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And... lost 5G again. OK, I tried moving the gateway to a different corner of the house (closest to tower) and got 5G back. Had some glitch of some home smart devices losing internet but I had to reset those and they're back online.
I guess it could have been worse. I am pondering going back to cable internet. LOL
Wow! That's, uh, incompetent!? I'm happy now that I have an Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway, but who knows, that one might be the next one they brick!
The only cable internet available at my address would be $69.99/mo total for the cheapest 100/100 fiber plan. That would be a slowdown in download, an increase in upload, and it was reliable when I had it in the past, but it would be $19.99/mo MORE than my TMHI, which has also been reliable so far, since April, 2022.
I have the Arcaydia and problem started when they updated mine to the new 1.00.18 firmware. It's coming soon to a gateway near you. LOL
Call the cable internet guys and see if they can match the TMO $50/mo. My old cable internet is offering $49.99 for 250mbps service after TMO opened sign ups and they started losing subscribers (originally $72.99).
BTW, I guess it was a glitch from moving thee gateway and having powered off the Arlo base station. Everything is back and working now.
More Update: Noticed my Arlo wifi name changed. I guess Arlo had pushed out an update and the update was not smooth and I had to re-set up everything.
In case you hadn't seen them already
Yep, definitely growing pains at TMO. I am getting about 50mbps with 5G tonight. Originally I got 200-500mbps with the Sagecom gateway but that is incompatible with one device. I am now using the Arcaydia gateway which gives me 100-150mbps but not this week and not when it loses 5G and goes on LTE (it's 1-10mbps then). I am sticking with it for now since I got in during the $25/mo promo. If it were $50/mo, I get more reliable 250mbps with my old cable internet provider's current promo.
So now it is like 4 mo free. Cable internet's buying commercial spots says 5G internet is just phone internet, not home internet. Some users would agree. My PlutoTV gets lags/interruptions at times.
Inconsistent experiences from different users in different locations is definitely concerning for the long-term success of this product.
I use my TMHI with Netflix, Philo, and lots of free services, including Crackle, Freevee, Hoopla, Kanopy, Peacock, Plex, Pluto, Red Box, Stirr, The CW, The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Xumo, just to name the main ones, and don't have any lags or other slow loading issues.
I use the above on Roku devices, in case that might make a difference.
I am streaming on an Element 58" Roku TV. Actually, affects the other streaming services too, not just PlutoTV.
Well, Xfinity is fighting back!
Just be aware:
$25 requires autopay via bank account.
+$10 w/o autopay.
+$5 if autopay w/debit/credit card.
1.2TB cap in some areas, +$10 for unlimited in those areas.
Wow! Now I wish I lived in an Xfinity area!
Thanks for the additional details. This would be great for me, if only I lived in an Xfinity area!
Reports are that you can sign up autopay w/bank account for the lowest rate then prepay w/CC before autopay debit date and no bank debit will happen due to $0 due.
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But some people are concerned about linking their bank account to a site that has history of being hacked. I guess maybe one should open a separate account with no overdraft protection for paying bills. Some businesses do this for payroll accounts.
Verizon FIOS makes it hard to do this. If you prepay with a credit card, it voids the autopay discount. You then have to call CS to get it back.
Yes.
I keep a few accounts with very low balances just for ebay, privacy.com & autopays like this. Mainly credit unions as they seem most friendly / fee free to low use, low balance accounts.
I suspect that this may become more common as more people do this. Eventually they might just refuse until x# of autopay from linked bank account occurrs.
I have in the past prepaid via CC for several months at a time (if I could use 5% or better CB category), no idea if you'd still have to call Verizon every month for your discount to be applied or it would carry over after the first call until the credit was depleted.
The whole opportunity cost calculation of prepayment to use 5% CB has changed for me though. A year ago when savings got close to 0% it was a no brainer but now with close to 5% easily attainable it no longer holds nearly as much attraction for most CC points systems.
I realized that I never posted this very useful link on how to broadcast cell phone internet to multiple devices using a Visible compatible android phone USB tethered to an ASUS router. It's no longer as good as just using a Cudy LT500 but it's still good to know about this option.
From around Aug 2020 - March 2021, I ran this setup extensively using an ASUS RT-AC68u paired with a ZTE A3 Prime on Visible. During this time, I had configured the main home internet to block out a lot of websites, so that my daughters and the pod we were hosting several days in the week couldn't access them. But my wife and I still wanted to be able to get unrestricted web access, so she and I connected on the ASUS.
Notably, this is a tried and true workaround to Visible's 1 hotspot connected device limit.
As for speed, I hadn't bothered figuring out how to mangle the TTL to get full speeds. I seemed to be getting around 8-12 mbps even though Visible said that your limit was 5mbps. Whatever the speed, it was sufficient for running my work laptop and a TV running in the background on non-4k streaming devices, while my wife was also running her computer and TV.
With the phone, you would want to enable USB debugging and then set it up so that USB tethering is auto-enabled when the phone is connected to the router's power. You want to do this in case there is a power outage. Otherwise you have to manually re-establish the connection when the power comes back on.
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I do this with a Mango router when I travel.