay them, and filed a complaint with the FCC. Eventually they agreed that I was not properly notified of the change (though, in fact, that was NOT my contention; my contention, based on legal advice, was that the change itself, from unlimited to a 5 gig cap, was illegal and fraudulent), and waived all overage fees from past bills. But they still claim the right to impose overage fees in the future, overage fees which I have assured them I will not pay, setting up another confrontation quite soon, I presume.

Good for you, criggs, for getting Sprint to waive their overage fees. I hope they continue to do so.

As for your reluctance towards resellers … are you under the impression that Sprint, Verizon and the rest owns their own footprint? They do not own a single tower where they hang equipment. And if something goes wrong do you think it is always Sprint employees that climb those towers and do the work? Do you think it is always Sprint employees that answer the phone when you call? Do you think those are domestic accents you hear?

My point is that whoever takes your call (whether a reseller or not) creates a "trouble ticket" in the same online interface regarding an issue which is then farmed to the same outsourced team that would resolve the issue regardless.

The main differences (for me) are cost, usage, length of contracts and ownership of the customers concerns.

Cost: Argues in favor of Millenicom (M) and/or Wireless 'N' WiFi (WnW), particularly now that I'm fighting these overage fee battles.

Usage: Obviously in favor of M and WnW, in light of the absence of caps vs. Sprint's caps.

Length of Contracts: Again the argument is in favor of the resellers, inasmuch as a network owner, like Sprint or Verizon Wireless, will lock one into a long contract. With M and WnW, if something better comes along, like a higher cap on LTE or something like that, I can switch within a month.

Ownership of the Cucsomters Concerns: Aye, there's the rub. You see, unusual as my experience may have been, aside from a few big issues where Sprint basically ignored me for one or two months (and remember I've been with them for about half a dozen years or so), their responsiveness to technical issues, for the most part, has been pretty good. I've NEVER had the feeling that I'm talking to a third party, or that they're passing the buck to an outside contractor and don't give a f**k.

My fear is that that will be my experience with a reseller. There's nothing like dealing with an entity whose network is its own headache, rather than a hassle it can pass on to someone else. Yes, there are outside vendors and contractors. But ownership conveys a certain minimal level of guaranteed headache for an entity if a technical issue arises which forces them to do SOMETHING, a level of headache that no reseller can experience or needs to address, I'm afraid.