Best cell phone/data plan for truckers

Discussion in 'Cellular - Voice - Data' started by mitmaks, Aug 3, 2014.

  1. lfod14

    lfod14 Road Train Member

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    Rooting is when you give yourself root (administrator) access to the phone. Let's you use the phone the way it was designed to be without limitations set by your carrier. While you can't hide how much data your using you can make it so that your carrier can't tell the difference between phone data and hotspot data which can come in handy. It also allows you to remove a lot of space and memory hogging programs that waste resources (mainly battery) on your phone. Samsung's are as close to brick-proof as they get. A good phone to get if your want to play with it. As a former cell network tech, I wouldn't have a non-rooted phone.
     
    mathematrucker Thanks this.
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  3. mitmaks

    mitmaks Road Train Member

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    I understand that, thing is I plan on using laptop/tabloid to watch youtube, etc and Im sure I will use more GB than they would allow so I'd want unlimited data.
     
  4. mathematrucker

    mathematrucker Medium Load Member

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    To some people such as myself unlimited data is a huge deal. Data is taking over the world and all the major carriers want to charge you an arm and a leg for it now.
     
  5. Aireal

    Aireal Medium Load Member

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    We tried different phone service but ended up going back to Verizon. Unlimited Data with Sprint is good, just realize you may not get a signal everywhere. No phone signal, no data service. We had two, I kept our Verizon phone and he got a sprint phone that he used as a "business" phone and I used as a hotspot. One of the things that you could look into is a sprint Hot spot device, to go along with the service.

    We later bought a verizon hotspot, it worked going down the road. We had a tailgater antenna for satellite tv, so didn't stream video's.
     
  6. hobotrucker

    hobotrucker Bobtail Member

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    This is what I have been trying to figure out as well. I am going to buy a laptop soon so that I can watch movies and surf. The movies will be easy as I can download a ton of 'em while I'm on home time. However, how do I set up a good connecting hot spot in my truck and how much will it cost me to use it everyday as I will want to every time I stop when my 14 hour clock runs out? I look at the news ... weather ... stream youtube ...etc. What kind of data plan will I need to use my wifi hotspot daily for these things? I may also want to download a movie every day while out there. Thanks !!!
     
  7. ew2108

    ew2108 Road Train Member

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    How's that tailgater work? I was wondering how I'd watch tv
     
  8. mcmanly

    mcmanly Light Load Member

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    If you're main concern is just being online during off duty time ,learn to love pilot and get their yearly internet plan,then buy a kick ### wireless antenna or turn a satellite dish into one .
     
  9. hobotrucker

    hobotrucker Bobtail Member

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    The problem with Pilot is the fact that you can't always get a good parking spot to keep a reliable signal. I have considered this alternative already and have decided it's just not worth it. For curiosity's sake, I have called these truck stops while being parked there ... I.E. Both Pilot & Flying J's and asked why their WiFi wasn't on and for the most part, their answers were the same: The Internet's down. I never even had their service, ... it was just a way for me to do a little research on the worthiness of this prospect. Again, even if their system's were up and running full strength, you'd have to compete with a lot of lazy drivers out there that always jump on the closest parking spots near the building. I have a laptop in my truck and I have on average noticed only a bar or two at most for the majority of Pilot and Flying J's wifi connectivity. Maybe this would work if you pay for VIP parking or those ridiculous handicapped parking spots that get you nearest to the building itself.
     
  10. hobotrucker

    hobotrucker Bobtail Member

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    I have been trying to do some research and I keep coming up with Verizon. I currently have a $50 a month no contract phone from At&T that is of course, 3G. It has unlimited data but doesn't work very well. I think I would have to buy a plan with Verizon and a smartphone to make this work. That is ... using the smartphone as a Hot Spot. With that being said, they only offer 1-2GB for a single line of data. Up to 10GB with a shared everything plan. Using their data calculator, I tallied up 22 GB a month easily. That's downloading and watching a movie a day, reading and sending 5 emails daily as well as a little music streaming. I found Verizon to be the most reliable and the best coverage option, however, this still doesn't have what I'm after. I'm already an internet junkie and the bulk of my entertainment while at home comes from being online. Staying out 3-4 weeks at a time ... I need a better option. Back to mobile hot spots. Does these devices just require a monthly bill in and of themselves with data? Meaning just hook my laptop up to them and surf and watch as much as I want? Are there any of these that offer unlimited data for just a flat rate? If so, I'll just keep my $50 a month no contract phone.
     
  11. lfod14

    lfod14 Road Train Member

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    Not really. Although Android/Linux is open source, that's not why you can gain root access. iOS is running on BSD UNIX which isn't open source and although people use the term jailbreak UNIX is still a *NIX variant and gaining root access to the OS is still what your doing. Being closed source only means it takes people a little longer to crack it most software hack/ cracks are all on closed source software.
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2014
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