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AT&T offering home phone & internet rural plan 250 gbs $60 & 500 gbs for $100 a month.


chiefneon

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That's good to know about the T&C. I didn't notice that myself. That should help others.

 

BTW, I saw someone else have the same issue with ethernet to their Wifi ranger.

 

Actually, connecting to the WiFiRanger with an Ethernet cable was a piece of cake once I realized that the piece of cable supplied with the Home device is NOT an Ethernet cable!! (It's phone line with a big plug).

 

There is no reason to activate Hot Standby, just plug a cable into one of the Ranger's ports and designate the correct port in the Setup page and connect to the AT&T Home. Then, from the Ranger's main page, just click on Connect Ethernet.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
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We arrived yesterday at the park we had our unit shipped to. As it was not with the rest of the different items and mail we had sent to this location, I decided to logon to the ATT account and see if I could get a status.

 

The lady helping me last week, it was either last Friday or Saturday, said that she'd just add this to our existing ATT account. I've surfed thru all of the different tabs, but dang if I can see the new phone number she gave me referenced (Not activated yet maybe the reason.), nor anything in the billing about the establishment of the account. Tried Online Chat to ask how things were going, but the first person could not help (Must have been a sales rep.), and due to high volumes could not transfer me to Customer Service.

 

I thought I'd wait and see if it shows up today, as the first rep said it should ship on Monday. (No problem shipping it to a different location. No problem using our Escapees Livingston Address, even though our account is tied to our Box Elder, SD location. (Well, at least as far as she could see. She got far enough along to give us the new phone number, so she was setting some things up for sure:)! But perhaps something was kicked out later that has stopped the process(?))).

 

Curious if those that have had the device already, can share where they are seeing it on their accounts, and approximately how long after your call did the device show up?

 

Probably just need to be patient another few days, but dang if this location (Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, AZ.) does not have very weak/slow Verizon support. My wife's ATT iPhone (Recently also changed this account to include 10GB plan with Hotspot support.) has great coverage at 27-29 Mbps download speeds. Would really like to set up the new system, and see how it performs in comparison.

 

Glad it is working well for so many of you:)! Best to all,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

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Smitty:

 

Check the My Orders section of your AT&T account. That's where mine showed along with the tracking number. So far I am not aware of anyone who has been able to get it shipped to an address other than the one on the account. All the ones I know of that have tried that have had their orders cancelled.

 

Joel

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
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I discovered last might that there's a nice little control panel for the Home Base device that's accessible if you go to "http://att.homebase" but the trick is that the device you are accessing it with must be directly connected to the Home Base. In other words if you are using a router such as a WiFiRanger and have the AT&T connected to it, you can't access the control panel. Let your laptop or phone connect to the AT&T directly and you can bring it up with no problem. The default PW is attadmin. This information is in the user guide.

 

The control panel enables you to change a few settings and monitor your usage at the local level. Not a big deal but some of our more technically-inclined members will want to look at it.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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Smitty:

 

Check the My Orders section of your AT&T account. That's where mine showed along with the tracking number. So far I am not aware of anyone who has been able to get it shipped to an address other than the one on the account. All the ones I know of that have tried that have had their orders cancelled.

 

Joel

 

 

 

Thanks Joel - And yes, this is what I had expected to be able to do, and did try to do so. But off and on today I tried to check order status, and each time it came up with an error and a message it was a 'Temporary Problem - Please try again later.'.

 

So I finally called, and glad I did. The number the Customer Service Rep gave me on 2/17, was assigned on 2/17 to a different person. Using our primary phone number account, the rep helping me today could find no record of any attempt to place the order. Nada. Even put me on hold for about 5 mins to check with his Supervisor. So speculate the lady helping me on 2/17 did everything she thought she was supposed to do. Including not being bothered by the account's address being in SD, and the address I was using for the device being Livingston, TX. And also not be bothered by me wanting it shipped to the RV park in Camp Verde. Suspect while she was not bothered, something red flagged the order and booted it out, allowing the phone number to go back in pool and be assigned to someone else. What confused the gent helping me, and he said his Supervisor too - was why no email was sent to the Account Holder (My wife.) to communicate a problem. A mystery.

 

So today we placed a new order. I used the SD billing address for everything (It qualified for the program too.), and I just had them ship it to this address (Our Box Elder mail forwarding one.). The Supervisor waved the activation fee, and also authorized Priority shipping. So really can't complain, other then wanting to use it this week and play with it:)!

 

I have the new phone number, and this time the order number too. And will check the account in the AM to see what is going on. The rep said he thought an email should be sent to the Account Holder soon too.

 

At least I know it's not lost in the mail:)!

 

Best to all,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

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Howdy!

 

I placed my order over a week ago. CS gave me a order number and a phone number for the new line. At that time they advised it would be shipped that day prior mail and should receive it in a couple of days. I've been checking online at att.com/order status using the phone number assigned and it showed "in progress". Did a online chat and was advised it was on back ordered but should be shipped soon 24-28 this month. I'm guessing they were overrun with new orders on this device due to the word getting around.

 

"Happy Trails"

Chiefneon

"Class of 2007 Fulltimer's"

Gary & karen

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Our Z700A showed up on FEDEX today at our site in Florida, and activating it online went smoothly with no hiccups. No problems either using the admin menus to change the WiFi network name and key. I don't have a landline phone on board, so I won't try that side of it until we wander back up north to our NY cottage in late April. We have no plans to use the phone service anyway, but I want to forward the number to my cell, just in case. We've only shoved a few hundred meg through the Z700A so far, and the speeds are pretty decent given the -111 dBm signal here. It'll be interesting to see how well it performs as we move around after next week. So far, we're happy campers with the 250GB plan.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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What's to stop someone from opening the account on the Rainbow Dr. address, create an online profile, and swap the mailing address back to a good mailing address? I know kind of shady, but these guys keep jerking us around whenever they can.....

1999 Peterbilt 385 C12 430/1650 13spd

2006 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4

2010 Hitchhiker Champagne 36 LKRSB

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The Homebase will be shipped to your eligible billing address, and that address needs to match the one on your credit report when they check it. You could probably change the address once you've received the shipment via the billing address, but I don't know what purpose that would serve. You also can't redirect the delivery address with FEDEX, since AT&T blocks that feature when they ship.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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Keep in mind that the Rural Plan is a government subsidized program that likely has to meet a fairly rigid criteria for AT&T to qualify for the funding. I won't fault them for taking the steps necessary to make sure the program can be maintained.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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...

 

Curious if those that have had the device already, can share where they are seeing it on their accounts, and approximately how long after your call did the device show up?

 

Probably just need to be patient another few days, but dang if this location (Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, AZ.) does not have very weak/slow Verizon support. My wife's ATT iPhone (Recently also changed this account to include 10GB plan with Hotspot support.) has great coverage at 27-29 Mbps download speeds. Would really like to set up the new system, and see how it performs in comparison.

 

Glad it is working well for so many of you:)! Best to all,

Smitty

 

If you haven't received the Homebase yet, you can check the order status at www.att.com/checkmyorder/

 

Our Homebase didn't show up on my account until a few minutes after I activated it online. It was awhile later that the usage started showing up. The phone usage bar graph first showed up in red, but then changed to green with an "Unlimited" tag on it. Nothing has been billed so far, but the account is showing 5 days left in the billing cycle, so presumably the first month's prorated fee and next month's fee will show up then along with the activation fee, since I'm on contract.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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The Homebase will be shipped to your eligible billing address, and that address needs to match the one on your credit report when they check it. You could probably change the address once you've received the shipment via the billing address, but I don't know what purpose that would serve. You also can't redirect the delivery address with FEDEX, since AT&T blocks that feature when they ship.

 

 

A spot on observation, based upon my call today. The CS Rep that helped me on 2/17, never even brought yp running a credit check on our account. Today's rep shared he needed to do this, and I said OK. As pointed out on a few other boards. This is not a high volume ATT option. I had to provide the specific Plan Info buzzwords to the first step that assisted me, so she could locate the specific plan.

 

I sure don't blame the first rep that helped me on 2/17. I provided her with specifics on the plan, the found it, and worked with the software and training she had... Never did she indicate any concerns what so ever.

 

We'll wait an see how this one goes...

 

ATT? Heck. I, like many of you, have had your experiences with the 20K pound gorilla. I recall helping my Mom she she was in her mid 80's with her phone bill. I asked her what the 'equipment' monthly charge was for, and she did not know. So I called ATT for her, and she had to give them the OK to talk with me. After 10 mins of talking, we determined she had been paying a monthly fee for a phone that had not been in her home for over 20 years. A rotary phone. The rep was pretty defensive about the 20+ years of montly chargers for a phone that did not exits.

 

"Well Sir, she should have turned it in...." (Yep, I agree. But she did not turn it in.) "So it was reasonable for us to continued the monthly charge for a rotary phone.". (Well, not really. As you can tell the difference between a 'rotary' vs 'touch/pulse' phone. (Rotary and pulse had different feedback variances to them, and the ATT network computers knew the differences.) Well Sir, even so, she should have turned in the phone. (OK. Yes, she should have. BUT, you knew from your records that it was a NON ROTARY phone this last year...)

 

Longer story short. We ended up with a $125 credit to my Mom's account. A drop in the bucket over the actual costs she paid for the monthly 'rental' of equipment. (Rotary phone being the equipment.). What finally got thru to the Supervisor helping me, was my comment 'If it was your mother, would you not want ATT to do the right thing?'

 

Oh well. Of course they'll be OK with us now, as the decades have moved on:)!

Best to all,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

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Just a note to add that the credit check the AT&T does is a "soft check" that does not affect your credit report or credit score. It's not as detailed as the report a bank would get for a loan, etc.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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Smitty, I'll be interested if you actually get a phone shipped, or if you get put on the "out of stock - waiting" cue like the rest of us.

 

I may look in the local ATT store today for this device or a Mobley. Because I don't have a good feeling about every getting it, at this point.

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So I can now see our Order Status via the ATT My Orders screen. (Shared that all day yesterday, I received and error code when trying to do so. And that I called and got help from another CS Rep and his Supervisor.)

 

I see our new order is In Progress with an anticipated shipping date of 2/27-3/1. I also see the new phone number they assigned to the plan too.

 

What is interesting, I now see the phone number and order number that the first CS Rep on 2/17 created for me. The status is Canceled, and in the details it says either canceled by me or them. But they also have an iPad device now linked to that phone number, with a shipment for an iPad with Fedex tracking number. It's on it's way to Chula Vista California.

 

A few things bother me about this process. No emails to the account holder of cancelation by ATT of the first order. I did not like them asking me in reference to the 2/17 assigned phone number if I was David Mxxxxxxxx? (CS Rep was trying to sort out what happened, but I would have preferred him ask me my name, and then say that it does not match his records.) And, really don't think their software should show me activity that is going on as far as the iPad that must have been assigned to the phone number after they canceled our first order and put the number back into the available pool. Poor testing of software for sure, as IMO this is crossing over account info.

 

Nothing is reflected on billing for our account yet, so that is good, and probably more important.

 

Will look again on 2/27 to see what the status of our new order is...

 

Best to all,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

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So I can now see our Order Status via the ATT My Orders screen. (Shared that all day yesterday, I received and error code when trying to do so. And that I called and got help from another CS Rep and his Supervisor.)

 

I see our new order is In Progress with an anticipated shipping date of 2/27-3/1. I also see the new phone number they assigned to the plan too.

 

What is interesting, I now see the phone number and order number that the first CS Rep on 2/17 created for me. The status is Canceled, and in the details it says either canceled by me or them. But they also have an iPad device now linked to that phone number, with a shipment for an iPad with Fedex tracking number. It's on it's way to Chula Vista California.

 

A few things bother me about this process. No emails to the account holder of cancelation by ATT of the first order. I did not like them asking me in reference to the 2/17 assigned phone number if I was David Mxxxxxxxx? (CS Rep was trying to sort out what happened, but I would have preferred him ask me my name, and then say that it does not match his records.) And, really don't think their software should show me activity that is going on as far as the iPad that must have been assigned to the phone number after they canceled our first order and put the number back into the available pool. Poor testing of software for sure, as IMO this is crossing over account info.

 

Nothing is reflected on billing for our account yet, so that is good, and probably more important.

 

Will look again on 2/27 to see what the status of our new order is...

 

Best to all,

Smitty

 

Just a note on the iPad picture. For most of us, that's what our order showed before our devices showed up. I'd almost bet that it's someone else getting a home base, but somehow since that number was first linked to your account, you still show it. That is kind of strange.

Dan (Class of 2017) - 2012 Ram 3500 & 2005 Alpenlite Valhalla 29RK
Contact me at rvsolarconsulting.com or Two Wheel Ramblin

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Smitty, I'll be interested if you actually get a phone shipped, or if you get put on the "out of stock - waiting" cue like the rest of us.

 

I may look in the local ATT store today for this device or a Mobley. Because I don't have a good feeling about every getting it, at this point.

 

Jack, before I actually ordered my service from AT&T, I ordered one of remanufactured homebases off ebay because you could pick them up for 1/8 the cost of a new one. It was a manufactured refurbished. I had e-mailed the seller and got him to send me the IMEI number and tried to use it when I first called in about the service, but the rep told me the IMEI number didn't come up in their system? I decided to not push the issue and ended up just getting one of theirs under contract.

 

However, I now have this 2nd unit here still wrapped up that came in from ebay. If you want to try calling in and see if you could use it instead of waiting, I could send you the IMEI#/Sim# and you could call their customer service. If it works, I'll sell it to what I paid for it which was $25.00 and ship it out to you. It's a new in the plastic manufacture refurbished unit and looks identical to the one I received. I even comparied the IMEI#'s and the first 9 digits are the same. Only the last 6 are different which is probably part of the serial number of each device. It has a sim card too and everything in the package my new one had.

 

Dan

Dan (Class of 2017) - 2012 Ram 3500 & 2005 Alpenlite Valhalla 29RK
Contact me at rvsolarconsulting.com or Two Wheel Ramblin

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It appears that AT&T is tying the Homebase SIM to the Z700A's IMEI. That would prevent folks from moving the SIM to another device, such as a hotspot, something I recall has been asked about in other threads. The Z700A obviously isn't as portable as a hotspot due to it's size, but I suppose it could be carried around for however long the backup battery's charge lasts for intermittent "off premises" use.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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The Z700A obviously isn't as portable as a hotspot due to it's size, but I suppose it could be carried around for however long the backup battery's charge lasts for intermittent "off premises" use.

 

I don't see any reason why a small plug-in inverter couldn't be used to turn it into a mobile hotspot. There are inexpensive inverters with pure sine wave outputs that have more than enough power capability.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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I don't see any reason why a small plug-in inverter couldn't be used to turn it into a mobile hotspot. There are inexpensive inverters with pure sine wave outputs that have more than enough power capability.

 

Sure, an inverter would work of course, Ours is plugged into the modified UPS in our coach anyway, since we want Internet service while underway as well as on shorepower. By "portable" though, I was thinking more of just sticking it in a backpack, etc., to take it along for day tripping at the beach, hiking, and such, as you would with a conventional hotspot. It's a little bulky for that, but doable if the battery holds up long enough. Like Blue, I may give it a try on battery sometime, just to see how long it hangs in there.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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Sure, an inverter would work of course, Ours is plugged into the modified UPS in our coach anyway, since we want Internet service while underway as well as on shorepower.

 

We, of course, do the same thing when traveling in the MH, but next month we'll be driving grandkids a couple of hours each way from Corpus Christi to Houston in the CRV. Sanity will be greatly improved if a hotpot can be provided for the kids' tablets while we are traveling!

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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We, of course, when traveling in the MH, but next month we'll be driving grandkids a couple of hours each way from Corpus Christi to Houston in the CRV. Sanity will be greatly improved if a hotpot can be provided for the kids' tablets while we are traveling!

 

Oh, I agree that would be a good application for a small inverter then! ;)

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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I just tried to order this plan with my Escapees address and was told my address didn't qualify. They could only offer 25 or 50GB at those prices. Went through the whole qualifying process only to be told at the very end the plan did not apply. I am a DirecTV customer so they also had my account info.

 

John

2015 Entegra Aspire 44B diesel pusher with 2017 GMC Acadia Denali toad
Web site, albums, blog and more here

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I just tried to order this plan with my Escapees address and was told my address didn't qualify. They could only offer 25 or 50GB at those prices. Went through the whole qualifying process only to be told at the very end the plan did not apply. I am a DirecTV customer so they also had my account info.

 

John

2015 Entegra Aspire 44B diesel pusher with 2017 GMC Acadia Denali toad
Web site, albums, blog and more here

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