Pilot "premium" internet

No there's service, just not Verizon. When I had a genuine Verizon phone, it showed that it roamed in many parts of Kentucky. A piggy back phone like Net 10 won't have service period in that same area.

T-Mobile has pretty good service in Kentucky in that same area.

 

They are adding more towers. There's 4g LTE in Fort Stockton, TX now.

Noticed the signal at the truck stops in Laredo got a whole lot better. Mostly 4g from Laredo to Del Rio, then roaming until Fort Stockton, then roaming again until El Paso. Then 4g most of the way west to Los Angeles. It's gotten a lot better in the last two years. Still need to close those big West Texas gaps.

 

We were also talking about West Virginia though. That state is smack dab in the middle of the Appalachian mountain range so cellular service- regardless of who is the carrier is questionable sometimes.

 

It seems to be all AT&T.

 

I just use an AT&T USB modem. 5GB a month for $50. Great coverage and great speeds.

Pretty fast on the 4G network. I'm in my truck using it right now. I-80 exit 4 New Jersey T/A. Anybody else here right now?

 

Not to necro an old thread...

But I go through boost, which uses Sprint. They have a hotspot device (costs like 45 bucks). 10 gigs/month for 50 bucks. Best rate ive seen.

Boost has also recently gotten an ACTUALLY unlimited phone service plan. Its 60 bucks a month. It gots with like 8 gigs of hotspot wifi as well. So, I pay $110 bucks for both/month, and get unlimited data on my phone for all my audiobooks and podcasts and another 18 gigs of data for my gaming and laptop.

I've also got HBO Now and Netflix on the phone, so I tend to just watch those on the phone while im on the laptop.

Now, if watching tv on yer phone is a problem... And you want to, you can just download #### via torrent or whatnot, then just transfer it to your computer.


So basically, go with boost. Not the greatest coverage, but I'm at 100 gigs this month... so nary a complaint from me.

 

I bought 30 days of "premium" internet at PilotFJ recently to try it here and there, and found the service to be mediocre at best. It might have been a little quicker then the legacy wifi system, but not by enough to justify any significant cost difference. For basic web browsing and such it might be a bit better experience then the lesser service but not by much. I have not tried Netflix or similar over "premium" network but I can remember thinking it would not work based on a lot of delays loading basic MSN home pages and such.

I suspect they limit various streaming protocols and might limit (throttle) bandwidth to better balance out usage at peak times but can not say for sure what all they do to warrant a higher fee. The wandering wifi and PFJ site is a joke and provides no technical detail as to the differences between premium and non-premium.

All that said. If you do side jobs such as web site development or updates or app development [over internet], the premium level would probably pay for itself versus any cellular data overages you might incur throughout the year. But some locations at some truck stops yield a better experience than others. You still need to be pretty close to the Wifi repeater antenna, and figure out which truck stops work better then others and still need to do bulk of your work during off-peak hours for best results.

Using any truck stop paid WiFi access whenever possible and practical to conserve cellular data for when paid truck stop access is unavailable can be cost effective, long term, if you're not needing dedicated access for video streaming but only need basic web browsing access.

 

I just got a modem trough t mobile ... $50 a month for 10gig lte, unlimited 3g and unlimited video. Been streaming video through my smart tv, a little glitchy sometimes, but so far I'm impressed.

 

anyone having trouble connecting with flying j/pilot wifi this weekend in particular? i've been through three pilot/flying j's in the last 24 hours and can't seem to log on at all....it connects but then the sign in window just plain doesn't appear.... and i'm gobbling through my hotspot data....grrrrrrr....

 

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