TIPS Cellular.everything

[krzykat]

I understand that for "us" its quick and cheap. I don't see running around setting this up for family and friends so they can call international. The minute the Pi dies, loses power, or something - who they going to call......

This works for you, but not at the same price point.
GTI-Global

 

[KNERD]

I understand that for "us" its quick and cheap. I don't see running around setting this up for family and friends so they can call international. The minute the Pi dies, loses power, or something - who they going to call......

I have one running for my home and it's been running 24/7 for 2 years now. Also got a UPS on it which keeps the power running to it for a few hours.

 

[Brianmac]

I don't want to hijack this thread....
for the normal person to switch to Visible and needing international, its not a good idea. I understand that there are workarounds, but the common person is not going to run a VOIP PBX - that's all I am saying...
Thanks,
Brian

 

[wardmundy]

@Brianmac: A PBX was just one approach. Another would be to add something like the LocalPhone app and make international calls in that way. Takes about a minute to set up and is considerably cheaper than making international calls using a cellphone provider directly.

 

[kenn10]

for the normal person to switch to Visible and needing international, its not a good idea.

For those who need international calling, it isn't reasonable to expect it with a $25/month plan. All the major cellular carriers have plans that allow international calling....just not for $25/month. Visible is targeted at people in the USA who primarily text, consume data and call within the country. It is certainly not a "one size fits all" type of plan but it sure is a great deal for a whole bunch of us.

 

[dicko]

Well, google fi costs 25 + $10/GB for a single user per month and when calling from an international location, if using WiFi generally just data costs on the local wifi, if using the Google Fi network usually only a penny or so a minute (watch out for mobile calls to the UK).

Having used both, and travelling outside the USA, for me it's hard to beat Goggle Fi.

 

[wardmundy]

Well, google fi costs 25 + $10/GB for a single user per month and when calling from an international location, if using WiFi generally just data costs on the local wifi, if using the Google Fi network usually only a penny or so a minute (watch out for mobile calls to the UK).

Having used both, and travelling outside the USA, for me it's hard to beat Goggle Fi.

If my daughter used GoogleFi at $10 per gigabyte, it would send me to the poor house.

 

[dicko]

but that suggests you are haven't explored their 'family plan' or actually RTF googlefi M ;-)

Does she use more than 22 Gb (it's not $220 per month each) Do you? so maybe $100 is a better reality, presumably you can roll in the missus or your gardener for a consideration also ?

GoogleFi is an mvno much like visible, they have IMHO a better network basicaly t-mobile/deutchtelcom (?) + sprint in the US so not so parochial when 'away'

This all written on my $150 chinese android phone on googlefi network while my local power is off again in SoCal.

(Also watching netflix on my Grandstream android 8inch android desk phone. all business phone calls un-interrupted using hot-spot )

 

[w1ve]

Or, you can rent a PBX instance from one of the suppliers Ward has mentioned in his Nerdvittles articles for about $30 a year, and not worry about Internet Access, Power, etc. If you are calling reasonable countries, (Western Europe, Australia, India, China) your outbound costs are almost nothing -- $70 should last you, your families and others for a long time. This actually has nothing to do with Visible. It'll work for any phone. You can set up a dialing prefix that does the work on your PBX, and then configure your phone so that the work to connect via the pbx is "hidden" to the end-user. With a little work, you get a big bang for the buck. Yep, you can go with a cell company that has International, but you won't get the coverage of Visible/Verizon, or the unlimited data.

 

[w1ve]

but that suggests you are haven't explored their 'family plan' or actually RTF googlefi M ;-)

Does she use more than 22 Gb (it's not $220 per month each) Do you? so maybe $100 is a better reality, presumably you can roll in the missus or your gardener for a consideration also ?

GoogleFi is an mvno much like visible, they have IMHO a better network basicaly t-mobile/deutchtelcom (?) + sprint in the US so not so parochial when 'away'

This all written on my $150 chinese android phone on googlefi network while my local power is off again in SoCal.

(Also watching netflix on my Grandstream android 8inch android desk phone. all business phone calls un-interrupted using hot-spot )

Depends where you are, my friend. T-Mobile/Sprint coverage is almost non-existent for data coverage where I live (Southwestern NH), and the 2G cellular isn't that great either.

 

[kenn10]

Still loving Visible!

 

[ostridge]

It is almost 9pm here though.

Thanks for that @jaminmc that's the first time I could get a grip if the BB is using us time or mytime you are -5:0:0.

 

[krzykat]

What's the most amount of bandwidth someone has put through this? (Trying to see if it could reliably be used as cellular internet backup.

 

[KNERD]

What's the most amount of bandwidth someone has put through this? (Trying to see if it could reliably be used as cellular internet backup.

I do believe @w1ve indicated he put in multi Gigabytes through it. The problem is Using it in a router is not possible, and hotspot is limited in speed. Though there is an app to get around that speed limit.

 

[krzykat]

I do believe @w1ve indicated he put in multi Gigabytes through it. The problem is Using it in a router is not possible, and hotspot is limited in speed. Though there is an app to get around that speed limit.

I thought I read where if you change the TTL you can get around it. Would be interesting pairing it with something like a Peplink Balance Pro 30 LTE (I know I saw a carrier use this once in a demo for almost immediate failover).

 

[KNERD]

I thought I read where if you change the TTL you can get around it. Would be interesting pairing it with something like a Peplink Balance Pro 30 LTE (I know I saw a carrier use this once in a demo for almost immediate failover).

Not going to work. Since 2019, it seems they won't allow anything on their network except approved devices.

 

[wardmundy]

Not going to work. Since 2019, it seems they won't allow anything on their network except approved devices.

Agreed. I tried it with 3 or 4 different routers and none would connect.

 

[KNERD]

Agreed. I tried it with 3 or 4 different routers and none would connect.

I even saw on Reddit before their network change, about people asking how to connect routers to it, and the Reddit moderators threatening to ban people for discussing it. It seems they were worried about Visible shutting down that unlimited data.

 

[krzykat]

What about what I heard of putting your phone on mobile hotspot, and changing the TTL? Then have the wireless bridge connected to the WAN2 port of your preferred router for failover?

 

[KNERD]

What about what I heard of putting your phone on mobile hotspot, and changing the TTL? Then have the wireless bridge connected to the WAN2 port of your preferred router for failover?

That may work. Though, I am not familiar how to make it start moving traffic to the WAN2 if the connection fails on primary connection.