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Advice needed: Decision on 500GB/Mo AT&T Home Base High-Speed Data Plan

May 15, 2018, 05:30:29 am

I have the AT&T Home Base 500GB/mo unthrottled plan. I am a retired IT professional and know a great data plan when I see it. We are completing our 9 month USA tour in June and wanted some advice on what to do with this $109/mo plan, tax included, after we return to our sticks and bricks home on June 7, 2018. This plan is awesome in that:

1. It's has unthrottled data and video: Providing almost unlimited video downloads with Netflix, Youtube, etc...
2. It's fast, with 4G LTE speeds of up to 50MBPS+ in some areas. That's 100x the speed of our old Verizon unlimited plan after it was mercilessly throttled to .64MBPS!!! Verizon is a data miser but AT&T is generous.
3. This much unthrottled data is not available in most of the USA. AT&T puts a 50GB cap on most non-rural customers. There are workarounds on this data cap, which are discussed in other posts, but it may be difficult or impossible getting the 10x rural data service just by calling or walking into an AT&T store.
4. Better coverage than Verizon, in our experience, during our 10,000 mile trip across the USA, including the desert southwest. Sometimes we had zero Verizon bars but had strong AT&T bars.
5. We are HEAVY internet and Netflix users and never exceeded 250GB/mo. If someone wanted to cut costs, there is a $70/mo 250GB unthrottled plan. Awesome!
6. It's not perfect. In urban areas, competition can lower the data rate at peak times. For example, here at our Little Rock Arkansas campground, rush hour vs 3AM data rates vary by 100x (.2 vs 20MBPS). Verizon has the same type of issue.

My options are:

1. Suspend the plan
2. Let another full-time Foretraveler friend use it and pay the $109/mo on my behalf. This is because I have AT&T's required rural address. Loaning a data plan involves some risk, but may be considered a benefit to a fortunate foreforum user.

It may be years until we full-time again, but another full-time Foretraveler could benefit from the service.

This is not a classified ad, only your advice is welcome at this point since we are using the service until June 7, 2018.

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Re: Advice needed: Decision on 500GB/Mo AT&T Home Base High-Speed Data Plan

Reply #1 – May 15, 2018, 05:46:56 am

Here is a photo of the AT&T home base box, with the following connections:

- dual external cellular antennas
- ethernet port for our laptop
- hard-wired phone that uses the cellular voice connection
- power from 115VAC adapter

For more info, see my youtube video at: Tim's RV Tips #5 - AT&T Home Base Internet System - March 14, 2018 - YouTube

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Re: Advice needed: Decision on 500GB/Mo AT&T Home Base High-Speed Data Plan

Reply #2 – May 15, 2018, 07:49:39 am

Don't give it up!  Ha!
Hopefully there may be other plans available that match that one.  We have cable internet at our home in Louisiana and do about 200-250Gb/month with a good bit of TV streaming.
I'd love to find a plan that could either replace my cable or be in addition to it for when we travel which is only a few months/year.

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Re: Advice needed: Decision on 500GB/Mo AT&T Home Base High-Speed Data Plan

Reply #3 – May 15, 2018, 08:51:42 am

Find out what unlimited plans are from ATT are available.  We moved our 250 GB/mo Homebase to a new unlimited plus plan (now $20/mo for a device in the plan),  got a new IPhone, plus another Home Base and a NetGear Nighthawk (similar to the Home Base but no phone jacks) and added DirecTV Now.  We gave a Homebase to an elderly friend who got rid of Comcast, land line and DSL.  She gets internet, TV and Phone on it now.  We got rid of DSL.    We leave a Homebase at home and take the Nighthawk with us when we are elsewhere. Use both of them at home when we are not.

The total savings from getting rid of 2 DSL lines, Comcast and land line is more than the total ATT bill is now including DirecTV Now, an iPhone and three internet connection devices, taxes and fees.  There is never any throttling.  Speeds are up to 65 mbps download and 10-20 times faster than DSL for upload.  We have only been in a couple places with no service.  Even with marginal service we can still stream TV. 

Between the three internet devices and the phone we are using about 400 GB/mo.  No throttling ever.

Keep the Homebase.  Figure out how to use it at home.

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