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angelbones · 11-30-2016, 12:15 PM

Apparently Direct TV and/or ATT (not exactly sure) is offering some free wifi. Here's the article where I found it.
AT&T has three new streaming video packages designed for the cord cutter | Android Central

Do you think this will work well for us RVers?

Here is the link posted today about it, but unfortunately it doesn't give more info than the original article. I don't have Direct TV or ATT, but willing to switch if I can get free streaming.
https://directvnow.com/?gclid=CIGw5I...wg#tv-your-way

**Janet H** · 11-30-2016, 12:18 PM

Here is a contrary opinion... http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/29/1...ity-vs-tmobile

Hot topic alert

WagonMaster · 11-30-2016, 02:56 PM

I don't see anything wrong with it. If the others want to compete than they can buy their own wireless network and invest the millions of dollars needed to offer this option. AT&T owns Directv, paid big bucks for it, and can do what they want, IMO. I've got AT&T cellphones plus Directv and find a huge advantage in being able to stream Directv data free. What's the big problem?

angelbones · 11-30-2016, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet H

Here is a contrary opinion... http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/29/1...ity-vs-tmobile

Hot topic alert

Very interesting. Thanks for the post.

LarrySharon · 11-30-2016, 10:38 PM

I don't know what it all means long term, but sounds like ATT has a great deal and there is some sour grapes out there.

dp226 · 12-02-2016, 12:09 PM

I will add my 2 cents as someone who has had the service for two days. I am running it on my home DSL (not an AT&T customer) that is 12mbps down and 1mbps up. I do not have AT&T Cellular so can not comment on that aspect though if AT&T has coverage where you are this sounds like a great deal.

The first Day (Wed) i signed up at my local AT&T store. I got the 3 month prepaid plan since they give you a free apple TV when you do that. This part is a real good deal.

Wed night it was having problems. When it worked it was working great. Beautiful picture, etc. It had some real problems. Some times it would hang. Some channels were available and wen I switched back they were not available. I will call this birthing pains, but overall usable (but barely)

I tried it on my iPad and that worked best of all. Most stable and fewest problems. Tried it on the apple tv. Worked mostly good with some small hiccups. Tried it on my Amazon Firestick and it had all sorts of various issues. There is no Roku version yet but it is coming.

Thursday night I tried it again on the devices. Much better than Wed. night. Still a couple of hiccups but I watched TV for about 4 hours and no real issues. I stayed on the apple TV the whole time. I decided to give them a few days to work on the Amazon Firestick.

I would remind everyone at this point that this is a 1.0 product. It needs work but shows a lot of promise. It has no DVR functionality and no way to limit bandwidth (aka: put it into standard def). It seemed to consume between 2-5 mbps while streaming depending on the channel.

Something to watch especially if you were looking at Sling or Playstation Vue which deliver the same functionality.

Don
The conFUSEd RVer

WagonMaster · 12-02-2016, 04:38 PM

Good report. I read where they are working on a DVR function.

LarrySharon · 12-02-2016, 11:00 PM

I have AT&T and signed up for DirectvNow I paid for one month to get the fire stick for free. I have only tried using it on my cell phone worked great except for the sound. I have to figure out why I did not have sound. So I will continue with the service for now, cheaper then increasing my data plan.

dp226 · 12-05-2016, 07:03 AM

After using the DirectTV now service some more over the weekend I will say it gets better every day. It is still a 1.0 product but it at least appears that AT&T as doing some things to fix issues that are found.

I have only used it a couple of hours a day (my normal TV usage) but the issues I had Wed. & Thurs. seem to have been resolved. The only ones I saw over the weekend were congestion issues causing the picture to freeze for a few moments. That could be caused at various spots between me and AT&T. The Amazon firestick also seemed to work much better over the weekend than it did earlier.

Don
The conFUSEd RVer

nothermark · 12-05-2016, 07:21 AM

The problem folks are ignoring is that AT&T is evidently planning on replacing satellite broadcasting with Internet. That may be fine for folks in the high population dense areas. It will not be fine for the folks who use DirectTv because satellite is the only coverage they get. That includes a lot of get away places people with RV's like to head for.

RV_Fan33 · 12-05-2016, 08:05 AM

Thanks for the info, I'm going to look these new options....

powderman · 12-05-2016, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothermark

The problem folks are ignoring is that AT&T is evidently planning on replacing satellite broadcasting with Internet. That may be fine for folks in the high population dense areas. It will not be fine for the folks who use DirectTv because satellite is the only coverage they get. That includes a lot of get away places people with RV's like to head for.

Yes satellite TV will be going away as old ones die. The good news is that Facebook, Google, and others are working on low earth systems which can provide cellular, WiFi, TV , etc everywhere.

nothermark · 12-06-2016, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderman

Yes satellite TV will be going away as old ones die. The good news is that Facebook, Google, and others are working on low earth systems which can provide cellular, WiFi, TV , etc everywhere.

Broadcast television already eats a large chunk of the available radio spectrum. That leaves me wondering where they think they will get space to put in new systems. What is left for space is mostly line of sight so it works well for satellite but leaves people away from the towers still without coverage. That sounds like a downgrade in service to me. New satellites would be a better answer.

powderman · 12-06-2016, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothermark

Broadcast television already eats a large chunk of the available radio spectrum. That leaves me wondering where they think they will get space to put in new systems. What is left for space is mostly line of sight so it works well for satellite but leaves people away from the towers still without coverage. That sounds like a downgrade in service to me. New satellites would be a better answer.

At $350 million per satellite and really only good for TV, the LEO units on cellular will be able to transmit and receive at a better cost. So it will be the equivelent of having cell towers spaced close enough together that the entire US will be covered. One of the proposed methods would be teathered ballons.