Verizon just added unlimited data

[Sdwcheney]

Read the fine print, only get this low price if you buy FOUR lines. How many of you have four persons with four smartphones on the boat?

[a64pilot]

I went to change online, to change from my 18 GB plan to unlimited will cost me an extra $28 a month.
I think I will stay

current $142 for three phones, to $170 for three phones. We get an 18% discount because my Wife is a school teacher? Discount does not apply to unlimited rate

[skipgundlach]

Hoping not to cause too much thread drift, I have the T-Mobile unlimited plan, but it's $70/mo (plus junk charges); I have yet to be throttled, though I might have the opportunity to test the concept this month; it's only when there is "network congestion" I was told, AFTER you've used up 26 (maybe more now) GB...

Back to the point, who has used the T-M plan in the Bahamas? Is it good over there? Here I have so little connectivity (few bars) that most of the time the only way I can use my Google Hangouts/dialer hack is by forwarding it to the actual cell number.

However, the same phone, with the BTC chip, performs flawlessly, ringing my hangouts number (the same one I've had for over 30 years), and calls come and go without incident, EVEN IF I'm on a poor connection (2 or fewer bars) in a remote area for BTC.

I'd love to switch to something which would work in both the US and the Bahamas, and $20 beats $70 handily - but not if I'm going to run up hundreds of dollars of roaming as the admiral facetimes her grandchildren...

Thanks.

L8R

Skip

[hamburking]

I have an old, grandfathered plan from Wind Mobile in canada. Its a very low cost plan for cell service ($80 per YEAR), so I'm keeping it, but the data rate is $1 per Mb....thats $1000 per Gb. Unbelievable. I keep data turned OFF!

My son has a similar plan ($75 per YEAR) through Petro-Can Mobile...but he only pays $100 per Gb...still crazy, but an hour of pokemon go is only about $2, and he can get an uber in an emergency.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Sdwcheney

Read the fine print, only get this low price if you buy FOUR lines. How many of you have four persons with four smartphones on the boat?

That must be the fine print for an account with multiple devices/lines. I have only one device/line and bumping myself up from 4 GB to unlimited only cost me another ~$25/month.

[a64pilot]

Funny thing is I was Verizon unlimited for many years, didn't change until I went to 4G phones, they wouldn't let me keep the unlimited plan then, now its back ?

[TCL]

Don't want to take the thread on a tangent, but a previous poster mentioned Sprint plan v. Verizon so....

I've had a Sprint unlimited data for years and years, starting with iPhone 3 up to now iPhone 6. I've never had the ability to use the phone as a hotspot, but never needed it. I've added global roaming for short periods when traveling outside the US. Unlimited calling and data for me and my son's line runs $165/mo.

Just bought my boat a month ago and am planning to live aboard after a bit of work is done on the hard. Called Sprint and found that it would cost an additional $20/mo to add ability to use phone as hotspot. More importantly, the data when used as hotspot is limited to 5GB/mo.

It seems to me that amount of data is too low for this to be a viable full-time internet source. Agreed?

Does anyone have knowledge of some other Sprint plan that doesn't limit hotspot data use? Or a better plan from another provider. My use general area will be Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean.

Thanks

[zengirl]

Originally Posted by TCL

Don't want to take the thread on a tangent, but a previous poster mentioned Sprint plan v. Verizon so....

I've had a Sprint unlimited data for years and years, starting with iPhone 3 up to now iPhone 6. I've never had the ability to use the phone as a hotspot, but never needed it. I've added global roaming for short periods when traveling outside the US. Unlimited calling and data for me and my son's line runs $165/mo.

Just bought my boat a month ago and am planning to live aboard after a bit of work is done on the hard. Called Sprint and found that it would cost an additional $20/mo to add ability to use phone as hotspot. More importantly, the data when used as hotspot is limited to 5GB/mo.

It seems to me that amount of data is too low for this to be a viable full-time internet source. Agreed?

Does anyone have knowledge of some other Sprint plan that doesn't limit hotspot data use? Or a better plan from another provider. My use general area will be Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean.

Thanks

I quit Verizon, I was paying $150 a month. Now I have Straight Talk from Walmart. UNLIMITED calls, text, data $45 a month! Yes, I know if I leave the borders of the USA I'll have to do something else and that's ok. I'll deal with it then. The good news is Straight Talk has a deal with Verizon and they use their towers. Verizon has more towers than anyone, that's why I had them in the beginning.

[Delancey]

We're currently using TMobile unlimited in the bahamas. It's okay speedwise, often better than marina wifi.

Unfortunately, we didn't read the fine print til we got here, does not allow tethering, so got batelco for iPad to send work stuff.

[thruska]

I was offered 65$ for unlimited plan by Verizon but the line charge doubles from 10 to 20$.
This offered after last months complaint on some charges and got free 2gb in additional to plan change.
Verizon has a 40$/ Month international plan. I used in India last month and was told it's prorated if you're back early. I'll see how that billing works!
Now if they would all just go monthly instead of two year contracts we could have data price wars.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Delancey

We're currently using TMobile unlimited in the bahamas. It's okay speedwise, often better than marina wifi.

Unfortunately, we didn't read the fine print til we got here, does not allow tethering, so got batelco for iPad to send work stuff.

Well, as ALL of my cell business is data, I'm stuck, I guess.

I use Google Hangouts/dialer for my phone calls, and the phone as a hub for my computer and the admiral's smartphone, which is used extensively for Wi-Fi based calls AND email (she uses that abomination of a web interface rather than a simple email client, refreshing a few hundred megs every few minutes).

So, I guess the T-Mobile plan is out of the question.

Maybe should be a different thread, but:

Who has a US based, single-line, plan with unlimited roaming data and no hotspot limitation - and what's been the experience so far in the Bahamas?

My experience with BTC was stellar - but it's not any use in the US, where I find myself unwillingly most of the time.

L8R

Skip

[sailorchic34]

I just went back to a smart phone (samsung express 3 $40) with ATT as I can get 8 gig for $60 and after 8 gig it's throttled, but still usable for CF/email. This for a prepaid plan as I'm a cheap date. Oddly wifi does not work well, keeps disconnecting at odd times, but tethering works very well and is quite fast, to me anyway. Plus with a tether, there is no leaking data eating away at the gig's

Gee I use to think paying $10 a gig was expensive. I have a dedicated wifi hot spot that may be put to pasture. Have to see how the signal is out in the boondocks of the delta with the phone. I'm using Att as i found a bit better coverage in northern california then t-mobile. Verizon was always pretty spendy for me, but does have the best coverage, even here.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

Well, as ALL of my cell business is data

One thing to add is that my wife is able to bluetooth certain file types like .doc and .pdf to her phone from the laptop and send them just fine, I use weird extensions like .dwg and .skp that aren't recognized by the bluetooth file transfer for some reason so TMobile may still be an option for you.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Delancey

One thing to add is that my wife is able to bluetooth certain file types like .doc and .pdf to her phone from the laptop and send them just fine, I use weird extensions like .dwg and .skp that aren't recognized by the bluetooth file transfer for some reason so TMobile may still be an option for you.

By 'business' I meant activity. I do the ordinary computer stuff - email via WLMail, Chrome browser for comics, news, CF, Facebook, searching for parts, and Google Hangouts/Hangouts Dialer for my phone. Every bit of it is data, not the first 'voice' call.

With the BTC chip, it's a data-only card, and has no minutes or texts. Not to worry, I just use Hangouts/Dialer to call a Bahamian number; the costs are similar, but I don't have to keep buying $5 cards to keep the number alive.

See another thread I started on THAT subject: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ta-162684.html

L8R

Skip

[TCL]

For what it's worth, I called up Sprint. Noted that I was seeing an unlimited talk/data plan for new customers for $50 first line, $40 second line, which allowed hotspot tethering up to 10GB/mo., and that I was paying significantly more ($167) for two lines unlimited, no tethering, and was told that tethering would be an additional $20/mo limited to 5GB.

Sprint said that plan was only for new customers, so I expressed disappointment that loyal customers for many years couldn't get the same deal and said I'd be canceling and going to Verizon, which offered a similar package. After going up two levels in the customer-service hierarchy, I got the same deal, although for a few months I'll have to pay a $20 surcharge on my second line because my son's phone is still under a 2-year contract. Even with that charge, cut the cost by ~$80 including up to 10GB data when tethered.

Each of the 4 carriers (AT&T just this morning) now has offered a new unlimited plan within the past 2 weeks. Probably worth calling your existing carrier and trying to negotiate a better deal.