I’ve had Nextel/Sprint since 1994. No phone coverage for it at my cabin. Saw ad for Visible phone. Ordered it. Phone arrived in 2 days. Unlimited everything for $40 a month. Needed it to make a hot connection spot so I can access my phone’s emails and so my boys can “plug” in at night. Sim card was to big to fit in the little tray on new phone. Tried to trim with pocket knife and messed it up. Waited 2 more days for new card. They are scored where it snaps out I now know. An hour in the chat box with company to figure out how to turn on the hit connection spot and then find out only one device can connect to it at a time. If you are looking to hook two different things into this phone for internet, look elsewhere.
You might already know this but there are carriers that have mobile hotspot devices where you can hook up as many devices to it as you want. It’s kind of like a router but uses satellite just like a phone would. Internet is its only purpose though. You’re probably looking at twice the monthly cost as the phone above. You can also pay an added fee to turn your phone into a mobile hotspot but it might not be a cost effective solution since you’ll need a whole new carrier due to sprint not working out there.
Do you know which carriers provide service around your cabin?
Maybe one of the young bucks on here know some new and improved way of remote internet.
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A lot of my younger friends have Sprint but have the same complaint of rural coverage. I went with Verizon just for that reason alone as I’m out in the countryside a fair bit for business.
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My brother had Verizon and it works at the cabin. Our trail cameras have Verizon things in them to transmit pics to our phones. Got a satalite phone coming but it’s $1.40 per minute. we get 500 minutes a year included in the promotion package
Never heard of that before?
That is the video I watched lol. I cut the gold part. Tried scotch tape but wouldn’t work
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They can be finicky!
I think for the price I can live with it. Now I don’t have to wash to the graveyard to message a call @squidskc
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No, but I’m not a Kentucky native, I just live here now…
My in-laws have verizon for the internet at the house. About 10 years ago they started expanding internet in their area in Kentucky but stopped one house before theirs. They live outside of town about 4 miles but the highway is dotted with farms. Another 5 houses and they would’ve gotten them all. They used that Hughes.net for a few years but it was super slow. The verizon works great but they have a data transfer limit. They never hit the limit until all of the grand kids are down. The kids wipe it out in a matter of hours…lol
I’m not positive but I bet if you get that thing from verizon you can probably use it anywhere you want and even in the car when you go on vacation. There’s no better muzzle for kids than being able to hook their devices to the internet.
Keep the SIM and get a portable hotspot like @marinegrunt suggested.
They are $50 here and you can connect up to 10 devices - probably more on a decent one.
Here’s some info on them…
Can you make a phone call with the hot spot, or does it just send out internet waves to connect to other phones?
What we’re talking about is just basically a router to where you can hook up to the internet. Only internet waves and no talking. You can also setup a mobile hotspot through most verizon smartphones so sounds like you’re wanting that so you also have phone service out there. We have unlimited for our cellphones but I think you only get like 15 gb of data when using it as a mobile hotspot. If the kids like watching videos it doesn’t take long to knock out 15 gb. I know in the past you could add more gigs for a reasonable price but they would stick it to you for each gig if you went over without noticing. You can keep track on the phone though. They might’ve changed that 15 gb policy since they they went back to unlimited a few years back. I’ll try and find out more but at least be sure to question whether or not the mobile hotspot is also unlimited if you talk to them. I think you have to sign a two year contract to get the hotspot so the prepaid plans won’t work.
The visible thingy is unlimited internet but it is throttled to 5 something, if that makes sense. My wife said it was enough to watch Netflix on.
I looked at our account and we have their go unlimited plan. That includes the unlimited for mobile hotspot it’s just the hotspot is not at 4g speeds but rather 600 kbps. That’s probably where the 500 kbps comes from on the Visible phone. It’s just the speed of data transfer. Verizon also offers other unlimited plans where the hotspot is 4g but then you only get 15 gb of data or 20 gb of data depending on the plan. 4g is the same as 4000 kbps so that kind of tells you how much slower the 500-600 kbps is.
Like your wife said the 600 kbps hotspot you could probably get by with one device watching a video but it will slow things down if you try and watch 2 separate videos on different devices.
Since you get a verizon signal out there it looks like a smartphone through verizon would be the ticket as long as everyone there is okay with only having one video streaming at a time. At least you’ll have a phone that works out there and the kids will be able to connect to the net. I don’t believe all smartphones are capable of a hotspot so be sure to find one that is. Most newer phones are though.
I’d definitely have someone use their current verizon phone as a hotspot out there before going through with them. You can’t just go by watching a video on their phone because that will be in 4g. It only drops to the 600 kbps when you’re connected to their hotspot.
I have a buddy that has the visible R2 and he brought it there and we had success. Currently I have 2 cords from Amazon that won’t connect the phone into the tv. Just left the Sprint store and an in the parking lot of Walmart trying to remember what cord he told me to buy. I truly hate technology and it’s trappings if I have to hook it up
What type of port do you have on the phone you’re trying to hookup. Better yet, what type of phone is it?
so frustrated. The phone is an android Visble R2. I bought, the latest purchase, a 3-in-1 USB-C charge hub. They said it would work. plugged one end into phone, hooked hdmi to hub and to tv. nothing happens. I’ve spent a $100 on useless junk so far.
I’m sure you did but check to make sure the tv input is on the right hdmi port that you’re hooked to.
