I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

I'm using Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25 a month now. No issues so far after getting it into a device that supported the service correctly. I've actually seen faster speeds at times than on my phone which has Verizon's original grandfathered UDP

txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

I'm using Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25 a month now. No issues so far after getting it into a device that supported the service correctly. I've actually seen faster speeds at times than on my phone which has Verizon's original grandfathered UDP

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Nice speeds. Which device are you using? Do you activate that through Verizon?

MaroonBloodedAg2010 said:

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Does anyone know if the T-mobile sim will work with the cradlepoint cba850, or would a new modem be needed?

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The CBA850 is just the shell that the modem goes into for a cradlepoint. The modem that can come out of the CBA850 is what determines the providers you can use. The ones from LTEFix should work with all providers. I know the 1200M only works with Verizon and AT&T now, but I doubt anyone else here has that one since it's $750+.

black_hat_ag said:

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txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

I'm using Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25 a month now. No issues so far after getting it into a device that supported the service correctly. I've actually seen faster speeds at times than on my phone which has Verizon's original grandfathered UDP

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Nice speeds. Which device are you using? Do you activate that through Verizon?

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Activated through Visible. They send the SIM card. Currently have a promo to get either a $100 or $200 mastercard w/2 months of service. Was worth taking a chance on 2 months service to me since I come out at least $50 ahead either way.

I have it in a WE826 router with a Sierra Wireless MC4755 modem.

txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

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It's all relative to your location to the tower. I can get 50+ down and sometimes 20+ up on my phone. My laptop can be a little better. Bad service is a result of a weak modem and/or distance/obstructed view from the tower. I've gotten the max download speed of 150 outside my house on a phone and then it drops to 70-80 inside the house. So knowing my modem is not the best and then sending the WiFi signal from my attic, I'm happy to get 30-40 down from most spots in the house. Overall, outside of a couple issues, I've been happy with the service for almost a year.

Now, if I were new, I would definitely check around and go with the cheapest option available from the fastest provider near me. I just don't think it's worth trying to go slightly cheaper to a new reseller that may not give you the option to be grandfathered on AT&T if AT&T ends their contract with them.

khkman22 said:

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txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

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It's all relative to your location to the tower. I can get 50+ down and sometimes 20+ up on my phone. My laptop can be a little better. Bad service is a result of a weak modem and/or distance/obstructed view from the tower. I've gotten the max download speed of 150 outside my house on a phone and then it drops to 70-80 inside the house. So knowing my modem is not the best and then sending the WiFi signal from my attic, I'm happy to get 30-40 down from most spots in the house. Overall, outside of a couple issues, I've been happy with the service for almost a year.

Now, if I were new, I would definitely check around and go with the cheapest option available from the fastest provider near me. I just don't think it's worth trying to go slightly cheaper to a new reseller that may not give you the option to be grandfathered on AT&T if AT&T ends their contract with them.

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I've managed my parents LTE based internet for the last 10 years dealing with different routers, modems, antennas, etc. Very aware of the causes of bad cell service. My issue with OTR was the price to value. Their customer service was absolutely terrible the 3-4 times I had to contact them in the 2 months I trialed their service at my parents. It was basically like dealing with the local WISP. I realize that. I've used Cricket previously as a backup internet connection and its speed in the local area was just as bad, but it was also only $55 a month for unlimited with a decent customer portal.

I mention Visible because they're the first cost effective Verizon MVNO I've seen which I assume is because it's owned by Verizon. IME, Verizon has the best service/speeds in most of the state.

Yeah, won't disagree with the customer service. My issues were temporary and resolved within a day, but I've never been that confident in them.

So you were able to use a Cricket cell plan in the modem for home internet? I use them for my cell service and didn't realize you could use them in a modem like mine for home internet. Even if I could use it, I'd be worried about being throttled since I would be deprioritized if it is ever congested. Although, theoretically, where I am it shouldn't ever be too bad.

txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

I'm using Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25 a month now. No issues so far after getting it into a device that supported the service correctly. I've actually seen faster speeds at times than on my phone which has Verizon's original grandfathered UDP

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That ping speed wouldn't work for me, and apparently that is normal with Visible. Thanks for letting us know about it. Here's a video review for those interested...

OTR was amazing at customer service back when this thread started. Now... terrible. Today my internet went out and there were 99 people in the chat queue. I waited for over an hour and then it booted me and said they had no agents available.

I'll try the TMobile service, but if it isn't great or I get disconnects like I have lately, I will move to Gypsy,

Looks like Gypsy isn't accepting new customers due to issues with AT&T

OTR now says they can't guarantee the $90/month legacy plan.

Mine went out and I can't get it going with their terrible customer service right now. Thankfully, I still have a Verizon prepaid unlimited plan as backup... now primary.

AT&T picked the wrong time to **** around with this.

Do you have any thoughts on if a Netgear LB1120 would be better than a phone at getting a signal? I have a couple of cheap T-9 antennas I can connect to try and help some, but they haven't seemed to be much help for my AT&T signal so I don't know if they would make a difference for the T-Mobile signal. I tried a tester phone from T-Mobile about 4 years ago so I'm not sure what the quality of the modem was then.

At this point I'm just limping along and not really wanting to spend a lot of money putting antennas up outside the house to get a good signal that will be pointless in a year or so.

Is there any good plan like this through Verizon? One of their towers may be a little closer than the T-Mobile, although I might need to buy a new modem if I switched to them. I thought I read that the LB1120 is iffy with Verizon compatibility.

Oh, and **** AT&T.

txyaloo said:

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khkman22 said:

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txyaloo said:

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I tried OTR for a month and had terrible service. Couldn't imagine paying them $90 a month.

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It's all relative to your location to the tower. I can get 50+ down and sometimes 20+ up on my phone. My laptop can be a little better. Bad service is a result of a weak modem and/or distance/obstructed view from the tower. I've gotten the max download speed of 150 outside my house on a phone and then it drops to 70-80 inside the house. So knowing my modem is not the best and then sending the WiFi signal from my attic, I'm happy to get 30-40 down from most spots in the house. Overall, outside of a couple issues, I've been happy with the service for almost a year.

Now, if I were new, I would definitely check around and go with the cheapest option available from the fastest provider near me. I just don't think it's worth trying to go slightly cheaper to a new reseller that may not give you the option to be grandfathered on AT&T if AT&T ends their contract with them.

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I've managed my parents LTE based internet for the last 10 years dealing with different routers, modems, antennas, etc. Very aware of the causes of bad cell service. My issue with OTR was the price to value. Their customer service was absolutely terrible the 3-4 times I had to contact them in the 2 months I trialed their service at my parents. It was basically like dealing with the local WISP. I realize that. I've used Cricket previously as a backup internet connection and its speed in the local area was just as bad, but it was also only $55 a month for unlimited with a decent customer portal.

I mention Visible because they're the first cost effective Verizon MVNO I've seen which I assume is because it's owned by Verizon. IME, Verizon has the best service/speeds in most of the state.

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I'm curious how you got your service through Visible set up. Did you have to get phone service from them first? I tried their chat line on their website today, since they don't seem to have a phone line to call. The tech I chatted with seemed to not have a clue about broadband internet through them. They finally got my number and said a manager/supervisor would call me back.

Someone finally called me, and they didn't seem to know anything either. After putting me on hold to talk to someone higher up, they finally came back and said they would send me some info through email on how to get a SIM to try it out, since I don't have an "approved" device. I still haven't gotten an email from them yet, so we shall see.

So I have a couple of things to report.

First off, I never heard anything back from Visible after my chat the other day. So I started another chat this morning, and was finally told I could order service just using my current phone type. When I receive the SIM, just try it in my modem and not my phone and see if I can get it to work. I didn't think about it at the time, but I used my iphone which uses a nano size SIM. I should have just picked a phone that already uses a standard SIM if possible. Oh well, have an adapter ordered through Amazon to try and get it to work. We shall see if it will work, I can always send it back if it won't. Sure hope it does.

Then I bit the bullet and got on OTR's chat. Two and a half hours later, I ask the agent if there is a way to try their new Blast program before my Legacy quits working so I won't just be SOL They initially said they could take care of that, but then just sent me a link to order a new SIM free of charge. Supposedly it provides 14 days to try it out, and if it doesn't work you can send it back. But then the old Legacy plan will expire anyway when your term runs out. The Blast will still be $60 until your term expires, then it will be the "discounted" price of $70 for existing customers. I'm not real hopeful the T-Mobile service will be at least as good from my location, but I don't have much choice.

BTW, here is the link they gave me for a new SIM for the Blast plan for existing customers if anyone else is interested.

https://otrmobile.com/product-detail/5e689a70e5573806392fb6f6

My legacy OTR is done... game over. I waited hours to chat and they tried to re-up the service but said that if it didn't work then I'm done with AT&T. It didn't work. I should have the TMobile SIM card on Friday.

khkman22, I haven't used the LB1120. I did a Nighthawk from OTR and then moved to Cradlepoints. I would think external antennas would be better than a phone, but you never really know without testing. The Nighthawk had 4 internal antennas but only 2 external so it sometimes would hurt to add the external ones. It will depend on your signal and what the tech is in each device.

Well, that certainly sucks. When you say Friday, do you mean tomorrow or next Friday? Mine probably won't get here until late next week. Curious to see how it works for you. They keep saying how it will increase coverage.

When did your billing cycle start? Mine resets on the 25th so I'm in a race against time to get the T-Mobile SIM here for some type of hope. If not I'll be without internet for a couple days while I have to go back to my old fixed wireless.

My other shot is to try a Cricket SIM on the unlimited plan to see how it works. I don't know if the modem would be recognized as a hotspot or not. If not then only when congested would I theoretically be throttled. But it did say video was reduced to SD quality. I could live with that for a week or two while I tried finding a different solution.

The TMobile SIM should be here today. TMobile coverage here a year ago was about the same as Verizon or AT&T without a booster or antenna, 0 to 2 bars most of the time inside and 3 to 4 bars outside. With the roof mounted antennas I'm hoping I can get a great signal. There are many direct line of sight antennas I can see from my roof. One better have TMobile.

My billing cycle started on the 13th. About a day or 2 before it went out. That's something I'm going to have to talk to them about. I only got a couple of days of service and then had to pay $60 for the new TMobile service. I better get some of that month I didn't get put back on my account or refunded.

I know there are ways to spoof hotspots being phones and I have used a VPN to get around video throttling, but that's a whole other level of the rabbit hole I don't want to go down yet.

My att with OTR is still working strong.

But I went ahead and had otr mail me the free T-Mobile SIM card just in case. Hopefully if att cuts the cord here I can get back running quickly.

Let us know how T-Mobile works for you.

black_hat_ag said:

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My att with OTR is still working strong.

But I went ahead and had otr mail me the free T-Mobile SIM card just in case. Hopefully if att cuts the cord here I can get back running quickly.

Let us know how T-Mobile works for you.

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Same with me. I'm paid up on my Legacy OTR until May, but from going through their Facebook page AT&T is randomly cutting off customers. AT&T is definitely not making any friends. Not that they had that many to start with.

labmansid said:

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black_hat_ag said:

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My att with OTR is still working strong.

But I went ahead and had otr mail me the free T-Mobile SIM card just in case. Hopefully if att cuts the cord here I can get back running quickly.

Let us know how T-Mobile works for you.

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Same with me. I'm paid up on my Legacy OTR until May, but from going through their Facebook page AT&T is randomly cutting off customers. AT&T is definitely not making any friends. Not that they had that many to start with.

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Agreed. Att must pay for what they have done.

Our OTR internet was working up until yesterday evening, and was down as of this morning. Our billing cycle is on the 4th of the month, so we should be good thru April 4th. I'm guessing AT&T cut us off. Presently #84 in the LiveChat with an estimated wait time of 121 minutes. Since they close in a little less than an hour, I'm guessing it'll boot me and say no agents are available.

Truly first world problems, but this is frustrating when we're all stuck at home.

tfunk02 said:

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The TMobile SIM should be here today. TMobile coverage here a year ago was about the same as Verizon or AT&T without a booster or antenna, 0 to 2 bars most of the time inside and 3 to 4 bars outside. With the roof mounted antennas I'm hoping I can get a great signal. There are many direct line of sight antennas I can see from my roof. One better have TMobile.

My billing cycle started on the 13th. About a day or 2 before it went out. That's something I'm going to have to talk to them about. I only got a couple of days of service and then had to pay $60 for the new TMobile service. I better get some of that month I didn't get put back on my account or refunded.

I know there are ways to spoof hotspots being phones and I have used a VPN to get around video throttling, but that's a whole other level of the rabbit hole I don't want to go down yet.

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Any luck with the T-mobile SIM? Did it come activated, or what is the process to get it going?

For those that have it, did yall catch this?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/12/21177538/att-broadband-internet-data-cap-coronavirus-suspend

Mine came today but of course now I can't get it activated before they will close their chat hours today. It's pretty ridiculous that they can just shut down like this in a critical time. You have to wonder how many people they will lose over customer service. They're not much better than AT&T in that regard.

And I have to hope that when I activate the T-Mobile SIM tomorrow that they don't shut off my AT&T data before I get home to switch it out.

Is the APN for your T-Mobile fast.t-mobile.com? That's what support told me, but they also told me it was broadband for AT&T even though I have been using OTR Mobile.

Also, should it just be as easy as swapping SIM cards and changing the APN in the modem, or is it dependent on the modem? I only have one slot, not multiple I can switch between like the Cradlepoints.

I guess I'll see if this works in an hour or so.

labmansid said:

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tfunk02 said:

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The TMobile SIM should be here today. TMobile coverage here a year ago was about the same as Verizon or AT&T without a booster or antenna, 0 to 2 bars most of the time inside and 3 to 4 bars outside. With the roof mounted antennas I'm hoping I can get a great signal. There are many direct line of sight antennas I can see from my roof. One better have TMobile.

My billing cycle started on the 13th. About a day or 2 before it went out. That's something I'm going to have to talk to them about. I only got a couple of days of service and then had to pay $60 for the new TMobile service. I better get some of that month I didn't get put back on my account or refunded.

I know there are ways to spoof hotspots being phones and I have used a VPN to get around video throttling, but that's a whole other level of the rabbit hole I don't want to go down yet.

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Any luck with the T-mobile SIM? Did it come activated, or what is the process to get it going?

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You have to chat to activate it. You don't need to be at home to do it as it takes a little time for the activation to actually go through. I was surprised that they kept me in the queue until I was helped at 6:45 or so. So I have to give them credit there.

All it took was giving them the SIM number and then waiting about 30 minutes and it was activated. My modem is in my attic because the place where the router should be in the house is dead middle with maximum interference from the walls. There was no signal with T-Mobile. I moved it to a window upstairs and got two bars. I also bought an antenna and it boosted to a constant four bars and occasional five. I was feeling pretty good and then my speed test maxed out on the first test at 2.67 Mbps. So, as expected, T-Mobile's coverage still sucks and I'll be switching back to my fixed wireless plan.

But it was quick and easy as far as getting setup. So if you're in a better location to a tower, it may work out for you.

How is everyone able to chat with them? Everytime I get on it says "Our agents are not available "

I've been trying to get on for 3 days now.

chaca5151 said:

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How is everyone able to chat with them? Everytime I get on it says "Our agents are not available "

I've been trying to get on for 3 days now.

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They do that when they have over 100 people in the queue. You have to sit there and stare at it until it opens and then quickly click the chat button before someone else does. It's pretty crazy. It took me 5 hours to get my TMobile card turned on.

I have my TMobile setup now. It's weird because the closest tower is 6 miles, but the ping and speed were terrible. I moved to a tower I can see 20 miles away and it is getting 16 down, 6 up with sub 30ms pings. I'm hoping when the weather is nice at night I can find a better tower. -70db was the best I could get for signal when -48 to -52 was what I was getting with AT&T. Verizon is now my primary with OTR as a backup.

Switching to the TMobile with the Cradlepoint was just pulling the sim and putting in the new one. The Cradlepoint took care of the APN. It is the TMobile fast APN.

Thanks for the heads up! Good to know.

Dang, I didn't realize I had terrible service my Ping is at 38ms Download is 21, and upload is 12. My tower is at -80db, and I thought that was good considering we are streaming YTTV while the wife and I are on our phones. That all changes when the teenager gets home and starts using her phone, then that's when we have issues.

So when you requested the T-mobile, did they disconnect your AT&T? My wife has to work from home, so I can't disconnect our internet.

Our AT&T is still active through today, maybe tomorrow. So they shouldn't shut off when T-Mobile is activated. But they say that when your cycle resets, it 100% will be shut off and you will have no service if you didn't upgrade to T-Mobile.

chaca5151 said:

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Thanks for the heads up! Good to know.

Dang, I didn't realize I had terrible service my Ping is at 38ms Download is 21, and upload is 12. My tower is at -80db, and I thought that was good considering we are streaming YTTV while the wife and I are on our phones. That all changes when the teenager gets home and starts using her phone, then that's when we have issues.

So when you requested the T-mobile, did they disconnect your AT&T? My wife has to work from home, so I can't disconnect our internet.

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-80 isn't bad. I am direct line of sight with multiple roof mounted 18dbi gain antennas pointed right at the tower.

Your ping is very good. Anything better than 50ms is good. 25ish is the best I have seen. When I was getting a bad ping it was 500+ms.

When I was getting in the -45ish range (AT&T) it wasn't the best signal to noise ratio. I was struggling to stay at 7dbi SNR. When it went up above 7 is when I was getting 75+Mbps down and 30+Mbps up.

Verizon is from a tower in South College Station. I get -55dbi with a 20dbi SNR. Ping is around 35ms with about 40Mbps down and 20Mbps up.

I could have sworn I saw on OTR's Facebook a reply from them that said the T-Mobile SIMs were mailed already activated. No wonder their chat is swarmed. Not sure why they can't be pre-activated.

aggolfer said:

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For those that have it, did yall catch this?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/12/21177538/att-broadband-internet-data-cap-coronavirus-suspend

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I also saw today Congress is working on making it illegal for providers to suspend service during this time. Hope that goes through before AT&T can turn more of us off.

It says that it will come activated in the "Upgrade to Blast" for Legacy customer's section:

"Your new Blast sim card will be activated when you receive it. Install in your current device like your legacy sim and enjoy the Upgrade to Blast!"

My T Mobile sim is being shipped to me currently. I'm not looking forward to activating the sim and the lack of signal and speed that I'm expecting at my house.