docj

I'm sure you realize that the signal strength is completely independent of the plan your using. Are you measuring the RSRP and SNR on the Jetpack or on your phone? I have an app on my phone that will give me that info but I don't know of a way to get it from the Jetpack itself. All that notwithstanding, what you are reporting is a very poor SNR ratio. It's no wonder that your download speeds are poor; the system can barely distinguish signals from the surrounding noise! I'm not sure your slow download speeds have anything to do with the prepaid plan. Have you tried measuring download speed with the phone itself?

I also got caught in MD a couple of years ago (it was at night and I saw the camera lights flash) and never received a bill.

We got hit in one of Verizon's early sweeps in which they closed accounts that were judged to have "excessive usage". What's ironic is that in those days ~60-80GB/mo was considered excessive. Last month I used >125GB on my unlimited prepaid Verizon Jetpack account.

The Terms of Service (TOS) of the grandfathered Verizon plans do not permit tethering or hotspot use without paying an extra fee for it. I know because I did have one for several years and had decided that paying Verizon ~$30/mo for hotspot usage was worth to avoid risking cancellation. But my plan got cancelled anyway! But I doubt the TOS has changed.

Since my phones are on Verizon postpaid accounts, if the prepaid throughput drops too much I switch to the phone's hotspot. The 15GB/phone/month is more than enough to get me through the slow periods on the prepaid plan, at least so far.

The TV in our casita (at our place in TX) is a 43" 4K Samsung. Even when watching a 1080p DirecTV channel, it has a decidedly better picture than does the 40" Samsung HDTV in the MH.

With all due respect, I don't think that any currently available AT&T "unlimited" hotspot plan provides for more than 15GB of LTE data before slowing the device down to 128kps. I presume you are aware of that. If you want a truly unlimited hotspot option you may wish to consider the new Verizon prepaid hotspot plan for $70/mo with a $5/mo credit for automatic payment.

Our largest TV is a 43". On that the 720p picture is just fine IMHO.

This is what appears in the small print on my account; notice that the circled text refers to Full HD streaming and HD-quality streaming but uses 780p and 720p as the resolution. It is true that 720p is a form of HD video.

Speed test sites each use their own algorithm to rapidly test and calculate the results. It's not all that surprising to see variations between their reported speeds Furthermore, there are minute to minute variations in a cellular carrier's effective speed so the fact that I didn't do these tests simultaneously means that some differences result from normal variance. As for whether there are other explanations, the "small print" in my online terms and conditions for my prepaid unlimited plan clearly states that streaming is limited to 720p. On forums and Facebook, some people had challenged this and were claiming that they were getting 1080p resolution. Since I don't know of a way to obtain resolution from a video directly, this was the best way I could think of to try to measure the actual streaming speed. I'm not an expert in this. I posted it with the hope that someone more knowledgeable than I am might provide a more complete explanation.

Because I'm a "techie" and have nothing better to do this morning (it's cold and overcast in south TX), I just ran back to back speedtests using several well-known test sites. What I was after was validation or disproof of the contention that the new Verizon unlimited prepaid plan limits streaming to 720p.Here are the speed test engines I used and their respective measured download speeds:Fast.com 9.5 MbpsSpeedtest.net 23.4MbpsTestMy.net 18.3MbpsSpeedofMe 22.6MbpsNote that there is reasonable consistency between all the tests except Fast.com which was developed by Netflix and, presumably, provides a measure of how good your internet connection is for streaming video.To test that assumption I then switched to my Verizon Pixel's hotspot and repeated the tests:Fast.com 30MbpsSpeedtest.net 21.8MbpsTestMy.net 25.7MbpsSpeedofMe 29.58MbpsNotice that Fast.com is no longer an outlier, in fact, it's showing the fastest measured speed in the group. This rather large difference leads me to believe that Fast.com'ssured speed is being constrained by a restriction on streaming resolution and, hence, speed. I don't know enough about how "streaming" is detected compared to other data uses, but there seems to be a difference and it is very repeatable.As for the fact that the average speed measured using the phone hotspot is significantly faster than with the hotspot on the prepaid plan, I assume there are two explanations, both of which may have some validity. First of all, my Pixel 2XL is a relatively new device which may be inherently faster when used as a hotspot than my 7730l Jetpack. In addition, it may be that Verizon doesn't give the prepaid plan full access to maximum network speed even when it isn't being used for streaming. Either or both of these could contribute to the measured differences. Joel (AKA docj)

We own property in TX but retain our SD residency. We are not employed in TX nor have we done anything else to compromise our SD domicile status. Owning property doesn't constitute an intent to become a resident. If you have the means you can own homes in as many states as you wish, but you're still a resident of just one of them.

I'm also seeing periods of slow service for brief periods of time in the afternoon and evening. The last time it happened I switched to my AT&T hotspot for a while. The next time I notice it I'll try to remember to see if my post-paid phone is suffering anything similar. Verizon's website seems to say that pre-paid plans are lower in the prioritization scheme than post-paid ones, which would result in them being slowed more than postpaid during times of network or tower congestion. When I use Fast.com to speedtest I notice that it takes quite a bit longer and "jumps around" a lot before reaching a "decision" as to what the speed is. I'm wondering if the speed is more erratic because it's being throttled a bit?

My WiFiRanger keeps track of usage by each device on my network.

In my limited experience MH manufacturers will stand behind the belts they installed in a vehicle, but will fight hard to prevent you from adding any additional ones. I have a hunch (but no proof) that if you install a seatbelt in a vehicle you manufacturer then it has to comply with NHTSA/DOT rules. One time, when we had a Class C, the manufacturer had a "kit" for adding belts to the sofa and had no hesitation about selling it to us. But neither the manufacturer nor any RV dealer we spoke with would install it because those seating positions hadn't been properly tested and certified. As for MH seats not having the LATCH stuff, many of us are old enough to remember when the LATCH system didn't yet exist. Car seats could be secured even then; it sometimes took a bit of effort to secure the top tether, but it could be done in most vehicles.

I just purchased a ~$12 "smart outlet" on Amazon. It's designed to turn things on and off and doesn't even need a "hub" in order to operate. Instead of tethering the 7730l to my WiFiRanger I'll use a wallwart plugged into it. All I need to do is figure out how many hours it needs to be charged and how often.

The 7730l doesn't like being plugged in continuously. But it only cost me ~$20 to buy a replacement battery on Amazon. I'll probably put it on a timer so it gets charged for a number of hours then have the timer turn off.

That is what we have. I can check both accounts online.

If you move one Jetpack to the new plan and cancel the other, you would decrease your costs by $40 which would offset much of the $65 cost of the new plan ($5 discount for automatic payment). As for using the smartphone to connect to the TV, I don't know how you do it, but my experience with Miracasting (Samsung Smart View) was never all that satisfactory with my particular phone (S7) and our Samsung TV. Neither of our phones has an HDMI output port so that approach doesn't work for us; maybe you have a port which would be a very different situation. So far, our use of the new plan continues to provide excellent results. We've used ~28GB in two weeks on it. I'm pretty convinced that the streaming is limited to 720p so the data usage is less than I might have anticipated. Joel

Verizon's initial 5G offering is for fixed home installations. Yes, the 5G router will create a local wifi network in your home that your phone and Jetpack can connect to, but to call that "automatically taking advantage of" is a bit of a stretch IMO. As noted in this article Verizon's fixed 5G is using a 28GHz signal that no existing devices can receive. https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/verizon-gives-some-hints-about-how-5g-home-selling-and-performing

Sorry, didn't realize that you were discussing the smartphone plans. I've never seriously considered them because of the 600kbps hotspot limitation.

And your screenshot clearly shows the statement "Excludes the $70 Unlimited Plan" which is what most people here have been talking about.

At MyDakotaAddress I routinely used "Apt" instead of PMB for >7 years and no one objected. During my scramble to change all our addresses I discovered that some address fields aren't set up to take the # character even though you would think they should be. Bottom line, when USPS says that "Use of any other identifier is prohibited" exactly who is going to enforce that? USPS operations sure doesn't care; my mail gets there just fine the way I address it.

When we switched to YourBestAddress after MyDakotaAddress closed precipitously, I was faced with a problem because the use of PMB is implicit in how YBA does its addresses. For those who aren't familiar with YBA, the company is located in Suite 214 at a particular address in Sioux Falls and each mailbox has a unique PMB number. As I switched all our credit, medical and other accounts over to the new address (what a time-consuming job!) I became intimately familiar with the differences between different banks and credit card issuers. Some had no problem at all with PMB-1234 on the second address line; others wouldn't accept the letters "PMB" anywhere in the address block. For those I adopted the practice of using "Suite 214-1234" since YBA doesn't care as long as your PMB box number appears somewhere in the address. Of course, this doesn't preclude an entity from using a PMB-screening database to identify the address, but if that were to happen we can now use the physical address of the RV lot we own in south TX. I normally don't have mail delivered there, but we could, and it is most definitely a physical address that belongs to us.

FWIW, after binging on some shows last night we have now passed the 15GB threshold by quite a bit, according to our WiFiRanger, and this morning Fast.com reports we have a download speed of 9.0Mbps. So I guess this plan really isn't throttled at 15GB like most other Verizon plans.