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AT&T Unite LTE Pocket WiFi while roaming in the US

Since I have a back to back event coverage here in the US (CES in Las Vegas and NAIAS in Detroit) my initial plan was to subscribe to the Globe-AT&T roaming promo which is $15 a day. However, I will be here for 10 days so that’s going to be $150 at the very least. So I went to hunt for an alternative.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

When I was gadget shopping over at Fry’s here in LV, I discovered this prepaid pocket WiFi from AT&T and asked about it. The LTE device costs $99, including the prepaid SIM card. I can then load it with any amount which I can use to subscribe to a data plan.

I was looking for alternatives that would give me unlimited data but found none so I got the device (a Netgear LTE pocket WiFi) and loaded it with $100.

Here’s the data plan offered with the device:

$15/week – 250MB data
$50/month – 5GB data

* additional $10 per 1GB in excess of the 5GB

While 5GB might not be enough, I thought I could at least use it whenever I am mobile or in transit and just use the hotel WiFi whenever possible. That way, I could save on the bandwidth consumption.

(Yes, it’s very strange to be restricted with data caps when in the Philippines, we can enjoy unlimited bandwidth for much lower fees!)

The unit is pretty straightforward to use after activating it and subscribing to an AT&T data plan on their website.

Whenever I get an LTE signal I try to test for the speeds and go these.

Not bad for mobile internet although I’ve seen much faster speeds back home.

What’s actually impressive with the device was that it offered up to 10 hours battery life and indeed after actively using it for about 9 hours, I still have around 13% left on the battery.

The SIM card expires in a year so I can still use it whenever I go back to the US in future trips/coverage.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

10 Responses

  1. Avatar for Fe Lea A. Velayo Fe Lea A. Velayo says:

    Hi do they also sell the prepaid data sim only i plan to buy the open line huawei pocket wifi at Makati cinema square

  2. Avatar for mond mond says:

    Would you know if they could support older huawei 3g mifi?

  3. Avatar for allen Brown allen Brown says:

    Is the model number Sierra Wireless 770s Mobile Hotspot? and the specs is the same as below:

    http://www.4gltemall.com/sierra-770s-wireless-aircard-4g-mobile-hotspot.html

  4. Avatar for ichanmrg ichanmrg says:

    Can you unlock this device so you can use it here in the Philippines? The device looks promising. Sayang naman kung nakatago lang for a while. :)

  5. Avatar for tao tao says:

    how reliable is the connection of at&t? is it like the telcos here that you have to connect and disconnect every time just to refresh the data? or its just really reliable?

  6. Avatar for Yusuf Yusuf says:

    Now, where are the illiterates who have been bashing Smart’s LTE service. Apparently, it’s actually better compared to ATT’s. Btw, if you wanted unlimited data, you could’ve opted for T-Mobile.

  7. Avatar for meh meh says:

    You should have went with a verizon LTE device , the server you were testing is in the middle of no where

  8. Avatar for Enya Enya says:

    Mas bongga unli-LTE ni Smart in terms of speed & price!

    • Avatar for rockz rockz says:

      i agree with you plus the ping is really great … Bet we’ll never know baka hihina pero at least Smart is doing their job to expand and put more facilities and bandwidth on the backend …

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