Peter Tourin
2020 Unity RL, ex 2012 Unity MB
I've been driving a '12 MB and carrying a Netgear JetPak with a small MIMO antenna - this has worked fine and I haven't paid much attention to other solutions. Both of us have had jobs that allowed us to work remotely, and for the most part we've been satisfied working with the JetPack on Verizon.
I see that the new Unity models come with the Winegard ConnectT as standard equipment. So I want to make sure I understand what it does and what the tradeoffs are.
Am I correct that it is good at grabbing nearby WIFI signals, if any? Is this very useful in real life? My experience with campsites and WIFI is basically that service is almost always slow and unreliable - thus the JetPak.
Am I correct that to use the Winegard's 4G LTE capabilities I have to have a cellular account and a SIM card? So if I wanted to run off Verizon I'd pull the card out of my JetPack and place it in the Winegard? Or if I wanted to use AT&T, I'd have to expand my AT&T account and get a SIM card for the Winegard? That is - you must pay for a data account in order to use the 4G capability.
If I have this correct, is the connectivity likely to be any better than using the JetPack?
And finally, what's the story on the no-contract 30-day data plans that Winegard advertises? Do I purchase these through Winegard, and does Winegard in turn have their own arrangements with cell providers to provide the service? Again, is this cost-effective and is the coverage good?
Thanks for any comments, pros and cons, etc. I'm not very good at reading company advertising and figuring out what they're really selling - hard for me to make sense of it until I've had my hands on it. So a bit of discussion here will go a long way towards helping me understand whether this gadget is a Genuine Good Thing or not.
I see that the new Unity models come with the Winegard ConnectT as standard equipment. So I want to make sure I understand what it does and what the tradeoffs are.
Am I correct that it is good at grabbing nearby WIFI signals, if any? Is this very useful in real life? My experience with campsites and WIFI is basically that service is almost always slow and unreliable - thus the JetPak.
Am I correct that to use the Winegard's 4G LTE capabilities I have to have a cellular account and a SIM card? So if I wanted to run off Verizon I'd pull the card out of my JetPack and place it in the Winegard? Or if I wanted to use AT&T, I'd have to expand my AT&T account and get a SIM card for the Winegard? That is - you must pay for a data account in order to use the 4G capability.
If I have this correct, is the connectivity likely to be any better than using the JetPack?
And finally, what's the story on the no-contract 30-day data plans that Winegard advertises? Do I purchase these through Winegard, and does Winegard in turn have their own arrangements with cell providers to provide the service? Again, is this cost-effective and is the coverage good?
Thanks for any comments, pros and cons, etc. I'm not very good at reading company advertising and figuring out what they're really selling - hard for me to make sense of it until I've had my hands on it. So a bit of discussion here will go a long way towards helping me understand whether this gadget is a Genuine Good Thing or not.