PCs for People Hotspots

[Firtree]

Have a friend who might qualify for this program but I’d have to help with the techie part. 

I see a few Hotspots listed Franklin R910 and a Franklin R850 ($75), Netgear Fuse, ZTE WARP CONNECT. 
Could only see price for R850 but the R910 might be $135 

Is the R850 a decent hotspot or are any other others better, if there is a choice. 

Do you recomend going for the full year of service or less?
Coverage area Sprint good at their location, but maps are just maps not life. 

Any other advice?

 

[Blanch]

I purchased one of the Franklin hotspots from PCSforPeople and it was a major hassle.

First of all the carrier is Sprint. The Sprint map showed plenty of coverage, but the Franklin wouldn’t connect. Anyhow, to make a long story shorter, the hotspot had roaming blocked. PCsforPeople said Sprint put on a block and Sprint said PCsforPeople put in the block. Regardless, half of Sprints map is roaming and it never worked in areas with clearly marked signal coverage, places where Sprint phones were working just fine.

I did get a refund from PCsforPeople.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TexasTuff]

I think I ordered a 810 but they shipped me a Franklin 910. I plugged it in and made connection to my computer and it has worked great. I hated to loose my Verizon 3g but glad I have Pc's for People to take it's place.
I paid for a year up front but I guess it would be a little less risk to pay for a shorter time in case there is a problem.
I did see a lot of complaints about their customer service but I've had no problems with them and I plan on buying a computer from them soon.

 

[grimmal]

We have PCS ,it works fine in most locations. Using it now in southern New Mexico. In Indiana we were in a dead zone but so was our Verizon. I cannot complain about it at all. just as fast as the 5 dollar 3G we had until yesterday. We paid for the whole year upfront. From time to time they will send you an email on laptops or desktops pretty cheap.

 

[ChrisFix]

I think I ordered a 810 but they shipped me a Franklin 910. I plugged it in and made connection to my computer and it has worked great. I hated to loose my Verizon 3g but glad I have Pc's for People to take it's place.
I paid for a year up front but I guess it would be a little less risk to pay for a shorter time in case there is a problem.
I did see a lot of complaints about their customer service but I've had no problems with them and I plan on buying a computer from them soon.

I have their Franklin 910 as well, and it works great. Nice thing to know about this device, is you can remove the battery and run it from the power cord if you're going to be using it in one spot for a while. Saves wear and tear on the battery and is one of the few hotspots you can do this with.
Speeds are great where you have service, but it is Sprint, so YMMV...
I have the ATT iPad data plan SIM in a hotspot and the 4G Verizon $5/month MiFi also, so I'm well covered, but I like the Franklin and PCs for People were easy to work with in my experience. Also bought a year up front as it is the lowest cost and I have no worries that it will be supported during that time.

 

[phaney]

The Franklin 850 was the only hotspot available when I ordered recently.  I hate Sprint almost as much as AT&T but took a chance.

I drove all around the Little Rock, Arkansas area today with my Franklin 850.  It gets 1 bar pretty much everywhere in the metro except the IMMEDIATE downtown area of LR/NLR.  THERE I got a whopping 24mpbs down and about 4 up.

At my house in NLR I get an abysmal .4Mbps (yes, point .four) down and 3-4Mbps up.  My 3G Verizon was MUCH faster at 3-4Mbps. 
I can barely use YouTube with this Franklin Sprint LTE.  It drops to 240p and 144p and buffers.  Ridiculous for an LTE connection.

I even tried my Wilson WeBoost with it in the truck but it makes no difference at all. 
And I've tried every window direction in my small house.  Sprint just bombs here.

I had a similar experience about 3 years ago when I tried Sprint on an iPhone 5.  They claimed full LTE coverage in my entire area but it only got LTE in a few areas downtown.  Everywhere else was 3G.  I'm surprised that haven't had a class-action suit.

I did notice the Sprint coverage map on PCsForPeople now makes you put in a device before it will tell you if your area is covered.  It even says LTE coverage is device dependent.


It got my PC back online but it's almost useless and $15 a month.

The one good thing I can say about the Franklin hotspot is it runs without the battery.  I love that!

 

[travlinman and wife]

It has ben my experience these co they show you a at&t  or Verizon map and say that is your coverage. When they are not under contract with all those towers. I can see a at&t and verizon tower from my house but sprint and cricket both will not work. I can drive two miles and they will work. because I am using a different tower.

 

[jimindenver]

Make sure the hotspot picks up band 41. That is Sprints high speed band. (really high speed) Band 25 is the slowest, band 26 is a bit faster and their longer range band. I have returned hotspot over them not having the right bands. Iy has made a world of difference.

Both my 4Gcommunity and PCS hotspots have had roaming. Make sure you get into the online manager at 192.168.1.1 and check the network settings. I think by default they come with roaming switched off but I have used it in many places.

 

[urbankid12]

I'm thinking about picking up a laptop from them.. I went with landline for my internet since Sprint does not have good service in my area. The laptops sure do look reasonably priced. Right now I only have a chromebook I picked up around the 200 price point a few years ago. Would be nice to have a laptop that has windows software as they are typically more expensive. Maybe I'll have to make a video if I do so everyone can see what ya get for around 200 bucks. I didn't think I would meet the low income guidelines but based on my last year taxes I do.