Anyone NOT use vehicle wifi hotspot?

[ControlNode]

I hated when AT&T bought out Cingular because my service went from Grade A to F overnight. To say T-Mobile beats them is a serious insult too since T-Mobile absolutely sucks. I had Sprint when they were bought out and my phone Signal went to crap almost overnight. I had to have Wifi in my apt complex or I couldn't make a call after the buy out. The moment my contract was up I ditched them. I took their customer exit survey and let's just say it wasn't a 5, 4, 3, or 2 star review either.

100% agreed. I had Cingular for years before the AT&T BS. They sold AT&T wireless to Cingular, let Cingular invest in the upgrades to the network and then swoop in and buy out Cingular. I had the old unlimited data plan with Cingular, the one without smart phone clauses. I got a Samsung Galaxy S2 in Norway on a trip. I paid full price for the phone, and I got it before the SGS2 went on sale in the US. When I got home I put the Cingular sim in and used the phone for months without issue. Then one day I installed a game from the app store (Some racing game, I think from Gameloft) and I guess that game was reporting to carriers as that day I got an email from AT&T that because I'm using a smartphone I didn't qualify for the unlimited data plan I was on, the restricted plan they put me on was almost twice the cost of my old plan. They would not listen that that plan from Cingular and had no restriction, I was paying for a service and that service should not care about the device. (I used less data on the SGS2 than I did with my older Sony Ericsson Aino that could remote play the PS3 and stream music). I understood that if you bought a discounted, or free, smartphone from them that you should pay a higher plan price in exchange for the over subsidized price on the phone so they were not too upside down on the deal. But, if I buy an unlocked phone from elsewhere and bring it, my plan was for a service and that service is no different from one device to the next (assuming GSM compatible and same frequencies supported). I finally got them to agree to put my plan back and I would put the sim back in my Aino, I then just BT tethered the SGS2 through the Aino. Several months later I moved the sim back to the SGS2 and no issues for a few months, until in installed that same game, I was on Wifi when I installed it, so they were reporting IMEI, SIM number or phone numbers to some database that carriers could look through for their own customers. This time I had StraightTalk (ST) SIMs in hand and tried to explain to AT&T they need to put me back on that unlimited data plan at the price I was paying, or I would Switch to ST with an AT&T backed SIM and pay even less than the plan I had. They didn't understand they were losing money and still providing me the service by adding ST as the middleman in the transaction. I was with ST until Google Fi came out as that worked better for work travel to Europe, and I really like the pay for what I use model, since I didn't use all that much being on Wi-Fi at home and work it was cheaper than Cingular for me. But, now that I added my daughter and Son-in-law to my Fi plan because he is always watching videos and refuses to use Wi-Fi (he thinks it's unsecure, he doesn't know how to use the Fi VPN) I've had to switch to the unlimited Plus plan.

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[shred5]

While I agree ATT is terrible it is not the issue it is Ford.
My Colorado never had issues and our Tucson never has/had issues at all on ATT.

Fords app is so far behind others it is not funny. My Chevy app was better almost 6 years ago than Ford is now.

You know I see all the issues people have just with updates. I have only updated my Ranger once because it was such a pain. My Colorado I started it it would say some thing like you want to d/l update when I started it after work. By the time I got home it was done. No USB no having to pull the truck close to the house to get my home wifi.

Our app for the Tucson you can set the car to start different depending on summer or winter for example. In the summer it turns on the air and in the winter it turns on heat and heated seat. Never updated it though so no experience there. It may just do it, I do not know it is the wifes vehicle.

I am just saying in this day and age Ford need to get their act together.

Even Fords website stinks. Parts site wont let me log in. The minute I add something to my cart it logs me in, I mean WTH.

 

[Jason B]

Depends on where you live. I have had AT&T prepaid phone service for 12 years now. I don't recall ever having a dropped call or 'service unavailable'. $40 per month, unlimited calls, text, 6GB data with rollover. I can upgrade to unlimited data for $20.

 

[D Fresh]

While I agree ATT is terrible it is not the issue it is Ford.
My Colorado never had issues and our Tucson never has/had issues at all on ATT.

Fords app is so far behind others it is not funny. My Chevy app was better almost 6 years ago than Ford is now.

You know I see all the issues people have just with updates. I have only updated my Ranger once because it was such a pain. My Colorado I started it it would say some thing like you want to d/l update when I started it after work. By the time I got home it was done. No USB no having to pull the truck close to the house to get my home wifi.

Our app for the Tucson you can set the car to start different depending on summer or winter for example. In the summer it turns on the air and in the winter it turns on heat and heated seat. Never updated it though so no experience there. It may just do it, I do not know it is the wifes vehicle.

I am just saying in this day and age Ford need to get their act together.

Even Fords website stinks. Parts site wont let me log in. The minute I add something to my cart it logs me in, I mean WTH.

What's the obsession some folks have with updating everything?

Jump drives and looking for most current versions and all seems like a lot of squeeze for very little juice if you know what I mean. My truck updates perfectly fine and seamlessly for me all on it's own.

 

[mtbikernate]

Tried the trial never used it. Ridiculous cost, use your cell phone as a hotspot.

depends on your phone plan. I used it for awhile because it cost less than adding unlimited data to my cell phone plan. now I have a cell phone plan with cheaper unlimited data, so I don't use the truck's mobile hotspot anymore.

 

[AzScorpion]

I never used mine as we have unlimited data on our phones. Plus I hate trying to cancel trial subscriptions! You either forget about them and get stuck paying for a month then have to call and go through their speech on why you shouldn't cancel. Plus many want your credit card to keep it going and I don't like having reoccurring payments taken out from my CC.

 

[ProtonDecay]

Where we like to go there is rarely cell service. LTE and now 5G can increasingly be had on the main roads, but we consider those necessary evils to get to to where we can get off of them.

But, we still like having internet, especially when we're hunting for a place to spend the night or at the end of a long day, so we bit the bullet and got Starlink.

Elon recently turned off our ability to use it while in motion (but now sells a $2500 dish to get what used to be included for free), but we don't mind that so much, as long as we can do our campsite research from the side of the road or get decent internet once camped.

Here's a pic of our setup

This has worked quite well since April of this year. The mount is set up so that I can quickly remove the dish and mount it standalone or on a mast on the trailer when the need arises.

Counting the months until competitors to Starlink emerge, however. They are increasingly capitalizing on their unique position in the marketplace by reducing service and increasing prices. We'll jump ship as soon as a better alternative becomes available.

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