Disabled Nomads

If we can go there, so can you!

Unlimited WiFi with No Throttle

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The other day, Don and his friend went to get an unlimited data plan at Verizon for her phone along with a JetPack so that I could use the WiFi hotspot with my PCs and LG Pad. They mistakenly got the plan that gives you the MiFi JetPack with unlimited data, but you get throttled after 15 gigs.

I told Don that this was the wrong plan. He told me that the clerk said that she has never been throttled and I replied that this is probably because it's just her surfing and doing email. She probably didn't have a billion devices connected to it streaming videos and playing MMOFPS games.

Well, with 4 of us connected, I figured 15 gigs would get used up in no time. I went about my merry business like I always do, surfing, emailing, MMOFPS gaming, along with Youtube and Netflix video streaming to see what would happen.

It took 2 days. We got throttled the evening of the second day and not just a little bit throttled, but massivly throttled to the point of being completely useless.  We figured the throttle speeds would, at least, let you get Facebook or Google stuff, but no. I think we got better speeds with a 2400 baud modem back in the day.

I told him that under no circumstances am I chipping $50/mo for that.  If we're going to play $50 for internet, then we might as well put in another $15 more and get the prepaid plan that I told him about the day before he and his friend went to the store, and it would be ours. We wouldn't have to be splitting anything with anybody or we split the bill and pay only $30/mo.

With the useless throttled speeds, Don wanted to return everything right away. I showed his friend the video on Youtube where I got the information so she'd know what to do when they got to the store.

Today they returned the MiFi JetPack and got the Ellipse JetPack along with the $70 Prepaid plan, that Verizon has on their website (if you turn on autopay, you get $5/mo discount, making it $65/mo). If you go to their store for this, they might not have a clue what you're talking about, so show them the option from their web site.

UPDATE: This plan was taken off the shelf in May 2019 and is no longer available. Boy, we go lucky!!!

The sales clerk, whom they spoke to, knew about the plan.  She conveniently didn't offer it to them two days ago, knowing what our requirements were, and offered them a more expensive option that didn't fit our needs. She also tried to charge a $50 re-stock fee for the JetPack and re-stock fee of $50 for my friend's phone, but Don wasn't going to have any of that and talked them out it.

The difference between the JetPacks is the price ($200 vs $50) and the signal strength. The antenna in the Ellipsis JetPack isn't as good, and you don't get as many connections (15 vs 8), but for now, it's good enough.  Going forward, we'll invest in a cell booster, which is something we want to do anyway.

Here's the new speedtest. I don't know how many of us are connected at the moment, but it's a major improvement. I'm able to stream videos and play my MMOFPS game, so I'm happy.

The best part is having the JetPack when we move from park to park so I can Instagram along the way using my LG Pad, which doesn't have cell service.