There is no throttling. I've used >500GB so far this month and am still getting >100Mbps.

Get another nighthawk

Here's what I've been doing for the past few years with good success.  I have no trouble streaming youtube, on-line gaming, or running a business.

1.  Cell phone (android) with "unlimited" data plan.  I used a cheap motorola android phone from eBay (about $50-60).
2.  Router.  (ASUS RT-AC68U) A little over $100.
3.  VPN subscription.  (Varies in cost, but there are quite a few to choose from.  Do your homework).

First, go into the router and switch it to USB mode.  This will use your phone's data as your internet connection.
Then, go to the VPN client tab, add your VPN server(s), and activate one.  The VPN will encrypt the data from your ISP.   This is so that they don't throttle you after 10GB.  Also will allow you to view videos in higher def.
Lastly, plug in the phone to the router's usb3.0 port.  Make sure that it's a data cable and not just a charging cable. (there is a difference)  Go to phone settings and enable USB tethering.
Login to your network and you should have internet.  (If not, reboot the router and reconnect the phone)  

You can also do this without the router and just tether the phone directly to your computer with a USB cable.  You will still want to use a VPN.  Also check out an app called PdaNet+ for this.  Worth the $10.

The main you need to do for this to work long term is to watch your data.  Video is what kills you.  You have to learn how to conserve, just like everything else out in the country.

I hope that this information helps somebody.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me.

P.S. If you use Linux there is a way to do this as well.  Although you probably already know how...

Pretty much all providers limit hotspot data severely. Tmobile is 22GB. After that speeds are 600kbps.

Now, pdanet does get around that, for now. But eventually your provider will wonder what you're doing to use 100s of GBs of data on a phone.

I've got one I'm not using, I switched to T-Mobile. Hit me up, I'm sure we can work something out.

That's what the VPN is for.  I'm at 43gb this billing period and just averaged 19Mbps on three speed tests just now.

So with this set up, it seems like I could get two SIM cards and swap them out mid month if throttled? I like this idea.

Yes, that would work.  I currently go back and forth between two phones to spread out the data.

I'm running a Cradlepoint CBA850/LP6 with an AT&T SIM from No Limit Data.

Speed is good, but a couple times a day it stops working and the router needs to be reset.  The dashboard says the firmware is current.  Any ideas?

It’s a problem across ATTs entire network. Guys are writing custom scripts to force periodic reboots, etc.

I've used pda.net with Sprint and never been throttled. But now I have a hotspot from the calyx Institute using Sprint / T-Mobile towers. I frequently get over 200 megabytes per second sound. Speed is usually not anywhere near that but I'm also 25 miles from the nearest town.  Less than $50 per month for True unlimited with no throttling.

Aight, so forgive me, but I haven't been following this thread completely. We were kind of banking on Starlink, but right now, internet speeds are driving us nuts. $100 per month for Centurylink at a blazing 0.7 down. Sometimes stuff can barely stream.

So I'm looking at the guys posting about the T-Mobile, and is it really as easy as making sure you can get it with the 999-999-9999 phone number, and then call them to get the wireless modem? No throttling or data caps? I'd love to tell CenturyLink to F off.

From what I seen with T mobile Home internet it is based off of your location and not phone number.

So do the number like above I guess and they just say you rent a apartment in a city close to you that has T mobile coverage.

But keep in mind if you have no T mobile coverage at your house then it will not work.

It would be best to have someone with T mobile as a cell carrier come to your home and see what type of signal strength you have. This is all assuming that you don't have T mobile now.

Their site shows that I can get it.

Well you should be in then.

My T mobile box will be delivered tomorrow. I will compare what I have now which is No limit data (runs on T mobile) and T mobile.

Then call and sign up. It is fantastic service.

Try it like this -- >T Mobile Test Drive

In theory yes but in practice, I've found that once I'm over the limit on a given sim, swapping another sim into the same device does not always stop the throttling. I ended up using two modems and a load balancer to get the full data from both accounts.

Thanks for the link! I signed up to try it out.

Must be a lot of line or tower work going on with tmobile in my area. Starting Monday my signal has dropped a good deal. It's still a very steady 50mbps with good latency but I had been getting over 120 at times.

I'm sure it's just a local event and will pass quickly, or maybe they're replacing something on whatever tower I was hitting. Just odd to see my signal go from the low 80s to high 90s.

1 thing.  I know with ATT their home internet via mobile tower uses only a subset of the ATT towers, as its not available in all areas and requires special equipment on the towers that provide that service.

Which may/not be the case with tmobile.  in your case the tmobile testdrive is probably strictly related to regular cellphone.  possibly not for their home internet service.  but i dont know for sure.  tmobile support probably doesnt know either, and their default answer will be YES.  hopefully itll work out for you.  until starlink comes online, looks like ill be using this new TMO service when the new home is built - the TMO athome tool says my area is supported, and there is a TMO tower pretty close to me.  but oddly those tower tools (cell mapper is incredible https://www.cellmapper.net) show the coverage beams from my  tower going nowhere near the directon of my home... so i guess ill see also.

my map:

My nearest Tmo tower is only 2.8 miles, about half a mile further than my nearest vzw tower. Both signals have been consistently good for me with external antennae. I get bomb Verizon signal on my phone with CA, even with one or two bars showing.

I’ll see how the “test drive” device does...

The home service uses the apn "fbb.home" instead of the other general tmobile vpns resellers use or the b2b.static apn, so it probably only will function in select areas.

In other news, Starlink states their public-ish beta will be $99 a month, vary from 50-150 mbps down, 20-40ms latency. $499 buy-in for the equipment. There will be brief periods of little to no service.

Link

They are calling it the "better than nothing beta" and state it will continue to improve. I can appreciate the honesty. That is gamechanging for those who can benefit. At $50 a month im tickled pink with my current tmobile plan.

I haven't read all 39 pages but has anyone used one of these?
https://www.amazon.com/Yeacomm-Wireless-Hotspot-Antenna-Support/dp/B083TH42R8/ref=pd_ybh_a_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PEDA8WHE7QFAN0NCWFXN

That would be a huge step up in performance, with a big decrease in price from where I am now.

Please Starlink, soon.

Attached File




Pray for Starlink!


Rate my system design:

Location: 47 degrees north

Home is buried in a hillside (really) with a sod roof. The shop has a metal roof and the foundation is roughly the same elevation as the sod roof.

Nearest Verizon tower is about 4 miles away, terrain is fairly flat, but it is NOT a straight line of sight. Line of sight internet is not available without a climbable tower on the property, and that's not going to happen.

T-Mobile has a closer tower, so I'll be testing that next time I go for the final inspection.

Standing on the "Best Spot" on the diagram, I can get 20mbps down, 2 up and 49ms latency with Open Signal on my phone. I have a cell booster in my current home that makes a significant difference and I'm hopeful it would do that here, too.

On site is a Dishnetwork dish, a Hughesnet dish and a frontier dish, so they seem to have tried everything except improved cell data.

The home and shop are virtual faraday cages - the signal drops to zero in the home (no surprise) and zero or barely anything in the shop.


I'm working on something that is not Starlink, but happy to switch when it's available. My employer will pay for this (within reason) - no giant tower.

Thought is booster in field with directional antenna on tall pole (there's a light post out there that might do the trick) I'd wire that to the house. Coax exists at the three dishes noted on the diagram so those would be nice to use.

Booster in house with several cell signal inside antennas to give us cell service through out. OR, just the booster and sender in main room, hotspot in there, conneceted to mesh wifi and we just use wifi calling. I kind of want cell and wifi in the house though just in case we have hotspot trouble we can still call out.

Then, connect to some kind of line of sight antenna (back outside) to the shop, with wifi there.

From a technical perspective, none of this worries me. What DOES worry me is the booster to router to line of sight to the shop back to wifi....is this a +87 for my connection/latency? Am I better off with a whole separate system in the shop? Cell booster? That building will mostly want phone calls and music streaming.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Those are relatively short distances. If you're concerned about all the extra gadgetry, direct burial ethernet should be well within its limits for those distances. I think that would generally leave you in a good spot (as long as you're getting good cell service) and you could always use wifi calling in the house if necessary.

What are you working on that isn't cellular or sattelite?  Or is this just an upgraded Hughesnet?

Boosters are no panacea. They will need external antennae to work properly, and most are very limited as to which bands (frequencies) they support. As new bands like B71 come online they’ll get left behind.

You don’t want long coax runs either. My suggestion would be a pcie or M2 Modem in a router in a waterproof enclosure, dual yagis, and cat6 Ethernet to power the whole thing. Lots of people are getting T-Mobile home service right now and selling Mofis and custom modem/router rigs.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wireless.Joint/?ref=share

Do some reading on the ltefix and ltehacks groups on FB or reddit.

Thanks - the long coax runs were my biggest concern. I planned on a directional pole-mounted antenna, but that would need fairly long coax run to the actual booster. I'll keep planning!

Sorry, I meant I'm working to come up with a solution that isn't starlink. In this case, it looks like cellular is going to be better than Hughesnet at my location.

To my understanding, boosters won't help at all for data speeds. They're mostly just for voice on cell phones. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but thats what everyone on the LTE groups on FB has said in the past.

Look for a local WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) in your area (Try DSL Reports WISP section to find one). The other ideal is T-Mobile home internet for 50$ for unlimited if it is in your area.

My drive-reach booster helped me do some extended camping. It didn't make it perfect, but it improved the signal enough to stay out and work remotely. So, it seems to help.  




WISP is a no-go at my location. Can't get line of sight to their (current) towers.

I can get enough service for remote citrix access to work as is. But video calling is a no go - too much delay, but downloading for movie watching is not a problem. It's the synchronous data heavy stuff that's got me looking for answers. Gaming is not an issue, but the ability to run a couple of hours of video chat would be nice. That isn't needed until Summer, however

Anyone tried Verizon's new LTE Home internet? $40 month with no caps and no throttling. I signed up yesterday and the router is being delivered tomorrow. I'll report results.

https://www.verizon.com/home/lte-home-internet/

From the Starlink thread figured I'd give this thread another try, but not hopeful.  

Only tower in the area is US Cellular.
No WISPs can reach me.
Resellers are super sketch.
Paying close to 200/mo for fixed celluar; I get 100 gigs then throttled to 2G which is useless.  
There's fiber not too far from here, but company already stated they don't give a shit they're not getting me service.
Centurylink can't give me service.

Confirming that Starlink is going to be my only hope.

So I just stumbled on this thread. I don’t quite understand the cellmapper site, but I’m going from a 100 mb/s cable line to a 25 mb/s unspecified AT&T service. My family are fairly heavy users, with our average monthly usage in the 700 GB range. Until Spectrum runs a coax or fiber line to our house, how unsatisfied are we going to be with our service?  

BTW, Spectrum plans on having service to our house “soon,” just no time frame committed though. There’s a massive amount of subdivisions being built in our area from young professionals “fleeing” Atlanta proper.

You are going to be in for a surprise.  The cellular services that we are using in this thread are okay at best.  Few are really pleased with them, and the sword of Damocles is always there that the third party reseller we are using will get their faces punched in by the carrier.  If you can get the Tmobile home internet direct from the mother ship, you are good.  Otherwise it's basically a constant game of who will be your next carrier when the reseller you are using loses their contract.  

We are all waiting for Starlink.

If you are holding out hope for a cable company or a fiber service to pull to your area you are likely just being wishful.

Also now seems that AT&T has upped their game on the home-based mobile internet to compete with the new TMO & VZ plans (this new ATT deal is apparently a different service than the fixed-mobile system). The pitch:

So $55/month - and not sure, but its possible that if you exceed 1TB in a month and then also exceed 10 blocks of 50GB for that extra $100 charge that they may begin throttling you then?
ETA: nope read the terms/conditions, really does look like a solid deal here... looks like you really can get unlimited unthrottled ATT wireless internet by prepaying extra $30/month, so total $85/month for this
https://www.att.com/wi-fi/  and then click on the 1st option presented "AT&T High Speed Internet"  its really dumb here that I cannot seem to get a good link here and you have to click through but whatever

also seems that extra $30/month for truly unlimited unthrottled is vaived if you combine billing for directv/atttv
also seems if you order online by oct 31 there is a $100 VISA gift card for you.

Unlimitedville just got booted from AT&T's network.
Starting 11/9

So in the past few weeks Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile have all offered home internet that is cellular based.

I have a good signal from all 3 at my home.

But NONE of those scumbags offer this service at my area!    I hate how hard this BS has become.  

Jesus Christ, what is Elon Musk waiting for?

Has anyone tried entering an address that is in a know coverage area for Tmobile, Verizon, or AT&T?  My parent's house comes up as being serviced by Tmobile, and I have had the best speed with them using the third party nonsense we have all been fighting.  If I have good signal with Tmobile, can I order the service for my parent's house and just move the equipment to my house?  We live literally 25 minutes apart in the Columbia, SC area.

Same here. I use visible, which uses Verizon towers, just deprioritized. Starlink isn’t going to save us.

We use a booster at the farm house. It is a Weboost and we now have very usable internet when we had nothing before. We then use our phones for hotspots.

Technically yes you can. There's conjecture that the local towers need particular equipment to service these home plans. The companies are only offering service in areas with plenty of spare bandwidth as well.

go to the tmo at home internet tool and use 999-999-9999 and any address

They're waiting for increased coverage.  It's not 100% yet.  They've expanded to a public beta in areas that may have 97% coverage.  Most of the US is still below 90%.  Want to watch a movie? Sorry there aren't any satellites passing over so you don't have internet right now.

When I do that with my correct address it says unavailable.  What I don't know is if it will work if I sign up with another address and bring the equipment to my house.