I use Verizon for voice and data, and have several devices. But, as anyone who has ever lived or traveled in WV knows, Verizon definitely has weak spots (hardly any data coverage in WV).
I have an unlocked Samsung (SIM card) that I use when I travel overseas. It is an android phone, and under settings...wireless it has the tethering option. The phone is quad band, so I assume it would work on AT&T.
My question is does AT&T have a pay as you go plan where I could just pay for the infrequent days that I use it? or maybe even buy a block of data to use? I don't even need voice, just data. I looked at their web site, but don't see anything like that. But, I have seen posts on other pages that seem to infer that they do have it.
I did find a page on wikipedia that lists all of the third party cellular companies that don't have their own towers, so they buy voice and data in bulk and resell it. Several offer what I want-usually $10/month for a certain number of voice minutes and 6 to 10 cents/MB. I haven't found one that is only data, but the above numbers would work fine for me.
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I have three ways to connect: my android phone in hotspot mode, a verizon mifi, and also an intuicom RTK bridge. The area in WV I am interested in is shown on the Verizon wireless page as "Extended 1X data". Does anyone know if that type of service (which I am sure is quite slow, but probably sufficient for RT GPS) will work?
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If you buy an Android and do mobile banking. make sure you get the latest operating
system update to prevent hacking.
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I use Consumer Cellular for my personal phone. It is on the AT&T network. They allow you to change your service plan without a fee.
My understanding is that the Pay as You Go data plans are not compatible with VRS, if that's what you're thinking about.
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John,
Sorry about the highjack but what is your experience with the Intuicom RTK bridge?
TIA,
Doug
AT&T has been through several iterations of their prepaid service in recent years. Way back, if you used prepaid, you couldn't have data. Then, they opened the doors for prepaid subscribers to access limited data plans. The deal was pretty good. 10c per minute for calls, and data access for something like $25 per GB, with ability to extend account life as long as minimal purchases were made at least every 30 days. For limited calling, average monthly costs were for me were around $20.
Then things started to change. AT&T did away with the ability for prepaid customers to access data. Required those customers to purchase a monthly plan, minimum $25 per month, which includes 100 MB data. And then, more recently, the minimum increased to $35 per month. That's when I said, no more.
I switched to AirVoice Wireless (which purchases AT&T's service in blocks and resells it - a Mobile Virtual Network Operator - MVNO). Calls are now 4c per minute. Data is 6c per MB, and texts are 2c each. Great deal, as far as I'm concerned.
I use an iPhone, which was unlocked by AT&T (they'll do this for you, as long as you've owned the phone for a while, if you ask).
All that said, if your goal is to use AT&T to access data services for RTK surveying, I tried this, and while I can't say that I'm an expert, I tried real hard to get that going on AT&T's network, and there was no fruit for me.
Good luck.
Intuicom Bridge
It is a great device. You just turn it on, and it looks to the DC (Trimble TSC2) as an RTK base, not a VRS connection. I believe, although I haven't tried it, that you can put the base coordinates in for a certain point and it will broadcast corrections as if it were a base unit setup over that point. It has an UHF radio, GPS receiver, and cell modem all in one. So, the GPS receiver sends the position back to the VRS, and then the VRS streams corrections to the bridge. The bridge then broadcasts these corrections on the UHF radio as if they were from that coordinate. So, you could have many rovers in an area running off of the single connection. We mostly use Keynet GPS, which is a Trimble VRS. Normally, over a cell connection, we get the corrections and the vectors are stored from the nearest physical CORS, even though they are not actually from the nearest CORS but rather from a virtual CORS nearby. The bridge causes the vectors to be stored from that virtual CORS. Also, the bridge can act as an RTK radio when connected to the output of a receiver (i.e. no VRS involved, standard RTK). We recently used it on a site where we needed to run two GPS/GLONASS rovers. We only have two GPS/GLONASS receivers, and three GPS only receivers. And we only have one subscription to the VRS. Worked great.
The only thing I didn't like about the whole process is that, on their recommendation, I used a third party company to set up the cell service. I tried to just call Verizon, but they didn't know how to set it up in their system, they only seem to know smartphones and tablets. I wanted to just put it on my shared 8 GB plan like a tablet (which costs $10/month), but they said that wasn't possible. It is on the same bill, but it is a 5 GB standalone plan that costs $50/month, and it has a 2 yr contract. That last part I don't understand, I bought nothing from Verizon that has to be paid off, but I guess that was how the third party company got paid for their services. But, they did say that after 6 months you can turn it off and on monthly.
Intuicom Bridge
Thanks for the detailed explanation John. Who's your dealer? I had to tell mine that this product even existed 😉
Intuicom Bridge
I bought directly from Intuicom.