I am planning to use Verizon’s 4G Network to replace a crappy DSL connection at a remote second home. Verizon supposedly guarantees 4G service up to 22 GB a month and after that they MAY downgrade the service to 3G under certain circumstances like heavy traffic. This is not a concern at my second home, but I am wondering if this service could be an alternative to our present Comcast internet service which we have at our primary residence where we stream a LOT of Netflix movies in the winter and would definitely eat up 22 GB very rapidly. If the service became constantly downgraded to 3G after the first ten days of the month, that would be unacceptable. On the other hand, if it just happened occasionally, it might be tolerable. I suspect I would be better off keeping the Comcast service. Any Dopers with experience with this?
A bit of clarification, if you plan to use your phone as a wireless hotspot your ‘unlimited’ limit is 10 GB, if you use your phone it’s 22, so combined of 32 non-throttled ‘unlimited’.
If you exceed any limit that particular limit can degrade and that is Verizon’s standards as to what is network congestion, while the other one remains non-throttled.
As if you can use it as a vacation home internet, it depends. If you can drop your primary home’s internet, unlikely this is what Verizon wants to prevent, and limits are set to accomplish that.
Since you have it already perhaps give it a try, see if it is something you can use. But if you can use it, so can others, and what you can do now may not be sustainable.
What you may want to consider is buying a used grandfathered unlimited plan, they sell on ebay and the like (called assumption of liability) and Verizon finally opened the taps on full unrestricted internet, except no teathering (no WiFi hotspot). This is the holy grail of RV’ers who seek a affordable way of staying connected while on the move. There are some devices that can use the sim card with grandfathered unlimited and turn it into a WiFi hotspot (against the wishes and dreams of Verizon) and that’s exactly how this use them.
One more word about Grandfathered unlimited plan, it’s useless outsdie the US due to it beign way to expensive, better buying a local sim card, or getting a T-Mobile plan before heading to europe.
22GB is a very small amount of data for general internet use. Enough for email and light surfing and shopping, not much else. Streaming of any kind will blow through that in a few days.
Actually, Verizon will disconnect you if you use up too much data on the grandfathered plans (Google it). They’ll send you a termination letter as soon as your contract’s up. There’s no precise limit, just if you use “too much” according to some arbitrary definition.
Also, as someone who was just recently on the grandfathered unlimited plan, they’re pretty expensive. (Starting at like $80ish per month). With the new unlimited plans, if you get a few friends or family together, each line is only $45/month.
Also, OP, are you sure you’re on DSL? Comcast normally does cable. If you’re on cable and not DSL, it’s probably easier to just up the Comcast bandwidth to the next tier of service. Also check for wireless broadband where you’re at (not through Verizon, but a local wireless internet provider)
I think it very unlikely you are going to get satisfactory service at your home with Verizon’s “unlimited” plan. Stick with Comcast.
That imprecise limit appears to be 200gb/month. Now quite honestly I have no idea how much data I use on my home network, and I have not seen where I can find that out. But if you google it it does seem to work for some.
True and international usage is useless.
Also, OP, are you sure you’re on DSL? Comcast normally does cable. If you’re on cable and not DSL, it’s probably easier to just up the Comcast bandwidth to the next tier of service. Also check for wireless broadband where you’re at (not through Verizon, but a local wireless internet provider)
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Check this out from 4gCommunity…
Unfortunately you need to read the comments to see if this would work and if so, would be a good deal for you. The comments are fine, it’s just that there are a lot of them. People seem to have success with it.
I should clarify. Our permanent residence in Portland has Comcast cable. Our second home in the remote mountains of Northern California has only ONE choice, one mb DSL unless we wanted to pay for satellite, which requires a two year contract. We have Verizon cell service because it is the only one with a tower on a mountain near us. This is a VERY remote area.
Based upon comments here and my discussions with Verizon, I have decided to keep the Comcast cable in Portland and add the 4G LTE internet to my Verizon phone plan and chop it off in the fall after we shut down and winterize California, and then add it back in the spring.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice. Very useful.