Internet While on the Road - Current Setup and Future Plans (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 19, 2019
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Location
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Current:
SIM: Visible Plan

Total Cost: $25 per month.

don’t need the router for visible, but here are settings anyways. I also use speedify to bond WiFi plus cellular in locations where there is a weak signal of each.

Router Settings:


Pros: unlimited hotspot, I am at about 300GBs and can still stream a live 720P feed At 4000kbps bitrate. I average about 5-60 mb download and 2-25 upload across various locations and times in my area. I am on the move a lot, and did test the connection while on the highway. It was stable enough to keep the stream live the entire time.

Cons: High Ping, bad for games where ping matters (fast paced games like counter strike and world of Warcraft).

Today I will get a Page Plus sim for 55 per month and Test it in router.

Update on Page Plus: Works in Mofi for hotspot feature (can’t hotspot from phone like visible), and data is capped at 200 gbs; after that no more internet (.01 speeds). At twice the price of visible and due to the cap of data, that I would only recommend this to people who need lower ping for gaming, and who can stay under 200 gbs of data per month; VAST majority of people do not touch 200Gbs per month. If no fast gaming involved (fast enough for pings to matter), then visible is just all around best bang for your bucks.

Future plans:

Cell Signal Booster? - Currently working on a group buy with Wilson Pro/WeBoost, where mud members will be very happy with the price.

MIMO antenna? - Need to research a lot into this before I am ready to recommend it to anyone, and I am all ears to those who want to teach me!
 
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The ATT plan I have is through a site called "unlimitedville". It's not something that ATT offers. There's a facebook group, and a less-active forum called LTE HACKS (lethacks dot com) that has a lot of info for building your own setup. I am in the process of gathering equipment and I'll go more in depth once I know more.
 
The ATT plan I have is through a site called "unlimitedville". It's not something that ATT offers. There's a facebook group, and a less-active forum called LTE HACKS (lethacks dot com) that has a lot of info for building your own setup. I am in the process of gathering equipment and I'll go more in depth once I know more.
I know the plan is resold through unlimitedville, but original plan should be same as one direct from ATT. All unlimitedville does is resell plans and routers preconfigured as a package and mark up the price/charges you to rent the Mofi and to configure settings for you. In my case I bought my own Mofi and now just gotta put the right ATT sim into it. I wonder If it’s an iPad plan or cell plan that is in the SIM.

I visit LTE hacks frequently and people seem to be having success with the Mofi and visible and Mofi and page plus sim combos, So I am starting with those( but when it comes to ATT, Verizon and TMobile settings, that they aren’t allowed to discuss it.

Also, no one, even on LTE hacks, is trying to bond the signals like me.

My setup for next month is to plug Page Plus sim into Mofi, then share the visible connection straight from my phone. Then speedify will bond the 2 signals and if everything works you will see me Reliably stream at 1080P again.

Total cost for everything (counting what I already have) this month is 40 for visible, 55 for page plus, 1 Mofi router For $300 and 10 for speedify. If it works total cost monthly will be About 100 bucks, and I use more bandwidth than most People I would think, due to my stream. I think just the page plus and Mofi combo should be enough for most, if Visible ping is too high. For most people I think the Visible and Mofi alone is enough.
 
Forgive my ignorance but why the router? I'm used to thinking about putting a SIM in a phone and using that as a hotspot. Not possible? I'm assuming you are talking about a phone SIM here or is that something more exotic?
 
Forgive my ignorance but why the router? I'm used to thinking about putting a SIM in a phone and using that as a hotspot. Not possible? I'm assuming you are talking about a phone SIM here or is that something more exotic?
It is possible if you go with Visible where there is no hotspot limit, like in my case. Your phone is essentially the modem and router there.

Phones usually have stronger modems than most routers as well, so you can probably pull in a strong connection.

another plus of going that route is that it will just be 25 total if you go with visible and use phone as router and modem, and you’ll still be able to use your line as a phone since the sim is in your phone.

and yes, we are talking phone sims.

The router And speedify comes in when visible isn’t fast enough and you need to To go with another plan, or bond multiple plans. Other plans either have unlimited data no hotspot, or limited hotspot. The Mofi takes no hotspot plans and allows sharing via its router function, and takes limited hotspot plan and masks hotspot as cellular data, and thus bypasses the hotspot limit. It also has the benefit of having Ethernet WAN and LAN ports, so you can connect via Ethernet as well as connect another router (Bridge mode) to it to expand your WiFi range.

As long as your phone is nearby and visible speeds alone are good enough, then chances are you won’t need a router. I think unless you are a gamer, streamer, or torrenting large files, that this route is actually good enough for most folks. That’s assuming most folks have a good grasp on how much data they actually use.
 
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Forgive my ignorance but why the router? I'm used to thinking about putting a SIM in a phone and using that as a hotspot. Not possible? I'm assuming you are talking about a phone SIM here or is that something more exotic?
And no worries brother don’t be afraid to ask anything. I’m sure many people want to figure this out and it’s easier if we work together!

But yeah Page Plus plan I just got does not have hotspot built in, so router is to act as hotspot using the cellular data from sim.

I did call and ask Page Plus first about using it in the modem, they said worst case scenario is that I’ll get deprioritized after 60GBs. I specifically asked if I can get in trouble or violate any TOS and rep said no. Told in store rep same thing and they just said that they can’t promise it will work in router, but I am welcome to try.
 
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wow, that Visible Plan seems like a very good deal. I might just change over to that and use it. Being Verizon, I wonder if it'll work in my verizon jetpack? It states unlimited hot spot so I'm assuming it won't throttle speeds? Could this even be good enough to use as a home internet source you reckon?
 
wow, that Visible Plan seems like a very good deal. I might just change over to that and use it. Being Verizon, I wonder if it'll work in my verizon jetpack? It states unlimited hot spot so I'm assuming it won't throttle speeds? Could this even be good enough to use as a home internet source you reckon?

They say that they have the right to deprioritize during peak hours, but even during those hours i have not ever experienced anything close to 3G speeds, which is what throttling is. I have seen throttles before and most visible will do is deprioritize, which is still fast enough to do most things. I am at about 300GBs this month and counting just from the laptop usage. And i have not tried the jetpack but it is almost plug and play in the Mofi 4500 SIM7.

Before you do anything, i am trying the Page Plus plan soon. I will test both under same conditions and report back here.
 
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I think it’s the spot I’m in, too many trees or something but every plan has bad upload here. Visible is the only one fast enough to maintain near the minimum upload I need for stream by itself, and only when I have the sim in the router. Problem is I can’t share page plus off phone, so the page plus is In router and being bonded with visible from phone. Even that wasn’t enough during peak hours earlier when both were getting below .5 upload From phone, and 1-3 in router (but still 10-30 download).

Remember I care about upload speed, but most people are only concerned with download speed. I am a streamer so a plan that may be considered slow for me because I use upload mostly, may still be plenty for others because they use download mostly.

I have confirmed a few things today Regarding Mofi and Page plus as well:

Page Plus sim into Mofi Router = Hotspot. Without router I could not hotspot from phone.

Ping is better than Visible, but speeds seem very similar to visible just higher download/lower pings. Makes sense since they are both Verizon (so I will likely just keep 1 so I can cover other towers).

Download speed at the store and at Walmart was 40-100mb down and 10 up on phone. Here on this spot I am getting below .5 up on phone, but faster upload when plugged into Mofi. Same with Visible (faster upload in Mofi than phone). Download seems fairly consistent going from phone to Router.

Even though I only get .5 upload for a bit there, the download was still consistently 10-30mb. That’s in phone. In router, lowest upload was about 2-3. I will do more tests, but it seems the better connection comes from me connecting to it through router rather than through phone. I really only care about the connection speeds from my laptop.
 
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In my case, I live in the county and nobody services this location. I'm using these routers and SIM cards for my home internet. I have a family of 5 who are leaning towards power users. I work full time remote as a software developer. Right now I'm getting 40-60 down and 10-30 up. I intend to double or triple that. I think my tower is capable of it, due to the proximity to the Walmart headquarters. Everything here is updated...
 
In my case, I live in the county and nobody services this location. I'm using these routers and SIM cards for my home internet. I have a family of 5 who are leaning towards power users. I work full time remote as a software developer. Right now I'm getting 40-60 down and 10-30 up. I intend to double or triple that. I think my tower is capable of it, due to the proximity to the Walmart headquarters. Everything here is updated...

If you are getting that speed already, consider a big 4G/LTE antenna To boost it. You may need to do a couple things like boost and bond. I’ll keep digging and keep you posted.
 
I've ordered a WG3526 router and I'm in the process of trying to procure a EM-12G which will do 3x carrier aggregation. I'm trying to figure out if I can buy a 4x4 MIMO antenna and use it in 2x2 mode for now, until the EM160 hits the market. My local ATT tower will do channel 66 x 3, or a combination of 4, 12, 66. It depends on what I can do. I'll also have to buy a LOT of LMR400 cable for the 2 (soon to be 4) runs to the antenna. Looking like probably 50ft x 4, as I'm not going to mount powered equipment in the attic with the temperatures up there.
 
I've ordered a WG3526 router and I'm in the process of trying to procure a EM-12G which will do 3x carrier aggregation. I'm trying to figure out if I can buy a 4x4 MIMO antenna and use it in 2x2 mode for now, until the EM160 hits the market. My local ATT tower will do channel 66 x 3, or a combination of 4, 12, 66. It depends on what I can do. I'll also have to buy a LOT of LMR400 cable for the 2 (soon to be 4) runs to the antenna. Looking like probably 50ft x 4, as I'm not going to mount powered equipment in the attic with the temperatures up there.

Sounds like you have a lot figured out! Because I am mobile I am doing basically a mini version of your setup, with smaller antenna in the future and shorter cable run to that antenna. For now I am very happy with the page plus and visible plan and bonding them. I will do more testing at next camping spot but I don’t imagine it can get much worse than this spot, as in only get better from here. It’s crazy how less than 2 miles away I get 100/10 mb upload and down, but here it’s 10% of that on the page plus!
 
Update:

Since Page Plus has a cap of 200Gbs, I will not be renewing it. It was working great in the Mofi then after 200Gbs it dropped down to .01 upload and download, and makes dial up look fast. This eliminates the need for the Mofi for now, since it’s main job was to share the page plus connection (sharing from phone isn’t an option).

So now my entire setup is just 1 visible sim, hotspotting straight from phone. It’s holding up very well even after 500 gbs used.

In most areas 1 sim is enough to sustain my live stream, and for other areas I am adding another visible SIM into the mix. The issue now is that visible has a party pay system where you get a discount for all if there are at least 4 lines, and it goes from 40 to 25 per month. So 4 lines is 100 bucks but 2 line is 80 and 3 line is 120. Best bang is with 4 lines. I don’t need 4 lines, just maybe 2-3 total, so if anyone wants a phone line for 25 total per month for truly unlimited LTE/4g hotspot and unlimited cellular data, then you can join my party pay group at visible.com/p/sharpecat. Otherwise I will have 4 numbers and use speedify to bond 4 signals for a total cost of 110 per month (10 for speedify), with no other hardware required.

Instructions:

Go to visible site, click shop. Choose your own device or one of theirs then setup shipping and payment.

They will mail you a SIM, download Visible App (via Wifi) and launch Visible App with the SIM inserted into phone. This will begin the activation process.

While activating you will have an option to join a "Party Pay group" where you get a discount if there are at least 4 in group. My group is called SharpeCat.

Total is $25 per month, no contracts required (thats what rep told me).

So no more router and I just hotspot straight from phones, easy and gets the job done.
 
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IF my party is full or if you want 4 lines for yourself, then here is instructions to save you some time since each line requires a separate email/account.

To use 1 email for infinite lines:

My main email is DangSharpeCat@gmail.com, but i want the emails for all 4 lines to go to same inbox.

Register first account with DangSharpeCat@gmail.com

Then add periods to your email, which will effectively treat it as a separate email by Visible, but Gmail ignores the periods so "D.angsharpecat@gmail" is the same as "DangSharpeCat@gmail.com", so both will end up in same inbox.

So 2nd, 3rd, 4th line i used:
D.angsharpecat@gmail.com
Da.ngsharpecat@gmail.com
Dan.gsharpecat@gmail.com

No need to make new email accounts, which is the longest part of setting up new lines. You now have 4 lines with unlimited hotspot and 4G/LTE cellular data for yourself or for you and your family for $100 a month.

For people doing what i am doing, which is merging multiple lines into 1 strong connection, then you just add speedify for the bonding software to merge the signals (plug and play, no setup required). You now have a great internet solution everywhere with Verizon Cell signal (home, work and road), with enough to share! You can probably cancel your internet at office and other cell phone bills and save money going this route. Only thing i have not tested is gaming for when you're at home, since that requires low pings. I like that i can have a phone number for work, one for my parents to contact me with, and one for friends/less important people than my parents XD. I can even stick one in the router to get around the "1 hotspot device limit"! This kind of flexibility is not found in any other mobile internet solutions for $100 or less. Then you consider that no one offers unlimited hotspot straight from phone, let alone for only $25 per month, then hopefully you'll realize just how great of a deal this is. Verizon charged me more per month just for 20GBs of hotspot, and i used over 500GBs last month with visible (if i did that on another network i am looking at over $1-2000 bucks easy). It's like comparing apples to oranges when it comes to data limits and dollars paid per GB of data.

Again, no contract so just stop paying if you no longer need it, and just $25 per month for the months you do need it.

Hope that helps!

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There is a ATT 4g/LTE tower in my parents property as well as a spectrum building, so my visible speed tests (Verizon towers) have been averaging 2-30 there, possible interference? In most places I average about 15-50.

First spot I tried outside of parents warehouse today and got this, but at the warehouse I got under 5 of each this morning. Remember that you can put the sim into a router and get faster speeds, namely faster upload speeds. This speed test was from phone.

If you need a party to join to get it down from 40 to 25 per month, let me know. I am switching everyone close to me over, so I will be hosting a bunch of parties so that everyone gets the best price.

This is for Visible Unlimited Hotspot (4g/LTE) Cell Plan. I tried just about every plan last month and half, and nothing even comes close to the value of Visibles plan (they only have 1). No contract and no hotspot limits, just pay 25 per month you need it, and Stop payment soon as you no longer need without any penalties.

If you don’t have time to research a ton of plans like I have been doing, then just trust me that this is the one (if Verizon tower is in your area).

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I guess I can also chime in and say off the bat, I was getting 7mps download through my phone, and 30mps download through the jetpack. I'm on the east coast of florida. Signal strength it seems is on the weaker side for me it seems, seeing 1-3 bars out of 5 most of the time.

I may get a couple external antennas and see if I can boost the Jetpack's signal strength.
 
I guess I can also chime in and say off the bat, I was getting 7mps download through my phone, and 30mps download through the jetpack. I'm on the east coast of florida. Signal strength it seems is on the weaker side for me it seems, seeing 1-3 bars out of 5 most of the time.

I may get a couple external antennas and see if I can boost the Jetpack's signal strength.
Very insightful, thanks for sharing! Antennas are on my list of things to research, so lemme know what you find out! Easier when we work together!

I have found that, like all other cell plans, that your speed can vary based on where you are in the building, as well as the time of day. Peak hours vs non peak hour, and one room in the building versus another can result in different speeds. Even my Verizon sim that can sometimes hit 100mb download, can drop as low as under 1 in some places. T mobile and sprint did even worse in those places. I have not tried ATT in years.

I have been looking at routers to recommend for people close to me, and will start testing them soon. Will keep everyone posted on that. The Mofi’s built-in TTL feature is not needed with visible since it’s unlimited hotspot already built into the plan, so that opens the door for just about every 4g/LTE router out there. I’ll ask in LTE hacks group, and will gladly accept any suggestions here as well. Thanks in advance!
 
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Is the Visible internet plan something that could be used in conjunction with a WeBoost for better signal strength?
 

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