When we first bought our trailer and started living in it full-time, we stopped by the AT&T store and picked up an AT&T Elevate internet device. It was pretty cheap, if not free, with a two-year commitment and a one-year warranty. A couple weeks out of warranty, the unit started acting up to the point that it was unusable.
Since we were still in contract on that unit, we ended up paying $199 for a new AT&T MiFi Liberate, upon recommendation from another Heartland owner. A month into ownership, it powered down and would not power back up despite every effort on our part. We returned it to the AT&T store, the customer service rep plugged it in and turned it on like nothing was wrong. We shrugged, thanked him for his time and returned to the trailer with our now functional unit.
Yesterday, the unit started beeping rather frequently. When you would look at the display, it was indicating that it had lost 4G signal and was re-establishing it. Since we had primarily been using the campground wi-fi this week, we pretty much ignored it. I turned the unit off. I then Googled "mifi liberate beeping" and found a plethora of people complaining about this issue.
One search led me to the reviews of the unit on Amazon. There, I found that 80% of the reviewers giving the unit a 1 out of 5 (lowest possible rating) and complained about units shutting down and not turning back on until the battery was removed and replaced. The other common complaint was about the unit beeping and supposedly losing connections to the network.
I'm going to (eventually, due to travel schedules) return our unit to AT&T and see if I can get a different unit to replace it. I'm rather afraid that I might get something else (the AT&T Unite looks like about the only other viable alternative) that will eventually die on me, as well.
Looking for advice from other AT&T subscribers on what has worked well for you. $200 a year for an internet device that may or may not be reliable is getting a bit hard to swallow.
Since we were still in contract on that unit, we ended up paying $199 for a new AT&T MiFi Liberate, upon recommendation from another Heartland owner. A month into ownership, it powered down and would not power back up despite every effort on our part. We returned it to the AT&T store, the customer service rep plugged it in and turned it on like nothing was wrong. We shrugged, thanked him for his time and returned to the trailer with our now functional unit.
Yesterday, the unit started beeping rather frequently. When you would look at the display, it was indicating that it had lost 4G signal and was re-establishing it. Since we had primarily been using the campground wi-fi this week, we pretty much ignored it. I turned the unit off. I then Googled "mifi liberate beeping" and found a plethora of people complaining about this issue.
One search led me to the reviews of the unit on Amazon. There, I found that 80% of the reviewers giving the unit a 1 out of 5 (lowest possible rating) and complained about units shutting down and not turning back on until the battery was removed and replaced. The other common complaint was about the unit beeping and supposedly losing connections to the network.
I'm going to (eventually, due to travel schedules) return our unit to AT&T and see if I can get a different unit to replace it. I'm rather afraid that I might get something else (the AT&T Unite looks like about the only other viable alternative) that will eventually die on me, as well.
Looking for advice from other AT&T subscribers on what has worked well for you. $200 a year for an internet device that may or may not be reliable is getting a bit hard to swallow.