FMCA Internet offers

[stahl_barry]

Hi, we are discussing the possibility of getting the  offer from FMCA, Verizon jet pack for Facetime and streaming.  Never felt the need but with the current times we feel safer here than going home.  Would appreciate all thoughts pros and cons.

Barry

2000 Diplomat

[David Pratt]

Barry

We have been using the Verizon Jet Pak for over eight years and we switched to the FMCA program over a year ago when it was offered. Unlimited usage for $50.00 bucks a month is a good deal. Verizon will throttle it back when you reach 25G's. No big deal unless you do a lot of streaming.

In our travels we get better signal with The Verizon than AT&T. We have AT&T for our cellular service and in our travels it sometimes is Iffy and the Verizon has never failed us.

I am sure you will get a lot of opinions  from those that use other services now  that you have posted the question. Pay attention to those that actually have the program..

[philcarrell]

We have the Verizon jet pak for about a year.  It is much better than the Sprint  one I had for about 8 years.  We have reception most everywhere we go.

[bklaes]

I had a Verizon Mifi but don't now.  The 25  gig limitation was problematic for us...  2 cell phones, 2 laptops, 1 tablet for maps, a Google Home Mini,  and streamed an occasional movie thru a Roku device.  With 4 grown kids and 2 grandkids, FaceTime is important.    We soon reached that 25 gig limit each month.  When the speed was throttled back, to us, it was like the service was switched off.     I switched to Visible.  Very good coverage, similar to Verizon.  Free phone and flat fee of $40 a month.  Unlimited service with a limited bandwidth.  I can't remember the bandwidth speed, but it has never been limiting to our usage.    The free Visible phone is dedicated to internet service, not used for voice or texting.  (Just like the Mifi)  I tether the Visible phone via USB to a small router which broadcasts WiFi for all the devices, including guests.    The biggest drawback is Visible has no stores.   It's all handled on line and customer support has been hard to reach by calling or email.   You have to have a good tech person to set things up - you are basically on your own. 

[Dennis H]

My wife has AT&T and I have Verizon. That way we are pretty much assured of coverage wherever we are. We've found Verizon has a little better coverage nationwide than ATT. I bought the AT&T Mobley when it first was offered and still use it today. It's worked flawlessly without and throttling. If we can't get service from ATT I use my phone as a hotspot and it works well too. I would think the Jet Pak would work just as well as the phone if not better. The antenna inside should be more robust than that inside the phone....Dennis

[Bob Nodine]

14 hours ago, Dennis H said:

My wife has AT&T and I have Verizon. That way we are pretty much assured of coverage wherever we are. We've found Verizon has a little better coverage nationwide than ATT. I bought the AT&T Mobley when it first was offered and still use it today. It's worked flawlessly without and throttling. If we can't get service from ATT I use my phone as a hotspot and it works well too. I would think the Jet Pak would work just as well as the phone if not better. The antenna inside should be more robust than that inside the phone....Dennis

Actually the phone will work better than the hotspot. We have a Verizon hotspot with unlimited service but it throttles back when we reach a limit. When that happens I switch to my phone as it is not throttled back. Once I called Verizon and was told they never throttle back the phone.

 

[georgecederholm]

We had the VZW-FMCA hotspot and we maxed out the usage every month. But VZW is now offering extra data on some (many? most? all?) plans due to CV-19, so you may be able to get by for a while. We didn’t use the MiFi for our phone data to conserve.

I made the mistake of attaching the VZW-FMCA MiFi to my existing phone plan account. Then, when I “upgraded” the phones to a new “unlimited data” plan, I lost the FMCA deal and the MiFi reverted to a part of my phone plan. Just a caution to keep the FMCA deal on a separate account.

GeorgeC, 2005 Exec