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AT&T data plan for R10
Posted by john-hamilton on October 3, 2016 at 12:23 pmWhen I bought my Trimble R10 I was told I HAD to get the AT&T 5 GB plan which costs $60/month. The reason I had to get that plan is that it is a “machine” and does not qualify as a tablet or other type of device (or so I was told). Of course, I never use anywhere close to that amount, only in the tens or hundreds of megabytes. This is the only device I have on AT&T (everything else is Verizon).
I decided to look at my account today to see if there is any other plan. It is a business account. When I looked, there are many, many different options, like 250MB for tablets, a lot of different plans for blackberry, etc.
Has anyone used one of these lower plans for something like an R10?
john-putnam replied 7 years, 8 months ago 8 Members · 27 Replies -
27 Replies
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John Hamilton, post: 393636, member: 640 wrote: When I bought my Trimble R10 I was told I HAD to get the AT&T 5 GB plan which costs $60/month. The reason I had to get that plan is that it is a “machine” and does not qualify as a tablet or other type of device (or so I was told). Of course, I never use anywhere close to that amount, only in the tens or hundreds of megabytes. This is the only device I have on AT&T (everything else is Verizon).
I decided to look at my account today to see if there is any other plan. It is a business account. When I looked, there are many, many different options, like 250MB for tablets, a lot of different plans for blackberry, etc.
Has anyone used one of these lower plans for something like an R10?
Update: I also had a similar plan for my Intuicom RTK bridge on Verizon. $50/month for 5 GB. I just spoke to data activation center (dataactivationcenter.com), they put that on a 1 GB/month plan for $270/year (versus $600/year I was paying up until now). I had to port the number over to them. They said they are negotiating with AT&T to do the same, and they should have plans ready for GSM (AT&T) in 3 to 4 weeks.
At least my Yuma only costs $10/month, and it shares data with everything else on my verizon plan.
Now I just need to find reasonably priced plans for my alarm system, game camera, etc. I bought the game camera that has a sim slot to hopefully catch any future would-be thieves. Haven’t used it yet, as I don’t have a card for it.
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I have four AT&T cards. Two of them get rotated through most of the equipment that we sell. (Basically anything that gets the internal cell modem tested gets one of these two cards inserted.)
It appears that I pay $21.61 per month for the ‘data’ only SIM cards. (The cards that have a phone number that you can call are $25.21 per month.) All of the cards share data from a 10 GB bucket.
Over the years I have found that if I call the company directly I get a completely different answer to most questions than I will get if I go to an Authorized Retailer. It appears to me that the Authorized stores only want to sell phones an plans, while the factory stores 2 of the 150 stores in town are actually factory stores can do the right thing.
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Currently for my alarm system (2) I use tmobile. I basically only use it for sms messages to/from the system, as an a backup in case the voice line gets cut. I would rather use AT&T (better signal, etc). But tmobile has a $3/month plan where you get any combination of 30 texts (which is plenty) or 30 minutes.
It is not at all clear from the AT&T web page (business) the difference between the tablets, phones, etc is as far as devices are concerned.
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Maybe somewhat related, AT&T is killing all but 4GLTE at year end, T-Mobile will do the same in 2020, I am already looking at options to upgrade/change gear based on that upcoming sunset date. Intuicom just released the $GLTE version of the bridge, I suspect more for that reason than the advertised increases in speed, etc., as 2G is just fine for RTK corrections. Always something that needs replaced or updated even though it is currently paid for and producing income!
SHG
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I have only heard about Verizon and their plan to sunset everything but 4G by December 31st, 2016. If I remember correctly, AT&T plans to sunset 2G, but I have not seen an official annoucement on their 3G service. Here is a FAQ from AT&T: https://www.business.att.com/content/other/2G-Sunset-FAQ_2016.pdf
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The R10 modem screen in the webUI says it is a HSDPA (3G/4G) connection type. I am pretty sure it is not 4G because I have used it as a hot spot and it is SLOW, bur definitely faster than the old 2G was. So it must be 3G.
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John Hamilton, post: 393874, member: 640 wrote: The R10 modem screen in the webUI says it is a HSDPA (3G/4G) connection type. I am pretty sure it is not 4G because I have used it as a hot spot and it is SLOW, bur definitely faster than the old 2G was. So it must be 3G.
This looks to be correct as the data sheet states it is a 3.5G modem, so I believe it would only be capable of 3G.
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Johnson5144, post: 393871, member: 7149 wrote: I have only heard about Verizon and their plan to sunset everything but 4G by December 31st, 2016. If I remember correctly, AT&T plans to sunset 2G, but I have not seen an official annoucement on their 3G service. Here is a FAQ from AT&T: https://www.business.att.com/content/other/2G-Sunset-FAQ_2016.pdf
OK, I thought it was 3G too, not an AT&T customer, my good friend John Putnam who posts here is a customer and he told me he is getting registered letters from AT&T about end of road for his service on his Leica 1200 receivers. I run same gear and have until 2020 to figure out what to do on T-Mobile. There is a solution maybe in that the modems for the Leica Viva GS10 modems appear to be a plug and play option, BUT I haven’t verified that with Leica. Just a shame perfectly good working gear will be obsoleted by the carriers killing 2G.
SHG
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Shelby H. Griggs PLS, post: 394065, member: 335 wrote: OK, I thought it was 3G too, not an AT&T customer, my good friend John Putnam who posts here is a customer and he told me he is getting registered letters from AT&T about end of road for his service on his Leica 1200 receivers. I run same gear and have until 2020 to figure out what to do on T-Mobile. There is a solution maybe in that the modems for the Leica Viva GS10 modems appear to be a plug and play option, BUT I haven’t verified that with Leica. Just a shame perfectly good working gear will be obsoleted by the carriers killing 2G.
SHG
I would make sure that is they actually are 2G before worrying too much. If I recall correctly, 2G was slower than a 33.3K modem, but that would handle the typical data flow. I guess it would depend on how old the equipment is. But, now that I think about it I asked my dealer about some used R8’s with cell modems built-in instead of radios, they were cheaper than the radio equipped models, he told me it is because they ARE 2G, and won’t work after the end of the year.
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John Hamilton, post: 394068, member: 640 wrote: I would make sure that is they actually are 2G before worrying too much. If I recall correctly, 2G was slower than a 33.3K modem, but that would handle the typical data flow. I guess it would depend on how old the equipment is. But, now that I think about it I asked my dealer about some used R8’s with cell modems built-in instead of radios, they were cheaper than the radio equipped models, he told me it is because they ARE 2G, and won’t work after the end of the year.
The newer Leica modem is a GFU29 and the specs say UMTS / GPRS / EDGE / HSDPA 3.6 / HSPA+ 14.4 and is an approved modem on AT&T list of hardware, so should work just fine. The actual RTK data stream is pretty small and I have got corrections to stream just fine on both “GSM” and “Edge” speeds, so all this 4GLTE capability is really not needed for the RTK data, but could be useful for other things. The only reason to upgrade is to actually be usable once 2G is sunsetted by the carriers.
SHG
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The plethora of letters I have been getting from AT&T relate to my 2G devices only. The Leica GFU24 falls into that category. I will say that At&T has been really good at letting me know this. For the last six months I have gotten a letter monthly reminding me. Last month it came registered mail.
As for the account types. For my modern equipment and the GFU24 I have been able use our shared plans. I do have a GX1250/ATX1230 system that I prefer to use with a Motorola Tundra phone via Bluetooth instead of the bulky GFU24. For some reason I can not use the shared plan on the Tundra.
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May have to go back to the old days of hooking up to a flip phone at the base and rover.
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I am not sure if that would work anymore, I believe that was 2G.
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Quick update. I just tried to use our GFU24 2G unit on a project. While I got good coverage on my 4G phone and 3G GS15, the GFU24 worked only sporadically.
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My solution to the GFU24 2G issue was to purchase GFU29 3.75G replacements, after much research, I decided against trying to swap the internals, the OEM to Leica claims no direct board replacement for the MC75 exists, so I can only assume Leica builds their own boards for the housing with components from the OEM builder of the boards. I was never able to get an answer from Leica if such a board was available from them. Interesting enough, I have NOT been able to find the FCC tests for the GFU29. Anyway, after a few months of trying every way I could to retrofit the GFU24’s, I decided it wasn’t going to be doable as a field board swap and laid down the cash (I mean my employer did) for a pair of GFU29’s. Should be here next week. In searching for the best price for the GFU29’s, I found a dealer in England offering the modems at a much more favorable price point than USA based dealers, BUT they would not sell to me due to territories. In the end I bought from a USA dealer.
SHG
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SO I bought a new cellular modem (4G). I went to the AT&T store to get a card. Then I called AT&T to start service. I said I wanted a static IP. They said that ONLY your “account manager” can do that. I don’t have one, even though it is a business account. They transferred me around a bit, and the woman said I have to send an email to some guy, only he can do it. I did that, never heard back, and that was 10 days ago.
Surely there must be some way to order a static IP. The R10 was activated through a third party administrator, the only problem there was that I was locked into a two year agreement, even though I bought no hardware from them.
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John, I feel your pain, I am with T-mobile, after many years of being a business customer, I finally got assigned to a Business Account Executive in 2015 when trying to get a static IP setup for my Bridge-X, once that happened, smooth sailing, I am one my 2nd guy now due to my 1st guy moving on. It sure is nice to talk to someone that understands M2M and what you need. I don’t call a random number or go to the store now, I call my guy direct or e-mail him, no more deer in the headlights look!
All that to say, keep trying, maybe look on AT&T site for links to M2M or business account, etc.
Happy New Year!
SHG
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John Hamilton, post: 406674, member: 640 wrote: Then I called AT&T to start service. I said I wanted a static IP.
What does AT&T charge for a static IP? I found the Verizon fee of $500 a bit steep, but they tell me I can get more of them without an additional charge if needed. (Too bad I don’t need any more!)
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I had a customer today that needed a static IP address to connect directly to a city’s VRS network. After about three hours of phone calls, I found out that you can subscribe to their i2gold service. I did not get a price, but judging by the name, it is expensive. The M2M service that was mentioned above may or may not be static. That APN was meant for home automation type things, i.e. Nest thermostats, connected iceboxes, etc. The i2 gold APN is specifically geared towards connecting “Mobility data centers to a customer hub location. Uses static IP addresses.” A current list of AT&T APNs can be found at https://developer.att.com/technical-library/apns/apn-descriptions-and-characteristics
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