Can anyone tell me what is the best deal right now for service with unlimited browsing? I don't do any uploading or gaming. I do watch lots of youtube but I don't make tons of phone calls. How cheap can I get a decent service right now? Tell me about your best current experience and if you are locked in a contract- how much per month are you paying (and what do you get). I am also considering a mobile hotspot additionally. If you have that as well I would like to know how much you are paying. Thanks.
BEST CELL SERVICE Under $50 monthly
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jonyjoe303
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boostmobile for 50 dollars (includes taxes etc) gets you unlimited on the phone and 12 gb if used phone as a hotspot. For 60 you get 30gb hotspot. I have had boostmobile for 2 years and its good service, and you can change plan every month if you don't need all the features. The cheapest is the 35 dollar plan but it only has 3gb at 4g speeds then drops to lower speeds the rest of the month. I paid 55 dollars for a motorola e4 and its a great phone for the price.
JD GUMBEE
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Watch out about Boost...and Sprint...out West for coverage issues.
Sequoia, Grand Canyon have zero signal as well as many other places out there.
Verizon towers worked better for us over all.
(We had both. Unless you are going to hang out West a lot, Sprint/Boost maybe fine for you.)
East coast, they work well and pricing is cheap.
Sequoia, Grand Canyon have zero signal as well as many other places out there.
Verizon towers worked better for us over all.
(We had both. Unless you are going to hang out West a lot, Sprint/Boost maybe fine for you.)
East coast, they work well and pricing is cheap.
Thank you for the responses. A mobile hotspot is very important and I am going to be watching a lot of youtube on a second device- either a tablet or a laptop. $55 a month still sounds pretty good. I really don't make many phone calls/texts and I am not a big social media user. I watch netflix but more often youtube and I was wondering how the hotspot works. I also don't know what "you get 25 gb" really means if you are watching streaming video. Does that mean it just gets slow? Does the straight talk plan for $55 include "hotspot" or is that extra. Can you use more than one device with the hotspot? I am totally ignorant of this and have never even had real cell service. Ever. Only a prepaid tracphone LOL. I need to learn quick. Thanks.
Kaylee
Well-known member
cynanne: Hail fellow phone minimalist! 
My first cell was a tracphone flip phone, my current cell is a GoPhone flip.
Last year, I used Straight Talk's pay-as-you-go mobile hotspot that is sold thru Walmart.
The hotspot is a small sealed gadget that's roughly the size of the palm of one's hand.
I found it trivially easy to set up (it was my first), and it worked reliably everywhere I went. The one I bought is on Verizon's network.
It supports multiple simultaneous devices - I'm not sure how many, and (annoyingly) each provider has different rules/limits. It's a good question to ask.
What laptop/etc are you using now?
Most gadgets track how much data you use, and it's simply a matter of figuring out how to find it. Ok, that's often not simple.
Win10 is pretty easy, and gives you the last month.
The two big things I hate about Straight Talk (enough to switch to a different seller) are:
no data rollover (I bought the monthly cards that have specific data amounts),
no reliable & safe way to check one's data usage.
I hope to glean much info from this thread.
My first cell was a tracphone flip phone, my current cell is a GoPhone flip.
Last year, I used Straight Talk's pay-as-you-go mobile hotspot that is sold thru Walmart.
The hotspot is a small sealed gadget that's roughly the size of the palm of one's hand.
I found it trivially easy to set up (it was my first), and it worked reliably everywhere I went. The one I bought is on Verizon's network.
It supports multiple simultaneous devices - I'm not sure how many, and (annoyingly) each provider has different rules/limits. It's a good question to ask.
What laptop/etc are you using now?
Most gadgets track how much data you use, and it's simply a matter of figuring out how to find it. Ok, that's often not simple.
Win10 is pretty easy, and gives you the last month.
The two big things I hate about Straight Talk (enough to switch to a different seller) are:
no data rollover (I bought the monthly cards that have specific data amounts),
no reliable & safe way to check one's data usage.
I hope to glean much info from this thread.
Kaylee
Well-known member
RVTravel: The device & plan I bought was a mobile hotspot only, not a cell phone.
There's literally no UI.
The only (alleged) ways to check are thru an app, their website (apparently), and by phoning them.
The first two are not safe (by design), and the last failed to produce accurate info (offshore call center, poor comprehension level (though they always seemed "nice" just didn't understand what I was asking for)).
Twice I asked them to set up an automatic daily email to tell me the remaining data, they said they would, but it was only sent once (and was not accurate).
In this day and age, the cyber anti-security is not acceptable. It's straight forward to create a safe-to-the-user system (it's lower cost/maintenance as well).
Nowhere on the packaging did it mention that the data did not rollover.
The Walmart sales critter also did not know that.
They did send a device-only email at the end of each card's life, which strongly implied that it did rollover.
It should have been printed (in large print) on the outside of the hotspot package.
There's literally no UI.
The only (alleged) ways to check are thru an app, their website (apparently), and by phoning them.
The first two are not safe (by design), and the last failed to produce accurate info (offshore call center, poor comprehension level (though they always seemed "nice" just didn't understand what I was asking for)).
Twice I asked them to set up an automatic daily email to tell me the remaining data, they said they would, but it was only sent once (and was not accurate).
In this day and age, the cyber anti-security is not acceptable. It's straight forward to create a safe-to-the-user system (it's lower cost/maintenance as well).
Nowhere on the packaging did it mention that the data did not rollover.
The Walmart sales critter also did not know that.
They did send a device-only email at the end of each card's life, which strongly implied that it did rollover.
It should have been printed (in large print) on the outside of the hotspot package.
B and C
Well-known member
AT&T has a Mobley that is designed to plug into your vehicle's OBD II port that is a hotspot. I think the device limit is 5 at one time. I think this "Connected Car" service is still available. There are some threads that discuss it. The OBD II port limitation can be overcome with a simple adapter. The service is $20 a month.
Thread: https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=35228&highlight=mobley
Thread: https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=35228&highlight=mobley
Thank you for this. I don't make lots of phone calls but I watch lots of youtube. I have a nexus tablet and a laptop but I will be getting rid of one of them(not sure which). I will buy a new phone so of course I can also watch videos on the phone. I also surf the net frequently and use email (very little texting or social media usage). I don't completely understand this "mobley". Would I save money with this if I have cheap cell service as well? Would I have to have AT&T for my phone as well? Would the streaming video be slower over time compared to other hotspot offerings? I hope these questions make sense. Thanks.B and C said:
B and C
Well-known member
I use Verizon for my cell phone with the hotspot feature on it. The Mobley is on its' own standalone plan (connected car). This way I have the best chance of having coverage anywhere I am. As far as cheap cell service, you hopefully get what you pay for. Whatever service you are looking at check their coverage maps before you leap. Also know that some providers like straight talk and Cricket are resellers (MVNO) and their service won't roam off the providers towers. So a coverage map may show as working because they use the main providers coverage map, not their own actual coverage map. An example. I had Straight Talk Verizon's plan and my wife's phone was with Verizon. We were near Stanley, Id and she had service. When I tried to use my phone, I got a recording wanting me to use a credit card to make calls. This is a roaming location for Verizon.
This has been discussed here a lot. Here is a link to another thread discussing it with a link in that thread: https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=35228&highlight=mobley
You can browse the communications forum threads here: https://vanlivingforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14
Good luck.
This has been discussed here a lot. Here is a link to another thread discussing it with a link in that thread: https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=35228&highlight=mobley
You can browse the communications forum threads here: https://vanlivingforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14
Good luck.
Looks like Mobley is OOS
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/th...r-mopar-email-campaign-deal-now-out-of-stock/
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/th...r-mopar-email-campaign-deal-now-out-of-stock/
B and C
Well-known member
Can still be had on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=mobley+6200&_sacat=0
Don't know if the $20 plan is still available though.
Don't know if the $20 plan is still available though.
