Its worth clearing up the term unlimited.  When I say truly unlimited, I mean not throttles, no caps, no low downs based on usage.  To confuse consumers ATT, Tmobile, Sprint, and Verizon have labeled packages using names like Unlimited +, and Beyond Unlimited.  These packages are not unlimited.  They are high use 22GB to 75GB offerings.  After that usage it reverts to a slower, almost useless speed for anything but email.  This is what they call throttling.   The other condition that virtually every and any package is subject to is called ‘Network Management’ or prioritization.  That basically means there is a pecking order on each cellular tower about who gets priority and ultimately speed.  It usually looks something like this..Government, First Responders, Corporate Clients, Postpaid term Contracts, Prepaid or Pay as you go customers are last.  This congestion or network management  is the reason when using cellular data either on a phone or hotspot can be very fast sometimes, and very slow others.   it really depend on how busy the tower you are connected to is.  The second limiting factor to speed is how strong the signal is.  A weaker signal is slower.  I verified this with my Verizon package over the winter holidays.  As December wore on, I noticed my speeds in Florida got much slower.  By mid December is was mostly unusable, unless I chose to try it between 2am and 5am and then it was fine.  The influx of holiday travellers, an now full Thousand Trails campground nearby and of course hundreds of thousands of Disney revellers meant I was low man on the totem pole.  Thats what they call Network Management,, even though I was never throttled because I had truly unlimited data with no caps.

Well in December AT&T decided not to renew there relationship with Togo Roadlink and no longer offered the 360$ unlimited plan. Users have been advised that they can call Togo and they will unlock the hotspot allowing you use another provider.  Its worth noting that AT&T also seemed to withdraw similar unlimited plans that you could get for a tablet and most notably resellers like OTRMobile.com were no longer able to supply AT&T unlimited plans.  OTRMobile has switched to a Tmobile solution and increased the cost enough that I don’t consider them anymore.   Of course Verizon also stopped their truly unlimited prepaid package but as long you keep paying for it, its still working.  I chose to let mine lapse since it was only rarely being used.  It was starting to look pretty bleak.  Did I mention that we do everything over the internet.  Its our entertainment, television, security, communication and even work requirement. We use 400 - 800 GB a month.  If we get really busy or the weather is bad, that could climb into the terabytes.  

Just before last years rally I bought a cellular hotspot on eBay that allows me to swap out suppliers, and sim cards easily.  The Netgear Nighthawk M1 by far my favourite and most useful tool in the arsenal.  I will spare you all the great reasons but trust me its life saver.  Oddly I noticed that while these are still available, they have tripled in price and are scarce compared to the 129$ I paid in 2019.   When I’m home in Canada I use my Rogers Sim which is a limited account with 30GB of data.  We only use it to monitor the cameras, and temps while in storage and some light surfing.  As soon as we cross the border I need a better solution. 

This takes me to what we are using today.  It takes little while to explain and a brief history lesson.  in 2012 there was a cell startup called Clearwire.  They needed more spectrum, or radio space for their own cellular service.   Since the US government manages the allocation of radio space they were granted a certain spectrum based on a condition to supply free unlimited use certain non profit, research, and charity groups.  it was a win/win/win for Clearnet, the government, and low income or research groups.  In 2013 Sprint was growing so fast they needed more bandwidth an purchased Clearwire.   They petitioned the court to release them from the non profit condition and failed.  Seems you buy it, you buy it with conditions.  Of course Sprint kind of peaked in 2016 and has been a distant fourth compared to AT&T, Verizon and Tmobile.  But sprint holds some of the best spectrums around, specifically in the 5G frequencies. Sprint had limited coverage, but where it did have coverage it had speed and great architecture and patents.  Almost a year ago Tmobile saw that and put together a merger/aquisition of Sprint.   That merger cleared in January.   Today Tmobile is busy integrating the two companies.  Of particular interest is the fact that Sprint customers can now roam on the Tmobile network.  That means the poor coverage has been enhanced and is now strong and as good as any top tier company.  This matters.  Why?  Remember the non profit agreement dating back to Clearwave.  Sprint bought that, now Tmobile has bought it. So why does this matter? Enter Calyx Institute

The Calyx Institute is a non profit research group focussing on digital communication and privacy.  It provides some fascinating resources and article on security, law and freedom of speech.  Its is funded by member contributors.  As a contributor you receive a hotspot, (go for the cheaper one I will explain in a subsequent post why) and truly unlimited internet under the Clearwire agreement.  Its not a new thing, and has been around at least 4 years.  The reason its of particular interest now is, it has always been limited to just Sprint.  That meant no roaming and limited towers.  Given the new acquisition by Tmobile, roaming and towers have almost tripled.  Suddenly this is a strong network with good speeds and availability nationwide.  My experience has been that I get between 30-80MBs speed.  Thats comparable to what Spectrum was offering in Florida for 40$ a month.   In Ohio it was running closer to 120MBs.  

https://calyxinstitute.org/   Joining is simple.  You choose between Contributor or Contributor + and either pay quarterly or annually.  It appears as though the have temporarily suspended the Contributor option because of hardware availability during Covid 19.  When available that option is $500 for the year (includes hotspot) and $400 subsequent years or if you are risk averse, 150$ per quarter or 50$ a month.   The contributor plus option gives you a better hotspot but is 600$ for the year and 175$ for the quarterly option.  While this a little known plan, its been outstanding for us.  As you have seen, when these opportunities show up you need to take them before someone shuts them down. 

I’m not paid, I don’t receive commission and I only provide this info to help.  Like I said internet access for us is essential and we consume in large quantities.  Still no good solution in Canada but this keeps us working while in the US