Has anyone tried the Karma Go?

[cheojackson]

We just started full-timing in October, and realized that our family shared data plan of 10 Gb / month was woefully inadequate. Our 10 year old daughter loves YouTube, so we've been trying to stay in parks that have WiFi, but as you all know that can be really hit-or-miss. (Although I do highly recommend HIco, Tx Bosque River RV park. City park with 3dn 1up for FREE.)

 

But we'd like to be able to go a few more places, maybe even boondock a little. I saw an article about the Karma Go and it really resonated with me, so I jumped in. Probably should have done a little more research first, read some reviews, did some homework before plunking down $600 for "unlimited LTE anywhere"

 

Anybody here have personal experience, praise or horror stories they'd like to share?

[Max Signal]

We just started full-timing in October, and realized that our family shared data plan of 10 Gb / month was woefully inadequate. Our 10 year old daughter loves YouTube, so we've been trying to stay in parks that have WiFi, but as you all know that can be really hit-or-miss. (Although I do highly recommend HIco, Tx Bosque River RV park. City park with 3dn 1up for FREE.)

 

But we'd like to be able to go a few more places, maybe even boondock a little. I saw an article about the Karma Go and it really resonated with me, so I jumped in. Probably should have done a little more research first, read some reviews, did some homework before plunking down $600 for "unlimited LTE anywhere"

 

Anybody here have personal experience, praise or horror stories they'd like to share?

I believe they use the Sprint Network . So you might want to ask anyone you know that travels to the same places as you how they find Sprint if they use it. I have a number of ex colleagues in the Music Business using it . But RVing is a whole different animal.

[Devilishjim]

JMHO but I think maybe the family needs to spend time at some activities that dont include the internet.. If you feel she needs this much then give her maybe a 10G plan of her own and when it's used up she's shut down until the next month starts. Buy several kindles and start reading. $600 for internet !! NOT in my lifetime !

[RV_]

Cheojackson,

Welcome to the forums!

 

 

I don't use Karma either, sorry can't tell you whether it works or not for RVrs traveling fulltime as you asked either. If we get back on the road full time I am hoping to be able to afford that much and more in a few years. We use more than 50 GB to 100 GB of our 350GB limit with cable broadband. When we started 7 years full time people were just getting cell phones and we had to try a strap on modem, that only worked once of 50 tries because the phones were outside and RVs and trucks interfered.to send and receive email when the campground would not let us use their fax or phone line. NO RV parks had WiFi in 1997, and ,most of us were lucky to have any 800 toll free access numbers. By our third year we had this web forum, and parks started putting in extra lines to dial up with in their public areas but time was limited. When we came off the road in 2003 there were no smart phones and folks were figuring out how to tether their computers and many using VSAT satellite services.

 

Today we can share with our Windows phones. That is amazing compared to 13 years AGO.

 

Good luck in your travels with a kiddo along.

 

Since you say you jumped in and have it, how is it where you are now, and been with it?

[Technomadia]

Now that Karma Neverstop is starting to arrive to those who ordered first, we're hearing a lot of mixed reviews on it. The biggest complaint is of course that it's on the Sprint network, which is not ideal for RVers who are mobile, or not parked in an area serviced by Sprint.

 

The biggest issues we're hearing about the device itself, is that you have to activate anything that connects to the hotspot via a browser with your user name & password - so you can't directly connect things like Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast or even some gaming systems to it. To do that, you have to use a WiFi as WAN router.

 

Here's our article on the service:

http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/karma-launches-unlimited-hotspot-plan-on-sprints-network/

 

There's also another Sprint unlimited plan that was just announce that doesn't have the throttled speeds of Karma, but does have a 2-year contract:

Unlimitedville Offers Unlimited Sprint Hotspot Plans for $42.99/month

[Bill&Cindy]

I have been using Karma for several days and found it to be satisfactory. The speed,is a solid 5mb as advertised. I use a wifi as wan router andKarma won't allow that. So I am going to return it. If you can live with the 3 device limit and have good Sprint reception, it should be fine.

[Bill Joyce]

Sounds like Karma, probably on the insistence of Sprint, is putting a lot of effort into enforcing a "Thou Shalt Not" list. It would not work well for me either.

[Yarome]

The biggest complaint is of course that it's on the Sprint network, which is not ideal for RVers who are mobile, or not parked in an area serviced by Sprint.

 

X2... And with Bill also.

[Biker56]

Mine is to be shipped this week. I ordered it 11/19.

Where I winter Sprint tower speeds can be from 2.5Mbps to 49Mbps depending on the tower. Those 2 towers were within 12 miles of each other

That is on my Sprint iPhone 6 Plus test I have done those on my unlimited data plan. No hot spot

[RV_]

Hey Biker do a review would ya?

[Technomadia]

I have been using Karma for several days and found it to be satisfactory. The speed,is a solid 5mb as advertised. I use a wifi as wan router andKarma won't allow that. So I am going to return it. If you can live with the 3 device limit and have good Sprint reception, it should be fine.

 

Curious which WiFi as WAN router you're using, and if Karma gave you any sort of message? We've had at least two confirmed reports of folks being able to successfully connect their Karma Go to a WiFi as WAN router and stream via Ruku & Chromecast.

[Biker56]

Hey Biker do a review would ya?

RV..I will do that. I hope it can replace my DataStorm Hughes.net with 1.3Mbps down..

Unlimited for $50 monthly sounds good if it is true. With no contract.

 

On Edit it was shipped yesterday from CA.and too be delivered on 12/10 by UPS

[RV_]

I think a lot of folks would like that too! Hi Cherie and/or Chris.

[cheojackson]

Just got the notification that my Karma Go has shipped and should be in Livingston by the 10th. Most of the places that we go show that they are covered by the Sprint network, but I know those coverage maps are sketchy at best. I'll let y'all know how it works, once I get it up and running.

[Sehc]

$600 does not sound like the offers I have received from Karma.

[cheojackson]

$600 does not sound like the offers I have received from Karma.

We went for the unlimited plan and prepaid for a year.

[theeyres]

I think the OP is talking about $600 for the year--$50 a month. Sounds like a bargain if it works.

[Biker56]

After using Karma for 3 days it works fine for me. Speeds have been from 2.1 to 4.65Mbps.

A lot better then my Hughes.net 1.3Mbps plus all the reloads needed after all the DNS Lookup Error pages at least 1/2 the time.

 

1st day both my iPhone & iPad needed a OS updates plus some W10. I used a total of 1.1GB that day.

With my hughes allowed of 425MB a day I would have had to to do those downloads from 2-7AM to get them done.

 

2nd day 985MB over twice what my hughes allows. I was able to see a lot of Facebook videos and others that isn't possible with hughes without a lot of buffering.

 

3rd day slowed use down and used hughes some. so only used 272MB

 

Once I put the user name & password in the Desktop PC, Laptop, iPhone and iPad that is never needed to be repeated again. They all remember to auto connect.

But if you try to connect the 4th devise it will ask you to pause one of the other ones that are connected.

 

The Karma app on the iPhone lets you check hourly, daily or monthly MB/GB use. Next billing date, what is connected, account info, Setting to get emails when battery is low, when a quest joins etc.

 

I haven't found a way to connect my Samsung 46" SmartTV to it. TV can connect to Karma but not to the internet. Probably needs a way to input user/password that I can't find.

Right now updating software in the TV from hughes wired. Last TV software update done was 1/2/13. I will probable have to do some of the update later as it now says it will take another 1 hour 37 and is only 13% done.

Now only have 280MB left on daily allowance.

 

Hughes is paid until last of month. If Karma keeps working good, I will have Hughes shut off after 12 years & 4 months of use.

[Dick N]

I too have been using the Karma unlimited plan on an iPad. I also, have a Verizon data plan which I may be dropping based on the results of the Karma.

 

The Karma Go works as well as the Verizon service and as well as the now defunct OmniLynx plan I also had. My home is in the woods so is difficult for any cell signal to reach here. However, amazingly, the Karma Go is consistently performing a bit better than anything I have had with Verizon. I suspect that will change when we go snowbirding next week and coverage areas for Sprint will not be anywhere near what Verizon has. Speeds are 4-5 Mbps just as they advertise. We have 2 iPads using it and see no difference in performance when both are on line.

 

The little box they provide is a slick little device and utterly simple in its design. Battery life is not much but is of no significance for me.

 

Bottom line is: I am happy with the Unlimited Karma Go plan and will keep it until something better comes along.

 

Dick N

[Biker56]

After 11 days I have used 6.5GB and I had my DataStorm account cancelled after over 12 years.

Now I can watch uTube/Facebook/web pages videos without all the buffering I had with Hughes.net or running out of data.

 

I did order the 11-Mini Pack from WiFiRanger today that should take care of the problem of not being able to connect with the Smart TV, Blue Ray DVD and DirecTV Genie.

And give me better Free WiFi in some campgrounds

 

So I am very happy with the Karma. Now I just hope the price/data allowance stays the way it is for a long time.

And they bump up the allowed 5Hbps up some.

 

Also want to thank jack M. for the 5% discount that paid for the shipping and a little more.

[Jack Mayer]

Also want to thank jack M. for the 5% discount that paid for the shipping and a little more.

You are quite welcome. Hope you enjoy the Mini pack. It is about ideal for most RVers. And don't let the "5 devices" limit that is associated with the Mini bother you. You can connect pretty much as many devices as you like. The Mini is quite the powerful little router.

[Dick N]

Biker56, After checking Internet and even the Karma website, did not come up with a definitive answer. So.........thought maybe you would be willing to share your experience on this.

 

Karma says that one may use up to 3 devices on the Neverstop plan. However; it prompted me to connect a second iPad as a guest with a 100mb allowance. What is your experience when connecting a second device?

 

Thanks,

Dick N

[Summitradio]

I just received the Karma go a few days ago. Some thoughts....

It has pretty good coverage on the road. I had a few dropouts but not for very long. Sprint is slowly getting better and with all the crap ATT and Verizon are doing with their data plans I believe sprint will get more attention.

My biggest gripe is latency. Sometimes I it goes to over 1 second on my speedof.me testing. pretty slow.

Speeds of near 2Mps are achieved with 3 little circles on.

Its not my old verizon dongle but its way cheaper and i can live with the diminished performance.

[Hikers]

From what I've read about the Karma Go it has an open network, so if you are in a campground with bad WiFi everybody will be jumping on your network. Since you only get 5 MB download speed and that is shared between everyone on your network (even guests) that seems like it could be a problem. If guests start streaming on your network then your ability to stream might be severely impacted.

 

The only upside I can see is that guests are limited to 100 MB but in a busy campground the problem would be happening over and over again. Has anyone experienced this?

[Biker56]

Biker56, After checking Internet and even the Karma website, did not come up with a definitive answer. So.........thought maybe you would be willing to share your experience on this.

 

Karma says that one may use up to 3 devices on the Neverstop plan. However; it prompted me to connect a second iPad as a guest with a 100mb allowance. What is your experience when connecting a second device?

 

I have connected my Desktop, Laptop, iPad & iPhone to it without a problem. But it will only let me have 3 of them connected. When I try to connect the 4th one, the Karma app on the iPhone or iPad will

ask me which Devise would I like to pause. After I click one of them. Then the connection will be made.

 

I never have had it ask me to sign in as a guest.

 

My WiFiRangefinder will be here Jan. 5th The WiFiRanger person I talked with said the Karma will only recognize the Mini as one device no matter how many hardwired devices I connect from it.

 

 

The only upside I can see is that guests are limited to 100 MB but in a busy campground the problem would be happening over and over again. Has anyone experienced this?

I'll not be at another campground until the first of May. Then even those campgrounds have Free WiFi other people will probably be using. Heck if campground is faster then my Karma then I can shut it off.

I have had my Desktop and Laptop both downloading updates at the same time and didn't notice any slow down.

 

I haven't checked yet how far away from the MH the Karma signal will travel for any guest to even sign on. I could do that with my iPhone and even record how many steps away it goes.

Or I can also check the distance on google Earth.

 

I will be at a campground end of May through 1st of September that has free WiFi with 29Mbps.

So during that time I will just switch the Neverstop plan. to their Go plan to have a back up when the campground goes off line like it has in the past. And usually doesn't get reset until the next morning.

 

Even if it slows some with guest on. It probably will still be faster then the 1.3 hughes speed or less I did have for 12 years.