Searching for a connection

- The Hotspot -

It has been about two years since I last reported on the state of internet in my far flung rural setting. I'm still running a Netgear hotspot with a $55 per month (plus taxes and surcharge) prepaid AT&T card. That buys me 100 gigabytes for 30 days. I can't find that deal anywhere, anymore, so I think I've been grandfathered in on that plan. 50 gb for $55 is what it has been changed to.

I checked in on the legislation from 2021 that was supposed to help implement rural internet. According to an article written by the Texas Tribune, many of the businesses that were given funds to expand internet service to rural communities took the money and ran. It looks like the same thing is fixing to happen again, so I hold no hope that soon I will have easy to access internet with a reasonable amount of data.

I've been scouring the internet (hah! ironic), looking for the next best thing to ease my woes. Verizon touts a wi-fi home internet service, but I have put in every address I can think of, even some from Zillow and post office locations across the nation, and it comes up unavailable every time, even in residential areas where I know the neighbors have this service. I guess they have overserved and are now pulling back on issuing connections. AT&T has lousy plans, T-Mobile says unavailable, satellite service wants a two-year promise with a 200 gb limit, and so on and so forth with all services I found.

Except one, and I am hanging some high hopes on this little device: TravlFi. It's like a hotspot on steroids, if the boasts are true. I've ordered the Journey 1 and I am looking forward to testing out this little booger. The device is less than $200, plans are prepaid, and they use all carriers signals so you're not stuck with just one. 

The unlimited plan is $129 a month. Now, we all know unlimited doesn't mean unlimited in cellular lingo, but TravlFi unlimited is anything over 800 gb, far exceeding the usual unlimited limit, which runs around 60 gb on AT&T and others. Whew! I think I just set a record for using the word unlimited.

Anyway, I'll report back on how it all works out. I hope I have not become gullible during my search for the next great connection. It's almost as bad as looking for the fountain of youth.