TIPS Cellular.everything

So... our other project was finding a reliable cellular backup platform to address Comcast and Spectrum outages. The idea was to find the cheapest pay-as-you-go cell plans and switch as often as necessary to take advantage of deals.
Looking for a inexpensive internet back up provider, not T-Mobile, Since T-Mobile is my
main internet, I just set up this one.

MobileX (Verizon MNVO)

I won't get into the peculiarities of this company/service, "it has a few" but it's up and working
as expected.

You can only interact with this company through the their phone app only.

You can select a prepaid data only plan at a $1.99 monthly platform fee and $2.10 per gig of data
and the data rolls over.

I should be able to prepay like $35 and should last a year or so with no fail overs.

As I understand it,,,, You load up and each billing cycle your remaining data gets
cashed out, they take the $1.99 platform fee and convert balance back to data.

I'm using a Verizon Novatel 4G T1114 router. Can be bought for $20-$40
It has permanent power supply, wifi and ethernet ports.
I also have a Verizon 7730L mobile hotspot and works fine too.

Got my free sim, activated on spare phone.

You can open the T1114 and remove the existing Verizon SIM
and using a micro sim to sim adapter insert the newly activated MobileX sim

I have a dual wan port cisco firewall with auto fail over between ports and
just routing the T1114's DMZ to the cisco.

As a side note, kind of a interesting company if you look into it.
 
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Looking for a inexpensive internet back up provider, not T-Mobile, Since T-Mobile is my
main internet, I just set up this one.

MobileX (Verizon MNVO)

I won't get into the peculiarities of this company/service, "it has a few" but it's up and working
as expected.

You can only interact with this company through the their phone app only.

You can select a prepaid data only plan at a $1.99 monthly platform fee and $2.10 per gig of data
and the data rolls over.

I should be able to prepay like $35 and should last a year or so with no fail overs.

As I understand it,,,, You load up and each billing cycle your remaining data gets
cashed out, they take the $1.99 platform fee and convert balance back to data.

I'm using a Verizon Novatel 4G T1114 router. Can be bought for $20-$40
It has permanent power supply, wifi and ethernet ports.
I also have a Verizon 7730L mobile hotspot and works fine too.

Got my free sim, activated on spare phone.

You can open the T1114 and remove the existing Verizon SIM
and using a micro sim to sim adapter insert the newly activated MobileX sim

I have a dual wan port cisco firewall with auto fail over between ports and
just routing the T1114's DMZ to the cisco.

As a side note, kind of a interesting company if you look into it.
Have you calculated what a 2 or 3 day outage would cost you during a storm?? Sounds cheap... until you actually have to use it.
 
Have you calculated what a 2 or 3 day outage would cost you during a storm??
I have. 2-3 day outage would cost around $6-$7 dollars in data.
At the office we average around 30gb a month.

The house with mostly streaming would be a different story since we average over 1tb a month.
It would be OTA and DVD's for a few days.
 
I am still using my Dish5g router for this. $20 per month, unlimited data and decent speeds. Plenty fast for voip and ok for one streaming app or so at a time. It cost $500 to buy and $20 per month. Limited footprint but I get 4-5 bars in my office at home without an external antenna. genesis5g.com
 
I am still using my Dish5g router for this. $20 per month, unlimited data and decent speeds. Plenty fast for voip and ok for one streaming app or so at a time. It cost $500 to buy and $20 per month. Limited footprint but I get 4-5 bars in my office at home without an external antenna. genesis5g.com
Service is no longer available as of three weeks ago. For $425 + $25/m they will sell you a moto phone with an esim but no hotspot.
 
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Service is no longer available as of three weeks ago. For $425 + $25/m they will sell you a moto phone with an esim but no hotspot.
I didn't know that. They are really badly set up but my device seems to work fine.
 
Any tips how to properly configure the LT500D for best Mint Mobile use. Trying to find a Google link. Do you use just the open vpn setup?
 
@dghundt: I think MintMobile was one that just worked right out of the box. There's a MintMobile Profile in the General Settings -> Cellular menu as well. But here are the verbose settings if you need them.
 
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Screenshot 2023-06-30 at 10.52.59 AM.png

Speaking of False Advertising...

Just got ding'd for $71.61 from our 3-day "free trial" of Google Fi. Their support folks say the charges should be refunded "within a couple months"... hardly free. The Don't Be Evil company strikes again.
 
Looking for a inexpensive internet back up provider, not T-Mobile, Since T-Mobile is my
main internet, I just set up this one.

MobileX (Verizon MNVO)

I won't get into the peculiarities of this company/service, "it has a few" but it's up and working
as expected.

You can only interact with this company through the their phone app only.

You can select a prepaid data only plan at a $1.99 monthly platform fee and $2.10 per gig of data
and the data rolls over.

I should be able to prepay like $35 and should last a year or so with no fail overs.

As I understand it,,,, You load up and each billing cycle your remaining data gets
cashed out, they take the $1.99 platform fee and convert balance back to data.

I'm using a Verizon Novatel 4G T1114 router. Can be bought for $20-$40
It has permanent power supply, wifi and ethernet ports.
I also have a Verizon 7730L mobile hotspot and works fine too.

Got my free sim, activated on spare phone.

You can open the T1114 and remove the existing Verizon SIM
and using a micro sim to sim adapter insert the newly activated MobileX sim

I have a dual wan port cisco firewall with auto fail over between ports and
just routing the T1114's DMZ to the cisco.

As a side note, kind of a interesting company if you look into it.
Sounds interesting!
We have HughesNet backup internet. Their routers are bad, I can't setup anything with it (including bridge mode or failover) so when we have a failure I become a switchboard operator.
 
Sounds interesting!
We have HughesNet backup internet. Their routers are bad, I can't setup anything with it (including bridge mode or failover) so when we have a failure I become a switchboard operator.
Maybe you should send them a link to your posts on the subject - just maybe the embarrassment would prompt a solution?
 
View attachment 5011

Speaking of False Advertising...

Just got ding'd for $71.61 from our 3-day "free trial" of Google Fi. Their support folks say the charges should be refunded "within a couple months"... hardly free. The Don't Be Evil company strikes again.
Just got a second bill for our 3-day "free" trial in June. Run from these guys!!

From the Google Fi web site:

Does it cost anything to participate in the trial?
expand_more
There is no cost to participate in the 7-day free trial. You can cancel your trial at any time and still enjoy free service until your trial ends.
 
Google now has a new, new specious argument for the billings. They claim I clicked on the wrong Blue link on the Free Google Fi Trial page which activated a "regular" Google Fi account instead of a free trial. Then they claim I would have received a "Ready to Try Fi" page instead of a "Let's Get Started" page. Google Fi Trial page consists of four screens with a total of 6 possible links to click. Only one on first page triggers free trial. Nothing deceptive, of course.

Here is the first Google Fi "Try Fi for Free" page so you can draw your own conclusions:

Screenshot 2023-07-17 at 3.38.39 PM.png
Screenshot 2023-07-17 at 3.45.35 PM.png
 
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Wondering if $30 to $50 T-Mobile Home Internet service can replace your cable provider? Here are our results in Asheville, NC using our special $30/month T-Mobile Home Internet plan. Cost is about one-third of the price of Spectrum Internet service after their latest price increase. No price increases with T-Mobile EVER! YouTube TV, flawless. VoIP service, flawless. Amazon Music, flawless.

SpeedTest-Tmobile.png
 
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Wondering if $30 to $50 T-Mobile Home Internet service can replace your cable provider? Here are our results in Asheville, NC using our special $30/month T-Mobile Home Internet plan. Cost is about one-third of the price of Spectrum Internet service after their latest price increase. No price increases with T-Mobile EVER! YouTube TV, flawless. VoIP service, flawless. Amazon Music, flawless.

View attachment 5131
just wish I could get their service in my area (Melbourne, FL). I will rejoice at getting rid of spectrum's $200 charges. My wife never watches tv anymore and I can get sports elsewhere.
 
just wish I could get their service in my area (Melbourne, FL). I will rejoice at getting rid of spectrum's $200 charges. My wife never watches tv anymore and I can get sports elsewhere.
T-Mobile is pretty flexible with that. If you find an address that is eligible, and then go to the online chat, you can create an account through the chat window using that eligible address as the "service address" and they will ship it to your home address. They don't give you any grief for it.
 
just wish I could get their service in my area (Melbourne, FL). I will rejoice at getting rid of spectrum's $200 charges. My wife never watches tv anymore and I can get sports elsewhere.
@dhoppy is correct. Does T-Mobile actually work well where you are? If so, I'll be glad to DM you an eligible address.
 
Just as a follow up on my MobileX setup for back up after a couple of statements.

It's been as expected, no surprises. Works great.

I'm keeping a hot wireless data/internet BU connection for just over $2 a month. Doesn't
get any cheaper then that.

Data even rolls over in the 1/100's of a gig.

mob-x.jpg
 

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