Internet and cable or Unlimited phone plan?

[NickDalton]

***If this isn't allowed let me know and I'll take it down***


For starters I looked around and couldn't find the right forum for this question. The only other forum I'm on is one about impalas for my car when I run into trouble. So I figured a forum about vapes might be better. Technology y'know? Anyway haha.

Okay so I live in Alabama way out in the country. There's only like 2 internet companies out here and they both suck. For example we'll call the first one Garbagenet and the other one Trashnet.
Okay so I had Garbagenet at one point and I was paying like 85 dollars a month for 10 gbs between the hours of 8am and 2am but I got 50gbs between the hours of 2am and 8am. And I had the second to best plan they offered. The best plan they had was like 30 dollars more but I only got 10 more a day and 10 more over night. Wasn't worth it in the slightest. Now Trashnet has slightly cheaper internet for slightly more. For example I could get I think it was 12gb for 50 or 60 a month and then I could use all the data I wanted between the hours of 3 am to 6 am. With a baby and possibly a job I'm not gonna be able to stay up till 6am everyday enjoying this unlimited data. Now as I'm sure most of you know I can get unlimited data through Verizon. And since I live way out in the country my connection will never slow down because there's nobody else on the towers. I know this because my girlfriends brother currently had unlimited through Verizon. Now my question is do I get a crappy internet and cable company for wifi and something to watch or do I get unlimited data through Verizon and use the hotspot as internet? Now keep in mind there's three of us. We just had the cable turned off and we had the internet turned off a few months ago because we couldn't afford it. If we went with the unlimited Verizon thing since there's three of us we'd be splitting the bill into thirds and pool the money together to pay the bill. It's 160 a month for three people just for the plan. I'm currently on a contract through AT&T and they suck out here. So I'd have to pay for a phone too. And my girlfriend needs a new phone. So that's 160 plus whatever two phones would end up being. My girlfriends grandma (the third person) just got a new phone and it's prepaid so she would bring it over. I've been thinking about this on and off all night. Hopefully if I get a call back about my application I'll be able to pull something off. We're over here watching the same dvds over and over haha. I mean sure we could just buy dvds and watch them but I don't see the point in spending 20 dollars a pop for movies and tv shows when there's three of us when we could pool money together and go out and get unlimited data or cable or whatever. Anyway. What do you guys think I should do? At this point I'm looking for suggestions (obviously) and food for thought. Thanks so much for reading this ridiculous post!


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[dre]

The Verizon fios has a bundle sale phone, you internet access 75-100mbps and cable for under 100 including HBO. After that it's around 200 with taxes

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[dre]

For cellphone I'd go with straight talk it's the best. I used them for years you get unlimited everything for 30-45 I forget

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[NickDalton]

For cellphone I'd go with straight talk it's the best. I used them for years you get unlimited everything for 30-45 I forget

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Do you currently use them? Not sure if you heard or not but that unlimited data isn't actually unlimited it slows down after you use so many gbs or something. Unless it's like the Verizon thing where if you live in a smaller area and not many people are using it you don't actually get slowed down. But I know people who got checks from straight talk because of the fact it wasn't actually unlimited.


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[dre]

It's t mobile I never was throttled down

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[NickDalton]

The Verizon fios has a bundle sale phone, you internet access 75-100mbps and cable for under 100 including HBO. After that it's around 200 with taxes

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Only issue with that is I literally only get dish and DirectTV. I can't even get AT&T internet out here. I'd be perfectly fine with AT&T because it's like 100 dollars and you get like one or two tbs


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[dre]

No Verizon FiOS,?

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[NickDalton]

No Verizon FiOS,?

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Honestly highly doubt it but I'll look into it right now.


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[NickDalton]

No Verizon FiOS,?

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Yeah I entered my address and it wants me to give them a call. I doubt it haha. I'll call them after a while though just to make sure.


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[Rickajho]

IF you can get an unlimited cell plan that works in your region... if it was me I would never pay a dime again for shitty cable service. We aren't in the boonies here but both our cable choices still suck.

Virgin Mobile is another unlimited option if you have Sprint service in your area. No contract - but you have to pay for your phones. After years of crap AT&T service with a contract Virgin Mobile was a win-win for us.

 

[NickDalton]

IF you can get an unlimited cell plan that works in your region... if it was me I would never pay a dime again for shitty cable service. We aren't in the boonies here but both our cable choices still suck.

Virgin Mobile is another unlimited option if you have Sprint service in your area. No contract - but you have to pay for your phones. After years of crap AT&T service with a contract Virgin Mobile was a win-win for us.

Virgin Mobile is worse than AT&T out here haha. T Mobile is garbage. Literally the only thing that picks up out here phone wise is Verizon and with AT&T right now I'm sitting at 4g and I've got one bar. I have LTE a good amount of time but if I move the wrong way I lose LTE. Which is really irritating. Makes me want to throw my phone across the house. Side not I did accidentally run over my phone in my car. Perfectly fine though. I have no idea how lmao.


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[Markw4mms]

Have you considered HughesNet Gen5 service? Download speeds are supposed to be around 25mbps.

 

[Whitesoxfan2579]

I live in a fairly rural area of northwest IL. Population of 16K in my whole county. I use Tracfone for cell service, which I believe is Verizon. Costs about $7 a month after purchase of LG phone which was $30. Use Dish Network which is 80-90 a month and for internet I use Mediacom which is $50 a month.

 

[HondaDavidson]

Meh... I cut the cable went back to antenna TV 3 years ago.... plenty of stuff there to rot the brain. Can get all the rest I watched on Sat/CABLE VIA youtube and other sources. Add netflix or hulu. What more is needed.

I say go internet. Or cell with internet.

I also cut my smart phone....cut service went back to old flip phone.. now use smarts as tablets.

Life is wonderful without the electronic leash.



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[AndriaD]

I'd say the Verizon is the better deal, BUT! if anything happens to that tower, you're screwed -- and considering that Alabama gets as many tornadoes as GA if not even more, that might be a serious consideration -- with cable, usually the cables are buried, which might be an issue if you lived in a quake area, but in Alabama, not much of a problem. With a new baby AND a grandma dependent on that one tower staying in service.... I'm not sure if I'd risk it, no matter the money saved.

Andria

 

[NickDalton]

Have you considered HughesNet Gen5 service? Download speeds are supposed to be around 25mbps.

I had hughesnet. I can't deal with the data cap haha.


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[NickDalton]

I live in a fairly rural area of northwest IL. Population of 16K in my whole county. I use Tracfone for cell service, which I believe is Verizon. Costs about $7 a month after purchase of LG phone which was $30. Use Dish Network which is 80-90 a month and for internet I use Mediacom which is $50 a month.

I lived in Illinois. You know where Champaign is at? We had dish before Hughesnet and the data cap is horrible haha. I don't think I actually said we'd be using the internet for Netflix to cut cable costs. I know for a fact I don't get Mediacom out here haha.


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[NickDalton]

I'd say the Verizon is the better deal, BUT! if anything happens to that tower, you're screwed -- and considering that Alabama gets as many tornadoes as GA if not even more, that might be a serious consideration -- with cable, usually the cables are buried, which might be an issue if you lived in a quake area, but in Alabama, not much of a problem. With a new baby AND a grandma dependent on that one tower staying in service.... I'm not sure if I'd risk it, no matter the money saved.

Andria

I live between Clanton and Montgomery if you know where those towns are. And I've been down here over a year and most I've ever gotten is bad rain and wind. Not saying there won't be any tornadoes just saying I haven't seen any yet. Warnings, yes. Actual tornadoes, no. And I wouldn't say the baby is dependent on the tower unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. And the only internet and cable we can get out here is satellite so even a medium rain messes it up. It even messes up my AT&T network. My girlfriend, her brother and her grandma all have Verizon and they don't have the same issue as I do with AT&T. I'm just trying to figure out a way to get internet that way we can watch Netflix and such so we don't have to pay a cable bill. I mean 200 dollars is rather steep for cable and internet when you're living paycheck to paycheck. And I completely understand cable and internet isn't something you have to have. Like I said in the OP we're getting tired of watching the same DVDs over and over haha. I apologize if any of that came out as rude. It wasn't my intention. Just trying to explain myself fully so you guys can completely understand the question


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[AndriaD]

I live between Clanton and Montgomery if you know where those towns are. And I've been down here over a year and most I've ever gotten is bad rain and wind. Not saying there won't be any tornadoes just saying I haven't seen any yet. Warnings, yes. Actual tornadoes, no. And I wouldn't say the baby is dependent on the tower unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. And the only internet and cable we can get out here is satellite so even a medium rain messes it up. It even messes up my AT&T network. My girlfriend, her brother and her grandma all have Verizon and they don't have the same issue as I do with AT&T. I'm just trying to figure out a way to get internet that way we can watch Netflix and such so we don't have to pay a cable bill. I mean 200 dollars is rather steep for cable and internet when you're living paycheck to paycheck. And I completely understand cable and internet isn't something you have to have. Like I said in the OP we're getting tired of watching the same DVDs over and over haha. I apologize if any of that came out as rude. It wasn't my intention. Just trying to explain myself fully so you guys can completely understand the question


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The baby is dependent on whatever communication service you have, in the event of a sudden acute illness -- children and especially babies are unfortunately very prone to such catastrophes (came home from night school once, to discover my husband going bananas because our year-old son had an ear infection, fever of 104, red as a beet and screaming his poor lil head off -- the baby, not my husband ). Old people are more prone to problems like falls and broken bones. Maybe the grandma could get one of those "help I've fallen and I can't get up" type devices, to make sure someone can always be aware if she has a sudden problem.

It does sound like the Verizon and hotspot would be your best choice though. I fully grasp the ungodly cable bills; we finally ditched comcast when our bill had climbed to $250+ per month, but fortunately we live in the ATL metro area, so we got DirecTV/AT&T. That's not a perfect solution, but it saves us over $100/mo, so it's worth it to us.

Andria

 

[NickDalton]

The baby is dependent on whatever communication service you have, in the event of a sudden acute illness -- children and especially babies are unfortunately very prone to such catastrophes (came home from night school once, to discover my husband going bananas because our year-old son had an ear infection, fever of 104, red as a beet and screaming his poor lil head off -- the baby, not my husband ). Old people are more prone to problems like falls and broken bones. Maybe the grandma could get one of those "help I've fallen and I can't get up" type devices, to make sure someone can always be aware if she has a sudden problem.

It does sound like the Verizon and hotspot would be your best choice though. I fully grasp the ungodly cable bills; we finally ditched comcast when our bill had climbed to $250+ per month, but fortunately we live in the ATL metro area, so we got DirecTV/AT&T. That's not a perfect solution, but it saves us over $100/mo, so it's worth it to us.

Andria

Oh okay. I did misunderstand you. I thought you meant if something happened to the internet that we'd have trough Verizon. Which if that tower went down I guess we wouldn't have a phone either. But even without bars you can call emergency I'm pretty sure. That ear infection must've been horrible. How long did it take to clear up? Yeah we'll have to look into getting her one of those buttons. I had Comcast while I lived in Illinois and the price was crazy. We'll probably end up going with Verizon as long as I hear a positive word about my application haha. One of the training managers got in an accident and broke a few ribs. She says she'll be back working by Monday but the cap team leader and a couple other employees say it'll probably be longer. But they have like 3 training managers. So I'm gonna keep calling and see if I can get on. Oh I don't think I've mentioned but I'm trying to get on at WalMart. It's the best place I can get on at. Starting position makes 9.00 dollars an hour. It's not great but it's a start haha. If you don't mind my asking, Is he still a year old? If not how old is he now? My daughter (still sounds weird saying that haha) is 4 months old.


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[AndriaD]

Oh okay. I did misunderstand you. I thought you meant if something happened to the internet that we'd have trough Verizon. Which if that tower went down I guess we wouldn't have a phone either. But even without bars you can call emergency I'm pretty sure. That ear infection must've been horrible. How long did it take to clear up? Yeah we'll have to look into getting her one of those buttons. I had Comcast while I lived in Illinois and the price was crazy. We'll probably end up going with Verizon as long as I hear a positive word about my application haha. One of the training managers got in an accident and broke a few ribs. She says she'll be back working by Monday but the cap team leader and a couple other employees say it'll probably be longer. But they have like 3 training managers. So I'm gonna keep calling and see if I can get on. Oh I don't think I've mentioned but I'm trying to get on at WalMart. It's the best place I can get on at. Starting position makes 9.00 dollars an hour. It's not great but it's a start haha. If you don't mind my asking, Is he still a year old? If not how old is he now? My daughter (still sounds weird saying that haha) is 4 months old.


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Heh, he'll be 29 on Friday. I don't think it lasted very long -- the ear infection -- but that's the thing with babies and small kids, their fevers can be astronomical, and they're fine in a few days. I guess the high fever kills the microbes PDQ! But it sure is a worry to the poor parents! If you ever do have to deal with a high fever with your daughter, a tepid bath is the best way to get that fever down ASAP -- she'll hate it and scream her head off, but it gets the fever down fast. Alcohol rubs are good, too, very cooling, and babies hate that too, but it gets the job done.

As for the job... gotta start somewhere. My husband has never made a ton of money, but always found work -- he's a demon on a forklift.

Andria

 

[celticluvr]

Pretty much the only thing we can get here is CenturyLink... it comes as a bundle internet/tel/cable but we had the cable shut off as they kept trying to up the charges on it.... We live right on the border with Georgia in Randolph County. I don't have a cellphone as you can't really get service out here anyway. our bill is ridiculous though over 100 just for internet and phone...

 

[outwest]

have you looked into WISPs in your area? (WISP = wireless ISP. You install a receiver on your roof that connects to their tower. Requires line of sight to tower) Being rural, the provider's uplink will probably be microwave, which isn't real fast, but it's still fast enough unless they've oversold. You should be able to get at least a 768kbps connect via WISP (and hopefully be able to get faster than that)

All that being said, unless you can get WISP at good speeds (faster than the 768) and at a good price, I'd probably go with the verizon deal (assuming it's LTE). Not only would Verizon be faster, but you'd get the added bonus of everyone having a cell phone, and thus saving on an extra bill. TMO is cranking up their service areas and are preparing the launch of their 5G network (just something to keep in mind).

Where I live, choices are internet via satellite, WISP, or for a few houses AT&T DSL (at 1.3mbps). Luckily house is just barely close enough for the DSL because it sits in a low spot and thus can't get service from either of the two WISPs in the area. Worse, there's a fiber optic line running right by us, but it's to link two townships phone systems and AT&T wont tap into it for the residents. Been trying to get the electric co-op to run fiber, but so far falling on deaf ears.

 

[Synphul]

I'm in the same boat, I live in the country and the options are shit. Forget hughesnet/wildblue (same thing). They're ridiculous on price, was paying $95/mo for their premium service which still had data caps as well as penalties for overage based on rolling months not calendar months. So if you used a little net all through the month and today you decide to download a lot of update, watch videos etc and push yourself to the cap - you don't get the clock reset at the start of the new month, you have to wait 30 days for the day of heavy usage to drop off. I spent an entire month throttled so bad even google wouldn't load and still had to pay $95 for it. Fuck that.

If deciding to go cellular as in using a cell phone for a hotspot (tethering) make sure the contract allows it. If not and they suspect you're using way more net than a typical phone would they can figure out what you're up to and terminate your service. Most cell plans don't allow tethering unless specifically purchasing a wifi wireless access point and paying a separate bill.

For basic cell service (not as a tether) I use straighttalk. It's pretty solid, unlimited data/text/voice for $45/mo. Rarely have I had dead spots and I'm in the boonies. I got better service on an el cheapo phone and straighttalk than my ex did with her iphone6s and verizon family plan. Hell her family would try calling her and her phone would drop calls or not even receive them from phones on the same plan. Mine worked though and that was out of state.

If satellite is screwing up from the weather (as in tv signal) you may want to have them recalibrate it or something. I've used directv for years and the only time I lose signal is under tornado warnings when shit's getting real wicked. Massive thunderstorms and I barely lose signal for a minute if that. The net they typically bundle with directv/dish is generally wildblue/hughes, at least in my region.

If money is that tight, for the moment anyway you could go with straighttalk's $30/mo plan. It would be for a generic type phone (not a smartphone) but it would serve as a phone. Voice/text (not much in the way of data access) and they have free/cheap phones. Plus it's no contract so you're not stuck with it. Might not be the most exciting thing but would work in a pinch until money improved.

 

[AndriaD]

I'm in the same boat, I live in the country and the options are shit. Forget hughesnet/wildblue (same thing). They're ridiculous on price, was paying $95/mo for their premium service which still had data caps as well as penalties for overage based on rolling months not calendar months. So if you used a little net all through the month and today you decide to download a lot of update, watch videos etc and push yourself to the cap - you don't get the clock reset at the start of the new month, you have to wait 30 days for the day of heavy usage to drop off. I spent an entire month throttled so bad even google wouldn't load and still had to pay $95 for it. Fuck that.

If deciding to go cellular as in using a cell phone for a hotspot (tethering) make sure the contract allows it. If not and they suspect you're using way more net than a typical phone would they can figure out what you're up to and terminate your service. Most cell plans don't allow tethering unless specifically purchasing a wifi wireless access point and paying a separate bill.

For basic cell service (not as a tether) I use straighttalk. It's pretty solid, unlimited data/text/voice for $45/mo. Rarely have I had dead spots and I'm in the boonies. I got better service on an el cheapo phone and straighttalk than my ex did with her iphone6s and verizon family plan. Hell her family would try calling her and her phone would drop calls or not even receive them from phones on the same plan. Mine worked though and that was out of state.

If satellite is screwing up from the weather (as in tv signal) you may want to have them recalibrate it or something. I've used directv for years and the only time I lose signal is under tornado warnings when shit's getting real wicked. Massive thunderstorms and I barely lose signal for a minute if that. The net they typically bundle with directv/dish is generally wildblue/hughes, at least in my region.

If money is that tight, for the moment anyway you could go with straighttalk's $30/mo plan. It would be for a generic type phone (not a smartphone) but it would serve as a phone. Voice/text (not much in the way of data access) and they have free/cheap phones. Plus it's no contract so you're not stuck with it. Might not be the most exciting thing but would work in a pinch until money improved.

Metro PCS provides free hotspot service with every plan. And if you go over whatever data plan you purchase, they don't charge you more, they just slow you down to 3G.

Andria

 

[NickDalton]

@ the OP, Who is your cellular provider and do you receive a solid LTE signal?

I've got AT&T and I don't receive a sold LTE signal. But I would with Verizon.


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[dre]

Imo straight talk from Walmart was the best service I ever had. Now I have verizon just cause my mom offered to give me a line no charge to me on the condition I always answer. She has the 10gb plan for 4 lines. We always just barely not go over. It nuts hi.mich data you can use.

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[Synphul]

Something with straight talk, not sure if it applies to others as well. Being el cheapo prepaid, they piggyback off other networks. One they use I think is verizon, another is at&t. Different regions get better service from different carriers, if you sign up and provide all the info for your location they give you what they feel is best for your area. If you do a bit of research though, you can find out what zip codes are handled by various networks and choose which carrier by entering the corresponding zip code.

As an example, maybe Amarillo is handled by verizon and Dallas is handled by att. If att actually has better service with less dropped calls and things but you live in Amarillo, sign up using a Dallas zip code to get an att activated phone.

That's pretty cool about metro pcs if they offer free hotspots/tethering. Hard to keep up, the damn cell co's change plans so often. Like with my internet, being in the boonies I use wireless (cellular) internet and it's slow as molasses but it's fairly cheap at $40/mo and beats dialup. The company doesn't offer any unlimited plans anymore, I've been with them since back when they did so I'm grandfathered in.

According to one site that reviews the various companies plans, metro pcs offeres tethering so long as you get a $40, $50 or $60 plan, have a device that supports mobile hotspots (I would assume one bought through them) and pay $5/mo for the tethering option. They don't mention a separate fee on the site but of course they have fine print. Not all plans allow tethering, pcs customers use the tmobile network but priority is given to tmobile customers so pcs customers may experience congestion/slowdowns, device has to be hotspot capable etc etc.

This is on one of their offers, unlimited 4g lte data, 2 lines for $80/mo - but then says "Video streams @ up to 480p. During congestion, top 3% of users (>30GB/mo.) may notice reduced speeds. No tethering."

Some areas tmobile may work well, in my particular area not so much. Their coverage is spotty where I'm at and I had a tmobile phone in the past. Tons of dropped calls, static, low bars etc all over the area around me. It's too hit and miss but maybe in your area it would be more stable.

 

[AndriaD]

Something with straight talk, not sure if it applies to others as well. Being el cheapo prepaid, they piggyback off other networks. One they use I think is verizon, another is at&t. Different regions get better service from different carriers, if you sign up and provide all the info for your location they give you what they feel is best for your area. If you do a bit of research though, you can find out what zip codes are handled by various networks and choose which carrier by entering the corresponding zip code.

As an example, maybe Amarillo is handled by verizon and Dallas is handled by att. If att actually has better service with less dropped calls and things but you live in Amarillo, sign up using a Dallas zip code to get an att activated phone.

That's pretty cool about metro pcs if they offer free hotspots/tethering. Hard to keep up, the damn cell co's change plans so often. Like with my internet, being in the boonies I use wireless (cellular) internet and it's slow as molasses but it's fairly cheap at $40/mo and beats dialup. The company doesn't offer any unlimited plans anymore, I've been with them since back when they did so I'm grandfathered in.

According to one site that reviews the various companies plans, metro pcs offeres tethering so long as you get a $40, $50 or $60 plan, have a device that supports mobile hotspots (I would assume one bought through them) and pay $5/mo for the tethering option. They don't mention a separate fee on the site but of course they have fine print. Not all plans allow tethering, pcs customers use the tmobile network but priority is given to tmobile customers so pcs customers may experience congestion/slowdowns, device has to be hotspot capable etc etc.

This is on one of their offers, unlimited 4g lte data, 2 lines for $80/mo - but then says "Video streams @ up to 480p. During congestion, top 3% of users (>30GB/mo.) may notice reduced speeds. No tethering."

Some areas tmobile may work well, in my particular area not so much. Their coverage is spotty where I'm at and I had a tmobile phone in the past. Tons of dropped calls, static, low bars etc all over the area around me. It's too hit and miss but maybe in your area it would be more stable.

MetroPCS really IS a great provider; I've been with them just over a year now, and never once had a dropped call, never found an area where I didn't have LTE, and the hotspot thing truly IS great -- if my cable happens to go down, or be wonky for some reason, I can still get online, using either my phone or my tablet; I probably could use that hotspot internet with my PC, but windows handles networks so weirdly, I haven't yet figured out how to do it. Probably because I switched from Comcast to AT&T for internet in December, and AT&T has been insanely reliable, much better than Comcast internet, which used to go down as often as Linda Lovelace.

I have their $30/mo plan, 1GB, but I do have the Hotspot feature -- ALL their plans have it. And as I said... never had a single issue with slowdowns or congestion or dropped calls or ANYTHING... it's been smooth as silk.

Andria