Jetpack Upgrade - How to Decide

[Kevin H]

I have an old Verizon Jetpack 5510L.  It has served us well but I am ready for an upgrade to the latest technology. As usual, the information on the internet makes my head swim - so, as usual, I turn to your expertise.

Should I choose the Jetpack 7730L or Jetpack AC791L?  Can you explain the differences in layman's terms and why you suggest your choice?

Thanks a lot in advance. 

[Bill Joyce]

I did the upgrade from a 5510L to a 7730L a few months back and it is working well.  I needed the upgrade since the 5510L does not work in Canada,  The 7730L does work in Canada and it worked for us on a day trip into BC. The battery lasts a lot longer and can even be used a a USB power pack.  It does use USB-C for power, so if you want to use it off 12volt you might need to get a new adapter.  

The 7730L puts out both a 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ wifi signal, which is mostly a good thing.  It does cause me a bit of grief, since when I hook to it with my Pepwave Surf SOHO router, sometimes it hooks to the 5GHZ signal (channels in the 140s and 150s) and not all my devices will work with 5GHZ wifi, while everything will work with 2.4GHZ (channels 1 to 11).  When this happens I have to turn the 7730L off, carry it farther away from the router and turn it back on and then it hooks to a 2.4GHZ signal and everything is happy.  I have no idea if other routers have this same issue and it might be fixed in the new MK 3 version of the Pepwave Surf SOHO.  I like to use a router in the middle since we do switch between the 7730L, our AT&T Mobley and other wifi.