T-mobile home internet

RV_ · September 7, 2023

Lou good video. Watching it reminded me of them doing the fiber trunk line installs here in the last year, soon to my home as in the video. Realize that fiber allows for more 5G transponders enhancing 5g home and phone services. So more choices and competition for pricing and speeds/reliability. That is a good thing!

Edited September 7, 2023 by RV_

Lou Schneider · September 7, 2023

Valley Electric's service area extends about 150 miles along the lightly populated Nevada-California border. The original proposal was to use the fiber line they installed to monitor their transmission equipment to provide high speed Internet to the very isolated ranches and communities along the way. They figured they would need 4000 subscribers in Pahrump to cover the investment and it would take a couple of years to build that up. They got 4000 commitments within a week of the initial offering (Pahrump doesn't have DSL or cable TV to provide similar service and wasn't even connected to the electric grid until 1960). This prompted the initial WiMax rollout until they could extend fiber to everyone.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Lou Schneider

RV_ · September 7, 2023

On 9/7/2023 at 12:17 PM, Lou Schneider said:

Valley Electric's service area extends about 100 miles along the lightly populated Nevada-California border. The original proposal was to use the fiber line they installed to monitor their transmission equipment to provide high speed Internet to the very isolated ranches and towns along the way. They figured they would need 4000 subscribers in Pahrump to cover the investment and it would take a couple of years to build that up. They got 4000 commitments within a week of the initial offering (Pahrump didn't have DSL or cable TV that could provide similar service and wasn't even connected to the electric grid until 1960). This prompted the initial WiMax rollout until they could extend fiber to everyone.

Sounds like Pahrump (along with a lot of cities like here) start with the utilities then others see the opportunity to piggyback on them the rush is on. I know of three players here and we also have had our outlying sparse counties install fiber in some really rural areas like the Rifle CO area.

The following is only for those who still have a Stix n Brix in a medium to large city or its burbs!

We all had dial up in the 90s and relied on Telcos who started fiber deployments but then decided it was too expensive in the late 90s. The Telcos could have a monopoly on Internet services today but their CEOs blew it along with profits for years and threw all their eggs into cellular.

Cable companies had a good thing but refused last mile to rural areas and they are on the way out all because they did not foresee the profits in Internet everywhere.

We watch all our networks and many other channels over the air (OTA) using the existing cable and satellite wiring in the house with a distribution amp for perfect 1080p broadcast on more than 75% of the 57 or so channels we get. I forget to count the Spanish, Jewish, and some other channels channels we deleted from our line up that are less resolution. Many are perfect full HD and 720 p with a few oldies channels occasionally broadcasting old blurry shows from the 50s - 80s in the old standard resolution on the subchannels of each network. We have five full HD Public Television stations all different and free! Free After buying a $40 dollar directional HD outdoor antenna and a 60-70 dollar Electroline one in four out powered distribution amp. So we do not NEED streaming at all. Yes we have Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount plus, and Sling TV. We are about to drop Sling TV because we do not watch cable channels much at all. We canceled Hulu which forced ESPN+ on us despite us asking for them not to as we do not watch any sports except our home team in Football, Winter Olympics, and maybe the Super Bowl for the halftime show and the commercials. We are soon to drop Paramount, Peacock, and any other channel that charges us yet still shows commercials! I can watch FreeVee and all the free LG TV channels. We may just cancel them all and stick with OTA TV but with the writer's strike broadcast TV is all reruns.

They are getting greedy. I remember the big draw for cable was the no commercials and no censorship of language or nudity in movies and shows. That was when we had maybe five channels and a few independents. Then cable became big biz and they started to raise prices and add commercials. Shoot even public television started commercials they disguise as "Made Possible by" We have always loved PBS and supported it but those ten minute every 15 minutes fund raisers on what would otherwise be great shows has turned us off to some of their programming.

But since it went digital OTA TV has come a long way in addition to still needing it for emergencies and disasters.

If the power ever goes out or the Internet we still have local news and weather using battery inverter to power our 24" 1080p TV, and then our tiny 12,000 mAh car jump starters with their USB ports tiny batteries that can power the little $6.98 indoor USB 5 v indoor antenna amp for a day or three. $6.98 Cheap amplified antenna link

I use those cheapo antennas only on my two main computers using Hauppauge TV HVR 955Q Windows receivers for TV ( USB TV tuner link ) in a corner of my screen like the news that is on now. This one in the pic below is in a closet with the cable extended to reach my desk. I get perfect reception on all channels but we are in a city now and I used the outdoor directional digital antenna and Electroline Distro amp ( Electroline Amp link ) because I wanted max signal to power through all the preexisting in wall cable/satellite/ cables and interior connectors and splitters so I could use the existing wires to all rooms. They work perfectly with the Electroline amp. And despite the outdoor antenna the reception is limited without the distribution amp. It is the amp that makes the big difference. I have also tried those funky looking antennas with built in rotator and amps that go on a mast and they are terrible quality. They work for a few weeks then the rotator dies or the remote or the amp. YMMV

Above in a closet, below second one for second computer over window:

32" 2k quad HD monitor with my normal browser top left, email on right, and OTA television in full HD o the bottom left:

Each move of antenna requires a complete new channel scan with the portable cheaper amplified antennas. Tedious. If you are outside the range city TV you may need a much larger directional antenna outside with the Electroline Amp, too far out and you need Starlink. One data point. Anyone in the area is welcome to come see the setup.

Edited September 8, 2023 by RV_

jerryneal · January 16

On 12/31/2022 at 9:46 AM, Bill Joyce said:

An alternative some of us on this forum use is Calyx Institutes T-Mobile based unlimited plans - https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet . We are on the Sustainer plan and it is working well in most places, but the new Contributor Plus plan is cheaper and should work at least as well. The places these plans do not work as well are where T-Mobile does not have good coverage.

Can a Calyx plan be used in a cellular router or is it dedicated to their hotspot?

Bill Joyce · January 16

9 hours ago, jerryneal said:

Can a Calyx plan be used in a cellular router or is it dedicated to their hotspot?

Dedicated hotspot only. I tether my hotspot via USB to my router.

RV_ · March 23

Ting fiber to home is coming here and it will be a year or so until they do, so we are keeping our current provider which is cheaper than all available today at $15 a month unlimited with some military retired DV discounts. They have an offer for areas they are going into with fiber for unlimited lines at $10 a month which includes unlimited hotspots using Verizon towers. If you winter or own property where they are coming soon you can get that offer here: https://internet.ting.com/mobile-offer

We have had their service for both of our phones and the hotspot works very well. But since we already have Internet we have not tested the limits. But our phones are both from Verizon MVNOs and we buy our phones cash.

We have had the service for about a month on our two phones and they are perfect. I even asked if I could use my hotspot for my almost a TB of streaming and Internet and they said yes.

They have great customer service by phone which I prefer M-F 9-5 I think.

So for fulltimers without a home base this may not be an an option. We are tickled pink with them and their customer service.

I paid a $9 pre-order for Ting fiber and qualified for the $10 unlimited mobile service. No other charges until our Fiber comes in and it is added to the bill. We plan to get it as soon as it is available to our house.

We are free to choose another service as it is not a contract and our service will revert to their mobile fees.If we do that we will need another mobile service provider.

I can' wait for the 1TBPS download and upload speeds (Synchronous)instead of our current 150MBPS speeds down and 20 MBPS upload speeds. It will make a heckuva difference in everything especially our 4k streaming.