We were experiencing very slow connections with our Millenicom hotspot. Since we have a Verizon cell phone which we also use as a hot spot when necessary we were comparing response times between the 2, Millenicom was definitely slower. I contacted Millenicom to report the issue and they were able to preform a reset, had us reset the SIM card and now everything seems to be working at about the same speed as our cell phone hot spot.
Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else is having similar issues, the folks at Millenicom were very prompt in the reset process.
Hdrider said
11:57 AM Jul 3, 2014
Good info. Howard reported that they were experiencing slower service with Millenicom also compared to Verizon. It has me second guessing switching.
Jack Mayer said
12:37 PM Jul 3, 2014
I had the same issue. It has to do with Verizon throttling Millenicom users. They thought they had it worked out, but I definitely had it happen to me. Millenicom gets Verizon to fix it, and you are good to go. Millenicom is pretty much identical speed to Verizon everywhere. The only minor - and I do mean minor - differences I have noted since getting the Millenicom Jetpack can be put down to different devices, and/or tower changes. In my case I did have to pull the sim....a powercycle did not invoke the "fix".
NWescapee said
02:23 PM Jul 3, 2014
We use Millenicom due to cost. I can't always rely on having my husband's mobile hot spot available as he's not always home when I'm working. I work the corporate "work from home (aka the RV)" job and need consistent access. We looked at the Verizon 20 GB plan, $130/mo vs. Millenicom at the current rate of $90/mo, used to be $70/mo so financially it made sense.
Even if we're both home, it helps to be on separate devices, he loves to stream music, would much rather have him do that on his phone with it's unlimited grandfathered data plan than on our hotspot. My response time can really slow down when he's streaming music so if I'm connected and working and he's streaming music, we are better off with 2 data devices and then neither of us can accuse the other of causing response time issue.
Technomadia said
10:22 PM Jul 3, 2014
Here's our full article on the Millenicom plan that explains it all:
And *crossing fingers* the Verizon throttling issue is resolved once and for all. We had gotten lots of reports of it. Last month those who reported it also got their usage set back to zero as a thank you for putting up with it.
NWescapee said
11:57 PM Jul 3, 2014
We determined satellite wasn't cost effective as I would need both data and voice and the vast majority of times we're not that far out in the boon docks.
BTW, by the time we contacted Millenicom and they reset our usage, a new month had just started. LOL, honestly, not too concerned about that, it was a nice gesture, just wanted it to work.
bjoyce said
09:19 AM Jul 4, 2014
We went through the reset about the 20th of June.
For those who do not have their phones on Verizon directly, you can get a hotspot only plan from Verizon and save money over Millenicom if you use less than 11 GB per month. The hotspot costs you zero to $50 up front, plus an activation fee. Then the plan is $50 for 5GB or $80 for 10GB each month, plus a few taxes and fees. I think the overage charge is $10/GB. This is a 2 year commitment and since Verizon prices the hotspot at $230 (the same one that Millenicom prices at $100), there is a big early termination fee if you cancel in under 2 years. We have a similar AT&T plan and it costs us $51.10 per month for 5GB with the fees. If you have phones from Verizon they will want to add the hotspot to the Everything plan or change your old plan to Everything. You might be able to get the hotspot plan separately if you are not on the Everything plan, but I do not know.
Technomadia said
12:34 PM Jul 4, 2014
The Junkman wrote:
Have you folks look into the satellite systems? Seems cheap, if you keep the downloading in check.. Since listing on ebay is mostly uploading.. maybe it could work for me..??
Satellite is good if you're going to be frequently out of range of cellular or WiFi, or for doing traveling across the borders into Canada and Mexico. But it has a lot of downsides too... like latency, slowness and bandwidth caps. Plans start at around $80/month for a couple hundred MBs of data daily, and go up from there.
Technomadia said
12:01 PM Jul 5, 2014
The Junkman wrote:
Just found the Verizon Business plans appear very appealing.. quick look .. I can get 25gb additional data for $75 / mo over what I pay now.. so $225/mo 30gb , unlimited voice, up to 25 phones..Looked briefly this morning. Since Millincom is on verizon as well.. not feeling the love with them any more.. Will start eval soon, will post up a thread then..
Keep in mind the $225 is JUST for 30GB of shareable data. You also have to add in your per device charge ($40/month for each smartphone, $20 for each internet device, etc.)
bjoyce said
10:01 PM Jul 5, 2014
Millenicom is $89.99 per month for 20GB of data, with all fees and taxes included. You hit your 20GB, you can pay another $89.99 for 20GB more than month, repeat. You do have a one time fee of about $165, but then you own the equipment and do not have to pay it again. Use Millenicom for one year and your total cost is about $1245 or $104 a month. Say you need 40GB per month, then one year is $2325 or $194 a month for it (twice $89.99 monthly plus the $165). You can get two Straightalk phones from Wal-Mart for under $110 a month, plus the cost of the phones. Remember there will be fees and taxes on the Verizon bill, I estimate your $315 will end up around $330 along with a 2 year commitment. The phones will probably not be free.
Now do you need unlimited text, talk and 30GB per month? I have no idea. Do you have any idea?
Right now I am wondering if you are playing us all.
bjoyce said
10:52 AM Jul 6, 2014
Get a router now that will track your bandwidth usage and hook it up to centurylink via Ethernet. Configure it to track the Ethernet usage then you will know. I know the Pepwave Surf SOHO and Cradlepoint routers (MBR95 and greater) will and have been told the WiFiRanger's now track usage, but I don't know if they handle Ethernet.
Sounds like you have 3 choices: 1) pay more for your internet usage than you do today and live with the cost; 2) Cut down your internet usage to what you can afford or want to afford; 3) Don't go on the road. They don't make wired internet that travels, the cord is too long to carry the signal and gets wrapped around the RV wheels anyway.
NWescapee said
08:37 AM Aug 18, 2014
At this point we're not seeing a difference between our Millenicom and our Verizon phone speed.
A new data challenge for us has started to rise the last couple of months. My corporate job is really now pushing the use of Microsoft Lync as our collaboration tool for all conference calls / meetings which means I'm chewing through data at a much faster rate than I used to when we called in on conference lines. Trying to monitor this to carefully to make sure we're not going over on our Millenicom plan.
We were experiencing very slow connections with our Millenicom hotspot. Since we have a Verizon cell phone which we also use as a hot spot when necessary we were comparing response times between the 2, Millenicom was definitely slower. I contacted Millenicom to report the issue and they were able to preform a reset, had us reset the SIM card and now everything seems to be working at about the same speed as our cell phone hot spot.
Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else is having similar issues, the folks at Millenicom were very prompt in the reset process.
We use Millenicom due to cost. I can't always rely on having my husband's mobile hot spot available as he's not always home when I'm working. I work the corporate "work from home (aka the RV)" job and need consistent access. We looked at the Verizon 20 GB plan, $130/mo vs. Millenicom at the current rate of $90/mo, used to be $70/mo so financially it made sense.
Even if we're both home, it helps to be on separate devices, he loves to stream music, would much rather have him do that on his phone with it's unlimited grandfathered data plan than on our hotspot. My response time can really slow down when he's streaming music so if I'm connected and working and he's streaming music, we are better off with 2 data devices and then neither of us can accuse the other of causing response time issue.
www.technomadia.com/millenicomverizon
And *crossing fingers* the Verizon throttling issue is resolved once and for all. We had gotten lots of reports of it. Last month those who reported it also got their usage set back to zero as a thank you for putting up with it.
BTW, by the time we contacted Millenicom and they reset our usage, a new month had just started. LOL, honestly, not too concerned about that, it was a nice gesture, just wanted it to work.
For those who do not have their phones on Verizon directly, you can get a hotspot only plan from Verizon and save money over Millenicom if you use less than 11 GB per month. The hotspot costs you zero to $50 up front, plus an activation fee. Then the plan is $50 for 5GB or $80 for 10GB each month, plus a few taxes and fees. I think the overage charge is $10/GB. This is a 2 year commitment and since Verizon prices the hotspot at $230 (the same one that Millenicom prices at $100), there is a big early termination fee if you cancel in under 2 years. We have a similar AT&T plan and it costs us $51.10 per month for 5GB with the fees. If you have phones from Verizon they will want to add the hotspot to the Everything plan or change your old plan to Everything. You might be able to get the hotspot plan separately if you are not on the Everything plan, but I do not know.
Satellite is good if you're going to be frequently out of range of cellular or WiFi, or for doing traveling across the borders into Canada and Mexico. But it has a lot of downsides too... like latency, slowness and bandwidth caps. Plans start at around $80/month for a couple hundred MBs of data daily, and go up from there.
Keep in mind the $225 is JUST for 30GB of shareable data. You also have to add in your per device charge ($40/month for each smartphone, $20 for each internet device, etc.)
Now do you need unlimited text, talk and 30GB per month? I have no idea. Do you have any idea?
Right now I am wondering if you are playing us all.
Sounds like you have 3 choices: 1) pay more for your internet usage than you do today and live with the cost; 2) Cut down your internet usage to what you can afford or want to afford; 3) Don't go on the road. They don't make wired internet that travels, the cord is too long to carry the signal and gets wrapped around the RV wheels anyway.
A new data challenge for us has started to rise the last couple of months. My corporate job is really now pushing the use of Microsoft Lync as our collaboration tool for all conference calls / meetings which means I'm chewing through data at a much faster rate than I used to when we called in on conference lines. Trying to monitor this to carefully to make sure we're not going over on our Millenicom plan.