Unlimited plans?

[NewMarBee]

With the major carriers offering "unlimited" data plans, does anyone have challenges with being "throttled down" while streaming live TV or the major services?

Any commentary is appreciated.

[Mark_T]

There unlimited data and then there is unlimited hotspot data. my TMobile plan has unlimited data, but very limited hotspot data.

[Harry B]

anyone have challenges with being "throttled down"

Yes. I experiene quite a bit of problem with T-mobile. Not so much with AT&T.

[Turbojack]

Originally Posted by NewMarBee

With the major carriers offering "unlimited" data plans, does anyone have challenges with being "throttled down" while streaming live TV or the major services?

Any commentary is appreciated.

Need to read the fine print on the plans you are looking at. That tells the real story. Different plans deal with throttling different based on cell tower load and after a certain amount of GB. When you get throttled it is almost the same as being shut off. Right now I am looking at 3 different Verizon business plans for phones. Each plan has different amount of GB for phone and hotspot. They also have different performance when a cell tower gets loaded. Of course the highest price plan gives you the highest priority.

[lemodrop9344]

As Turbojack advised.... read the fine print associated with your cellular plan. Almost all plans reserve the right to manage availability of their resources. The extent to which this may or may not impact you depends on a variety of factors.
Many RV'ers that depend on internet connectivity for work maintain multiple cellular plans, perhaps Stalink & the capability to utilize RV park WiFI if available.

[Spdracr39]

You also have to be careful and watch for streaming video quality even when not using a hotspot. Many of the plans limit resolution to 480p which is not terrible but noticeable. 780p isn't so bad. They seem to mostly allow 4k on 5g though.

[creativepart]

The folks at www.rvmobileinternet.com constantly go through the ever changing mobile offerings and will provide the details to their members. Check them out. They cover all mobile internet equipment as soon as it’s announced, as well.

How you use internet on the road will determine what you need. If it’s just for web browsing, email, etc then any of the so-called “unlimited” plans will likely suffice. But if you plan to stream video and TV then you’ll need something with much more hotspot data allowance monthly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00aWSiKEOMU

[sibe]

rv mobile internet site and such chase the tends and the resellers etc..
some good and overwhelming and forever changing info LOL

to answer the OP YES the slow down on unlimited plans on occasion ..

The market is saturated with resellers .. Even the top 3/4 providers break there products down into sub selling niches..
Plans change ans they grow ad outdate and be renewed ... TOP TIER that will will provide near 100% full cell data service are pricey,, also better equipment is key to holding a solid signal or combined bands or binding services..

With the roll out of the new lower band 5G some will get better service to a point.. I have ATT and Verizion plans that will on a good day in a good area connect and use the5g stuff, till it fads or fills and I see back to 4g LTE Blah Blah..

I see this traveling and at my Rural home. Sometimes I ht an area and I will consume 150gig in 3days at blazing speed, travel 18 miles and stop,, Have great connection but the data speeds anre all over the place,,
It is the system .. and your service to a point,

I also recently had 3 ATT sims one was from local ATT store 100gig data only. and to a 200gig from reseller, and another supposed to be unlimted ATT from a reseller..
That was a $350 test month.. I had all set up properly and networked, I am a geeky person,,
I would at times get great service from all and then drops and lower depending .. all 3 sims on same tower ...band etc.. The BEST that would atleast still barely work during a PEAK congestion time was the ATT 100gig card from ATT local store. the reseller sims would not even load at a 3g speed..

My point is it happens and many of us use a back up.. I personall Have my visible phone that is so so.bbut had got me data in a pinch.
My Verizon Sim plan 900gig with a contracted tru verizon reseller that at my rural house doesnt show more than 2 bars of 4G at best but shares 2-3 bands in area to get me on AVG 27-50 DL for 20-22 hours per day maybe once or week or 2 weeks we need to hop on the ATT 100gig sim for a few hours during some ZOOM hosting or a Sunday nite movie LOL

Good luck streaming anywhere,,

[rtaggio]

Visible has true unlimited, unthrottled data, pretty cheap to boot !

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by rtaggio

Visible has true unlimited, unthrottled data, pretty cheap to boot !

I guess that's strictly true but Visible is not the perfect answer. Data on the phone is never throttled but it certainly gets deprioritized which can be quite slow. The new $45 plan has 50 GB of "premium data" before it can be deprioritized. The $30 plan gets no premium data.

It's not clear if the original question is about on-device or hotspot data. Visible hotspot is always throttled to 5 Mbps.

[astrnmrtom]

We've been full timing for over 2 years now using two different carriers. Visible and an old AT&T Mobley. People's experience will be all over the place because it depends on their individual needs and the second is location.

We are not power users, in that we don't require internet like someone working remotely would. We surf and stream and even fall back to reading, or I'll play computer games when there's no usable signal. We also have a Dish antenna that we use during regular program season for a hand full of shows.

We've traveled through 28 states, camping in all kinds of places, and our two hotspots have worked very well over 90% of the time. Of course, all our camping including boondocking, hasn't been too far off a highway. Yes, there's been times where I've considered getting a booster, and we've considered Starlink, but nothing is perfect. Camping in the trees kills Starlink and our Satellite dish, so any technology has tradeoffs.

I'm not sure I've ever noticed being throttled. There are places where it's easy to tell when everyone has come home from work, and the bandwidth really slows, same with some weekends, and sometimes this is improved if I reboot the hotspot and it connects to a less busy radio. We stream in HD, and there have been a lot of times I've tested the network speed when we arrive at a site and tell my wife: "Nope, it's too slow to stream," only to have her try, and it works fine after an initial buffer. We've streamed on 2-1/2mbs.

Usually when we have a good signal, we can stream all we want without a problem. I wonder if being mobile has anything to do with not being throttled because while we can occasionally stream a lot, usually within a week, we've moved and are using a different tower. Plus we don't stream all day, just for a couple hours in the evenings and occasionally during the day for something like a football game. So definitely not power users and may just operate below the cut off point for deprioritizing. While Visible supposedly doesn't throttle except for putting a 5mbs cap, our AT&T Mobley plan supposedly had a 25gb soft cap where you can be deprioritized but I can't say its ever happened. If the speed ever seems to suddenly slow, a reboot fixes it and we continue as normal.

Since the Mobley plan is long gone, I don't know if my experience helps, but it is a data point. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[1972VWbus]

Been using T Mobile home internet 5G and been very satisfied with it. Have not been throttled and I use it when on the road. I plug it into my 300w adapter and sit it on the dash. I purchased it to replace my Centurylink internet (home) 100up/10down that was $5X.XX per month.

Wasn't until I received the gateway I thought..."I bet this will work in the RV". It does indeed.

The T Mobile will run at over 500Mbps down and as much as 100Mbps up speeds. It's $50 per month and no contract.

[littleboss]

Originally Posted by 1972VWbus

Been using T Mobile home internet 5G and been very satisfied with it. Have not been throttled and I use it when on the road. I plug it into my 300w adapter and sit it on the dash. I purchased it to replace my Centurylink internet (home) 100up/10down that was $5X.XX per month.

Wasn't until I received the gateway I thought..."I bet this will work in the RV". It does indeed.

The T Mobile will run at over 500Mbps down and as much as 100Mbps up speeds. It's $50 per month and no contract.

And as low as 5Mbps when the towers are busy in my experience. TMO home internet is the lowest priority on the tower....

[dmp1991]

TMobile's home internet plan terms are pretty explicit if I remember correctly: for use in just one pre-approved geo location.