Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
mborozny
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thanks again for bringing Unlimitedville up. 

On our end, we plan to switch all our phones to Sprint (improvements in reception here) before the next billing period starts; just waiting to have all of us available at the same time when school ends for my daughter (today). 

My husband is resisting the idea of Unlimitedville+signal booster+antenna and wants to go back to satellite after 7 or so years (HughesNet this time).  I appreciate your offer, though.  I was seriously thinking of going that route.

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
JRRinNC
Enthusiast - Level 3

Mborozny, if you think Verizon is bad, then you will REALLY hate satellite.  I had satellite until I moved to Home Fusion on Verizon in January, 2016.  It wasn't bad until this stupid unlimited plan they lied to all of us about.  (Unfortunately even though I've now transitioned to Unlimitedville, I have to keep paying Verizon this year due to the 2 year contract.)  Anyway, before you switch to sat, check out the reviews on the net.  Particularly look at the Consumer Affairs site with complaints at this link: Top 2,169 Complaints and Reviews about Hughes Network Systems .  That was pretty much my experience... they promise great speeds but in reality I ended up getting REALLY slow speeds most of the time because they are really dependent on the number of users on the satellite.  Particularly every evening it would just slow to a crawl... less then 1 mbps.  Heck, even with the slowdown after 10GB, I'd keep Verizon rather than go back to satellite. 

I was concerned too that with Unlimitedville I'd need a booster and extra antenna, figuring that's what Home Fusion seemed to be.  Turned out not to be the case.  I went with their "Pink Plan" and just have it setting inside with no external antenna and I'm averaging close to 20 mbps with no slowdowns.  With their complete money-back trials, you really have nothing to lose to give their plans a try.  Remember that they have unlimited plans using signals from each of major cell companies (including Verizon).  If you try one plan and it turns out the signal isn't good enough, it's my understanding they will refund it completely and let you try each of the other plans.  If none works, then you've lost nothing but the quick setup time.  Again, from my experience I really think satellite should be the absolute last option anyone should try.   

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
mborozny
Enthusiast - Level 3

I hear you, but my husband won't listen.  I've brought up my reservations, the plan conditions, and the horrible reviews for HughesNet. The reality is that where we live, there is so little access to nearby cell towers, DSL is terrible, Comcast can't serve us, and the trees make satellite and sometimes cellphone voice reception a struggle.  Our signal inside the house is pretty poor.  I would much rather go with Unlimitedville.  Might just have to order it through my home-based business...

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Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
MRAKRAK6530
Enthusiast - Level 3

I will say that like JRRinNC I also had used Hughesnet at one point. The speeds really were nowhere near what they advertised, they were too expensive for what they provided, the customer service was terrible and again data limits. I personally would advise against it, especially since I believe you have to have a 2 year commitment (is that still the case with Hughesnet?) If it is, try to talk your husband out of it!! But seriously, good luck with whatever you do try.

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Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
ranchguy
Enthusiast - Level 2

You should ask about the service in your area, try it if possible. Each area is isolated from the next, performance varies.  No trial period.  They just have the new satellite, "upgraded" plans, so performance should be better than existing service as there shouldn't be that many people on it yet.  But I haven't bothered looking into seeing how it's working yet.  Most people I know have satellite.  But I'm suggesting they wait until the other provider's new service is up and running, late this year or probably next.  Exede is the better service from a better company.  This area didn't get much of an upgrade last round, just tweaked speeds on the old satellites.  Hughesnet majorly overstuffed their service, Viasat had this area closed to new subscribers all but about 6 months since Exede was available.  Both stink, bad, barely work during primetime congestion here.

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
mborozny
Enthusiast - Level 3

My husband and I were on WildBlue years ago, before the company became Exede.  We had absolutely no issues with customer service; it was just that satellite at that time was way slow.  Frontier enticed us with 3 Mbps DSL 6 or so years ago only for us to find out that we maxed out at 1.4; now it's more like 1 Mbps because Frontier oversubscribed. 

I have hesitated to sign on for the new Hughesnet plan.  I worked really hard since I'd last posted to avoid my husband pulling the trigger by June 30 (due to so-called time limited discounts). 

Thank you, both JRRinNC and MRAKRAK6530 for backing up my concerns.  I have since contacted the IT guy for my husband's office (he's done work for my business, too), and he tried to be diplomatic, but I could tell he didn't think much of Hughesnet.

For those who need a stop-gap measure while you're throttled by Verizon, this is what I did:

1.  Purchased ZTE MF975 Pocket Wifi device and plan through 4GCommunity.org

I've had the device since May 8 and just discovered that it works in my driveway and on my back porch.  I am thinking that it took a while to lock into tower settings, but who knows?

Highest speed from my porch is 13 Mbps down on 5 Ghz setting.  Highest speed in town 6 miles away has been 28 Mbps down.

2.  Purchased old, refurbished  Cradlepoint MBR1200 router on Ebay for $25.  These routers have USB ports that support USB hotspots.  Connected the ZTE Pocket Wifi.

3.  Ethernet-connected a Netgear AC1900 R7000 router to the Cradlepoint router.  These are great for broadcasting a signal.  Alternately, they can be set up as wireless bridges.

4.  Set all this up on my back porch.

I am getting speeds upstairs in my 1550 sq foot house, opposite side, in the woods, of up to 9 Mbps, which is better than I got most of the time with Verizon 4G/LTE installed.  My low is about 5 Mbps. Latency is not great, but nor is it great on the Verizon system.

Now to figure out how to make this an indoor set-up.  My husband is now open to a WeBoost Connect 4G Signal Booster system.:)

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
CHRISNICHOLLS7

We are promised 3G. What drives me crazy is the fact that 3g can easily run at 2G/s but mine after being choked down is running at 0.06 to 0.01 G/s. That's 60-10kps.. That is not even a usable internet speed and a rate from years and years ago pre 3g. It is a joke.

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Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
mborozny
Enthusiast - Level 3

We have gotten maybe 10 days of 4G speeds out of 30 on this plan as well. The kicker is that even when our new month started on the 17th, we were getting speeds of 1 Mbps or less. Verizon refuses to have anyone come out and recheck your installation.

My cantenna is now turned off. We are using the Pocket WiFi from 4GCommunity.org's premium plan (similar to Unlimitedville's Yellow Plan) and pulling download speeds of up to 14 Mbps. It took some research and attaching the right routers, but we now have the fastest internet we have ever had.  CHRISNICHOLL7, I would give either of these companies a try.

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
JEFRAN13
Enthusiast - Level 3

These people could care less and you bought a bill of goods.  The cantenna is not capable of providing anything less than 4G and Verizon refuses to acknowledge that's why they tell you to use you use your "Mobile Hot Spot" cantenna is not a hot spot!!!!!!.  What I am trying to understand is it appears to me that Unlimitedville uses these carriers such as Verizon's infrastructure  how is it they they can provide Unlimited to them and not loyal customers?

Re: Home Fusion-LTE Internet Installed is a hotspot on Unlimited!!
DonJohns49
Enthusiast - Level 2

Jefran13, you are hitting close to the whole issue of why VZW does not care about their Home Fusion customers. They WANT these customers to cancel their service freeing up their data bandwidth to sell to the big data bulk wholesalers. I used Home Fusion for 5 years on a 30 GB tiered plan, worrying and checking online everyday about going over. I switched to the VZW Unlimited, until-it’s-not Plan the same month it was introduced last February. I checked speeds and dropouts every day after switching and watched both get progressively worse for 3 months before they rolled out the 10GB throttle. After the throttle policy kicked in, the speeds jumped back up drastically with no more dropouts. This had to do with both the throttling AND people canceling any of their VZW data plans – who would want that throttling [Removed]? My Unlimitedville Red plan still uses VZW as the data carrier but no more throttling of any kind and the speeds are constantly 35-60 Mb/s and the dropouts are non-existent. It’s the same wireless network as before, but now much less congested. The worry now is that the big data wholesalers can’t over-sell the underlying network infrastructure or we will see the speeds drop again.

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