Slingshot from Pilot. Any opinions-experiences?

Thanks for posting this! First confirmation I've gotten that they were shut off by Sprint. I have a Slingshot card I bought back in January that went down on Saturday May 9th along with everybody elses. Worked great on both Sprint at my office and on Verizon at home until then...sure beat dial-up or cellphone tethering..and liked the prepaid aspect rather than signing long term contracts. Haven't been able to get through to their customer service by phone (constantly busy or goes unanswered) or by email (ignored by them). This topic is being discussed also on www.DSLreports.com and SNIP.
It is possible to get the card reflashed for use on another service if the ESN is cleared by Sprint from discussion on the boards I mentioned (if they won't release the serial number someone else can't easily reactivate it). Then it could be used on a CDMA carrier like Verizon/Sprint/AllTel CDMA/Pocket/Cricket/MetroPCS or a reseller like Millenicom (think Verizon and Sprint reseller).

 

Yes...it's the gravehard for slingshot...to bad...they sure made my life simple...since using slingshot...I live 90% of my life on the net...
I was handicapped without it...so I went to at@t today and now I'm back on...unlike Best Buy...who wanted $400. down...at&t didnt require no deposit...and said my credit was good????

I'm going to call best buy back and ask them to explain....were those salesmen trying to rip me off there??

Well any ways...the days of pre-paid or over for me...I'm now officially apart of the 'system' contract and all...but at least I'm on the net again and have moble access again...and since at&t owns most of the wifi...I can get on that also...

Now I'll probablly start sounding like a commercial for at&t...

 

Just be careful you don't go over the 5 gig limit. AT&T is the most punitive company out there. The sixth gig and each gig thereafter will cost you $500.

 

Yep...no more slingshot...now I have AT&T...and am happy with it so far...It costs a bit more...and I have insurance on it...but so far...I'm happy with it...oh well...at least I'm back on the net...

 

Ok...I'll watch my gigs...

But AT&T should know by now that poor people like me don't pay $500.00 gig payments...(laugh)...They should no by now that that $500.00 will just go to a collection agency and bounce around for 10 years...

But yes...I'll watch my gigs...thanks...

 

For heavy-duty wireless laptop connections, I agree postpaid is definitely the way to go with AT&T. I have prepaid AT&T on an AT&T Tilt smartphone that I use for personal email, light web browsing, and occassional tethering, but it's not practical for heavy usage tethering because they charge $20/100Mb or $5/1Mb for prepaid data packages. 5 Gb would work out to $1,000 at prepaid rates. Also the postpaid footprint (includes some roaming areas) for AT&T is better than the prepaid footprint they have with PayAsYouGo (although AT&T is expanding its' native network by buying pieces of other wireless carriers like AllTel). And you will also have international data roaming capability if you haul anything into Canada or Mexico (even though they charge extra it's good that it's available if you ever need it). AT&T also has good customer service...something that Slingshot definitely lacked towards the end.

On the $400 credit deposit with a big box store, versus none directly with AT&T, that does sound a bit suspect. You would think someone either has good credit or bad credit. You were smart to walk out the door when they demanded a big deposit.

I'll be using Juno dialup or AT&T prepaid wireless until I get a new laptop (probably a Macbook in August when the new Apple OS comes out, my 7 year old Fujitsu PC is at the end of it's useful life). At that point I think I will probably get either no-contract Verizon service through Millenicom or contract service with AT&T (have had good coverage and customer service in the past with both carriers). I think everyone may have different ideas about where they will go from here post-Slingshot (depends on coverage area, cost, etc.). Probably will either have my modem reflashed for Verizon when I get a new laptop (unless I buy a new modem or go with AT&T that uses different digital standards) or donate it to a charity (some charities collect cellphones and wireless modems; might mail it in to a company called Collective Good so CARE or some other charity would get a few bucks out of it).

Somehow I don't think Slingshot will make a comeback(and even if it did, I would not do business with them again). The abrupt way Sprint cancelled service on them last Saturday, zero attempts to reach Slingshot customers to inform them about what was going on and how they intended to rectify the situation(could have easily been done by email, pop-up or website notice), the dropping of all sales channels for the modems in the last month or two (Pilot Centers, web direct and web resellers) and their current lack of customer service (still haven't gotten through by phone or email and doubt I ever will) I think pretty much spells the end for the Slingshot product.

 

Slingshot needs to die a fiery, horrific death for just bailing on us the way they did. I wouldn't use their service again for all the tea in China. Their modem was defective out of the box and they were seldom reachable by phone, never by email.

I've switched to Millenicom. So far, so good.

 

Looks like Virgin Mobile USA (reseller of Sprint) will be coming out with a USB broadband card with prepaid and postpaid. Being test marketed at some Best Buy stores starting on June 16th. Reportedly will be $149/modem, and $20/250mb prepaid card and possibly (not confirmed) $40/5 gb for postpaid. Quoted source: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/22/virgin-mobile-broadband-card-to-be-carried-by-best-buy/ and http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/26/more-details-on-virgin-mobiles-broadband-card/
Glad somebody is taking up the prepaid broadband cause since it looks like Slingshot is down for the count. Prepaid broadband is common in many other countries(VM actually already sells prepaid broadband in other countries), but is relatively rare in the US. Chart of the few companies selling this (also confirming the upcoming VM offer) http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com/prepaid-wireless-broadband-plans.html That's not all inclusive because AT&T Prepaid includes a $20/100mb medianet option that can be used for light tethering in a pinch.
I might try the Virgin Mobile offer once I get more details on it. Feel a little more comfortable with VM than with Slingshot because it's a more established brand, but will want to see whether they allow fallback to Verizon (suspect only Sprint) and whether the modem will support multiple platforms (PC/Mac/Linux because I'm likely migrating to Mac).

 

I'm using Millenicom right now, but will definitely keep an eye on this, as there are some unpleasant rumblings on the Millenicom board.