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  #1  
Old 12-15-2019, 09:17 AM
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Old Goat 67 Old Goat 67 is offline
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Default High Speed Internet in country FANTASTIC

Just swapped out my DSL 3MBS for newly available AT&T Fixed Wireless.

Cost the same and went from 3 MBPS to 35 MBPS! Fantastic!
Works off of the cellular towers. I am 3/4 mile from one.

You may want to check this out.
https://www.att.com/internet/fixed-wireless/

  #2  
Old 12-15-2019, 10:56 AM
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We have to get internet from Verizon, thru a hot spot. 24gb data limit. It's about $120 per month. We always run out & I have to go the the library to let TJ continue to have internet to the end of our pay period.

Just contacted AT&T about getting service from them. Online chat said it IS available to us. And it is like only about $70 per month, for 215gb of data transfer. That sounded GREAT ! But it actually sounded too good to be true.

So, I called AT&T. The lady checked & said that cheap service is NOT available in my area. Tried to sell me something that requires a dish, and is about the same price as what we have now.

So, I suppose we don't have the correct fiber optic cable, or whatever is required to get the cheap internet. We'd inquired about the Hughes satellite service. But it gets real bad reviews from those who have it. They say to get it ONLY if it's the ONLY way you can get internet.

So, for now, I suppose we have about the best we can get. AND, we've been told that the plan we are on is no longer available. So if we ever drop it, we'll have to pay more. If we want any more data allowance, it's $15 per month, for each additional gb. I suppose there is no competition, so they charge whatever they think they can get away with.

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Old 12-15-2019, 11:13 AM
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You might want to look at Viasat.com, starts at $70 @ month I think.

Fixed Wireless is $50 @month for 215 GB with a charge of $10 for every 50 GB over that.

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Old 12-15-2019, 11:30 AM
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"...Fixed Wireless is $50 @month for 215 GB with a charge of $10 for every 50 GB over that."

Yeah, that's why it sounds too good to be true, to us. Our Verizon is $120 for 24GB & $15 for every GB over that. Those 2 prices are not even in the same galaxy.

TJ just said that must be just for a short time, after which, the price will increase a LOT. Just don't see how one company would sell that much cheaper, unless they had to meet competition. Here, there is no cheap price to meet.

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Old 12-15-2019, 12:38 PM
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"You might want to look at Viasat.com, starts at $70 @ month I think..."


Looked at Viasat reviews. They are terrible. Almost nothing good is said by anybody.

At least with our Verizon we get decent service, even in bad weather. My main complaint is the big price tag, for the small amount of data transfer allowed.

DSL & cable prices look to be only a fraction of what we pay.

If we lived closer to town, I could get free internet, during the hours the library & McDonalds are open. But, it probably costs about $2.50-$3 for gas, per trip to town.


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-15-2019 at 12:44 PM.
  #6  
Old 12-16-2019, 04:48 PM
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Well, I went online & had a "chat" with 2 different AT&T reps. Both said that the fixed wireless internet IS available to us.

So, I made another CALL to AT&T. This guy was in Detroit. He said that according to what he could see, the service IS available to us. He gave me another AT&T number for the fixed wireless division. The guy there was in Ohio. He said that he was also showing that the service IS available to us.

He can not give me the names of anybody in my area who has the service. I suppose it's a company policy, or maybe even a law ? He did say that he has sold this service to quite a few LA residents. But, that don't really mean anything. Gotta be able to get a good enuff signal, where you live.

I also ask him about the new tower within a mile of our house. He can't tell me the location of any tower. I assume it's an AT&T tower, since there are already Verizon towers in our area. But, he said that MOST cell towers are actually owned by AT&T, and other companies pay to use 'em. Never heard that before.

A Google search shows that most cell towers are actually owned by companies other than the major cell phone service companies. And, many times, a cell tower may be used by several cell phone companies. So, I actually have no idea who owns any cell tower in my area.

http://wirelessestimator.com/top-100...ompanies-list/

Anyhow, we went ahead & signed up. The tech guy is supposed to come out this Sat afternoon. Was told we won't be charged unless they can establish service. Then we have 14 days to decide whether to keep it, or not. I assume that info is correct.

I think the total monthly price is aprox $50 + $10 equipment rental, plus tax, per month, for the first 12 months. But, I suppose there could be hidden charges, such as the Verizon $20 per month "line access fee". Installation fee is $99. And, the monthly data transfer allowance is 215GB. That's nearly 9 times as much as we have now, for a little over 1/2 the cost. Hey, it's a "no-brainer" if it works out.

PS: Talked to Verizon. She offered to increase our GB limit to 30GB, for no price increase. In fact it is a few cents less. Said it's because we're long time customers with a good pay record. But, when she Emailed that offer to me, there is no plan number or offer number listed, & she could not give me any proof of the new plan. The old plan which we have now has been discontinued. But we are allowed to keep it, because we are long time members. If we change plans, we can't go back to the old plan. So, I'm skeptical. I figure that if we change, there will soon be a price increase, which we can't avoid. Sure hope this AT&T deal works out, so we can drop the high priced Verizon.


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-16-2019 at 05:29 PM.
  #7  
Old 12-16-2019, 06:15 PM
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Go to www.cellmapper.net, let if use your location, choose AT&T for provider. It will show you where the towers are located.

  #8  
Old 12-16-2019, 08:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Goat 67 View Post
Go to www.cellmapper.net, let if use your location, choose AT&T for provider. It will show you where the towers are located.
At that site, I can't find any local towers, which I know are there. Good map tho. Has the roads listed correctly.

Maybe those towers which I thought were cell towers are not. If so, it's a miracle we get any reception at all.

We're about 7 miles from the nearest small town. Maybe our signals are coming from some tower near there. ???


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-16-2019 at 09:07 PM.
  #9  
Old 12-18-2019, 01:52 PM
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Send me PM with your address. Let see what I can figure on the closest to you.

My installer told me he had just come from putting one in the hills about 6 miles from the nearest tower and it worked fine.

  #10  
Old 12-18-2019, 02:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ponyakr View Post
..
DSL & cable prices look to be only a fraction of what we pay.
..
Does this mean a phone line and DSL are not available to you?

We have been using DSL because there was no cable line run to our house.

It worked well. Too bad it must not be an option for you.

We did have cable available across the street and we pushed. We were surprised Spectrum agreed to install. They just came and directionally-bored ~225 ft to our house to run a coax under a road, under our ditch, and to our house. They did not charge us for that which was amazing.

  #11  
Old 12-18-2019, 04:50 PM
cdrookie cdrookie is offline
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I have Hughesnet, not much else available unless we bundle internet with home phone service. I used the Verizon hotspot, for years, before this and it was BAD. For some reason we were always going over our data limit and getting charged more, even though we paid close attention to how much data we were using. I've read about that happening to a lot of people and it was shady business on Verizon's end. Hughesnet isn't great but they won't let you go over your data limit, so it's a consistent $60/month. If you watch a lot of video's or movies on the 'net look elsewhere for your service.

  #12  
Old 12-18-2019, 05:13 PM
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As a side note, we had a line of bad weather pass through here night before last.
Wife was watching Direct TV while I was surfing the web.

When the TV went dead because of the storm, I did not notice the internet to be affected, ran a speedtest and it ran at 35 MBPS down and 25 MBPS up!

  #13  
Old 12-18-2019, 06:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Goat 67 View Post
Send me PM with your address. Let see what I can figure on the closest to you.

My installer told me he had just come from putting one in the hills about 6 miles from the nearest tower and it worked fine.
Zip Code 71251, Jonesboro, LA. We actually live out in the woods, about 7 miles East of the Joneboro city limits. But we live on one of the highest hills in our area. Lots of tall trees all around us. Even if the antenna was put on the peak of our roof, it would not be anywhere near as high as the surrounding trees. But the Verizon hot spot works just fine here. So, I don't know how much interference the trees might present, for the AT&T signal, if any.

I suppose we'll know what kind of signal we can get, come Sat. I hope I'll be able to post a good report, of a MAJOR improvement to our home internet service.

"...TV went dead because of the storm, I did not notice the internet to be affected..."

Yeah, that's the way it is here. But our Dish signal comes from a satellite, and the Verizon signal comes from a cell tower. I assume that's why the Verizon signal is not affected even tho the Dish signal is lost.


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-18-2019 at 06:54 PM.
  #14  
Old 12-18-2019, 07:16 PM
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I'm "guessing" almost to Caney Creek res.
You should be good. Three towers on Hwy 167.

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  #15  
Old 12-18-2019, 07:48 PM
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Looks like the 273 tower is the closest. Got to be at least 6 miles, as the crow flies, maybe 7. But those to the North & South of that one are not too much farther.

Hopefully, at least one of those will provide adequate signal strength. In some of my online reading, at least one person posted that the best signal they got did NOT come from the closest tower.

PS: I was told that our Verizon signal comes from a tower very near the lake shown on that map. Can't verify.


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-18-2019 at 07:58 PM.
  #16  
Old 12-18-2019, 08:57 PM
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I’m surprised the you’re happy with Verizon service. When I had them for my cell phones, they sucked.

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Old 12-18-2019, 09:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans View Post
I’m surprised the you’re happy with Verizon service. When I had them for my cell phones, they sucked.
Yeah, the Verizon hot spot works great. Just cost too much & has too little data transfer, for the high price. 24GB for about $120 per month.

And, a Verizon rep said that the only way we can get that price is because we were "grandfathered" in, several years back. If we dropped that plan, which is called something like XXL 24, it will cost more to get 24GB with any other plan.

That rep said that because we have been good customers for many years, she could increase our limit to 30GB, for a few cents cheaper than we are now paying.

But, when she sent me the plan by Email, there was no plan number listed. And, when I went to my Verizon account, it showed that our next month's bill will be over $245 !

I'd told her to send me the offer by Email & I'd look it over, then decide. Apparently, she went ahead & signed me up. When I saw that big payment coming up, I called Verizon & cancelled the change.

Sure hope the AT&T deal works out, so we can drop Verizon. Even if they eventually increase the monthly price up to what we are now paying, as long as we can keep the 215GB limit, it will be MUCH better for us.

I just read that AT&T has actually increased the GB limit, in the last year or so. And, 50GB extra is only $10 per month. On our Verizon plan, every extra GB is $15 extra per month. There is absolutely no comparison between these Verizon & AT&T plans. Seems too good to be true. We'll know soon.


Last edited by ponyakr; 12-18-2019 at 10:04 PM.
  #18  
Old 12-21-2019, 10:00 PM
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OK, the AT&T guy got here at 4:15. He he had us hooked up & logged in by 7.

He said that our signal will come from the new tower that is less than a mile from us. It's only been workin for 2 months. Said the signal will only work to about 5 miles away. Our next closest tower is 6 or 7 miles away. So, without this new tower, we probably couldn't get this service. The new tower does not show up online. It's real close to the intersection of hwy 505 & 4. It's within site of our local school.

The antenna is a rectangle, about 1' x 2' . Attached it to the roof of our carport. Ran the wire along the top of the wall of the house which is under the front porch. Then ran it down the window facing. Drilled a small hole thru the wall, into the computer room. Poked the wire thru, then put a plastic face plate on the inside.

Set the modem on top of a small filing cabinet. There are 2 small boxes that must be plugged into an electrical outlet. After all the wires were hooked up, & plugged in, it took about 20 minutes for the system to get up & running.

Then all you have to do is enter the password, which is on the modem. TJ's Mac & my Chromebook hooked right up to it. Works just as good & fast as our Verizon Hot Spot.

The tech said to just leave the 2 boxes plugged in 24/7. One down side is that if our power goes out, we'll have no internet. With the hot spot, I can use my Chromebooks, as long as the batteries in the Chromebooks & hot spot last, which is several hours.

So far, so good. Also, besides the tech, another lady also came out. I suppose she is some sort of account rep. She left her card, & said to call her if we have any problems. The tech & the rep both seemed very nice, friendly, & professional. Can't complain about the install.

  #19  
Old 12-22-2019, 04:10 AM
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Great! Glad I posted this for you. I'm about .7 mile from my tower also.

Run a speed test for us at http://speedtest.att.com/speedtest/.
Mine runs about 30 MBPS most of the time, yours probable will also.

  #20  
Old 12-22-2019, 09:27 AM
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Well, it worked great, while it was workin.

After a couple of hours, a thing popped up on the screen saying something about me needing to log in.

But, none of the info I typed in worked. It required info I didn't know. Wouldn't even recognize either of my two Email addresses.

Wanted my account number. I didn't have a clue. TJ gave me our AT&T account number as listed on our monthly AT&T bill, for our land line. I suppose that wasn't the number they wanted.

I have a 4 digit PIN number that I was just given. But, was never asked for it.

Tried several AT&T phone numbers. Nothing but robots telling me they were closed. Call back during business hours next week. Tried to use "chat". Couldn't even use that without providing the info they wanted, which I could not provide. tried using first one Email address, then the other, in order to get a new password. Did not recognize either address. REALLY aggravating !

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