Alternative Options to Millenicom

As the end of the month draws nearer, and Millenicom customers haven't been contacted directly by Verizon - more and more folks are seeking alternative options.

First, if you're just joining us, here are the relevant articles you might want to catch up on:

• Oct 16 – Millenicom Customer Accounts Acquired by Verizon
• Oct 19 – Millenicom Update: Still Waiting For Options
• Oct 21 – Millenicom Update: November Billing & Service Questions

While Dennis Castle of Millenicom just issued us this direct quote this morning:

Long before then (Oct 31) Verizon will contact everyone and ask if they wish to continue their service and have them select which plan they wish to use. - Dennis Castle, 10/22/2014

You simply must be prepared that Verizon may not have all their ducks in a row by then, or that their offer isn't as attractive as we all may be hoping. We just don't know. Anything at this point is speculation.

So, what are your reasonable alternatives to Millenicom?

Choosing a Carrier

For RVers who want as much nationwide access with as much shareable data as possible - regardless if they are in urban or rural areas, there's really only two choices. Verizon and/or AT&T.

Smaller and regional carriers may have some great data options, especially for on-device (smartphone) use. But their coverage maps are more restricted, and their 'unlimited' data either gets throttled after so much usage or isn't able to shared with other devices like laptops, tablets or gaming machines.

For more information on choosing a carrier ideal for RVing:

• The Four Major US Carriers – Which is Best for RVers?
• Also, don't forget our book - The Mobile Internet Handbook - is recently released, and contains a lot of further information on mobile internet. 234 pages worth of information, in fact. It's available for download today in PDF, Kindle or iBooks, or you can get the print copy delivered ASAP from Amazon.com.

For the purposes of this article, we're only going into options that are realistic alternatives to Millenicom - those that provide a lot of high speed data, shareable with multiple devices and on one of the two larger carriers. If you're not actively changing locations or planning to stick to urban areas, you may have other options with other carriers.

Contracts? If you're looking to avoid contracts, that's pretty easy to do these days. If you bring your own device, or purchase them at full price - both Verizon and AT&T will not force you to sign a 2 year contract anymore. You'll only sign one if you buy brand new equipment and elect to take the subsidized discounted price AND you don't use their new special financing programs.

Verizon Options

If you'd like to stick with the Verizon network, here are the options as we know them:

Continue waiting for Verizon to make an offer for continuing your Millenicom Plan: Who knows, they might just come in at the 11th hour and let you continue on for $89.99/month. Or they might offer you $130/month, which is their current pricing for 20GB of data on a hotspot.

Go Direct with Verizon:

• Data Only Plan: The plan you had with Millenicom, 20GB of data for a hotspot, retails for $130/month plus taxes & fees.
• Mobile Everything Plans: You could also take advantage of one of their 'Double Data' deals by October 31 and lock in even more data. For these plans, you must have at least a smartphone on the account, and prices start at $145/month for 30GB of data. You can use Verizon's configuration tool to estimate other options. Don't forget those taxes and fees. For more detailed information, we offer a Mobile Internet Aficionado exclusive in-depth article: Cellular Data ‘Wars’ – Guide to Picking Your Plans (October 2014 Options)
• Prepaid Plans: Verizon offers a prepaid data plan for Jetpacks for $90/month for 10GB of data (half of what you got on Milleniciom). They also have a $60/month plan for 3GB. These could be ideal options for those who want the option of Verizon data when they need it, or don't have the credit rating needed to get a postpaid plan.
• Assumption of Liability of an Unlimited Data Plan (UDP) with Verizon. There's a glut of them on the market due to an iPhone 6 ordering glitch that spawned a lot of new UDPs, and these plans can now be assumed for free to just a few bucks. Shop wisely, know what you're getting into - and for under $80/month you could be basking in unlimited data. For at least as long as that lasts - there's always a risk of Verizon changing the terms on these plans. For a detailed step by step guide to shopping for and completing the AOL process, our MIA members have access to: Acquiring and Assumption of Liability (AOL) of a Grandfathered Verizon Unlimited Data Plan

Also, don't forget to ask about any discounts you might be eligible for - such as being a veteran, or working for a partnered corporation.

All of the above options have ways to re-use your Millenicom provided hotspot device, which will require acquiring a new SIM from Verizon or transferring one in from another device.

Have a Verizon SIM ready to go, from the 3GStore.com:

"If you know that you plan to continue with Verizon but live far from a Verizon store or don't want to wait for Verizon to send a SIM after they contact you to get your service transitioned, 3Gstore is offering SIM cards for $10 with FREE USPS shipping to help make things easier. If you'd like to order a SIM card so that you'll have one ready for Verizon to activate as soon as they contact you to get set up, you can order via the below links:

• 2FF standard-size SIM (for UML290, embedded routers, etc): http://3Gstore.com/1/3911
• 3FF micro-size SIM (for 4620L, UML295, 5510L, etc): http://3Gstore.com/1/5063

Again, Verizon will offer to send you a SIM card for free when you sign up - purchasing one from 3Gstore ahead of time just makes things a bit more convenient, since you'll be able to give them the SIM ID to activate immediately upon setting up your account. Purchasing a SIM from 3Gstore is not a requirement to continue service with Verizon." - From 3GStore.com

Go with another reseller/MVNO:

Millenicom wasn't the only reseller of Verizon data, but they certainly were the best deal around. Here's other options we know about:

• StraightTalk - StraightTalk offers a prepaid hotspot only plan on the Verizon network, ranging in price from $15 for 1 GB of data usable within 30 days up to $50 for 5GB of data usable within 60 days. You'll have to buy their hotspot device for $79.99. The catch? The service is 3G only, and pretty darn slow. This is really only ideal for smaller bandwidth needs.
• BMI - Blue Mountain Internet offers their Mobile Broadband 4G plans, ranging in price from $19.99/month to $99.99/month for up to 10GB of data. The plan includes a software 'optimizer' that claims to make the data seem like triple that. We have no experience with this company, but it might be an option for some.

AT&T Options

AT&T's coverage and reliability has come a long way in the past year or so. So much so, that Rootmetrics recently rated them a close second to Verizon. For RVers who need maximum nationwide access - we highly recommend having both Verizon and AT&T in your mobile internet line-up. They each have strengths across the country, and sometimes it's just a matter of where you are parked versus where their tower is, or how overloaded a specific tower is. We like having redundancy and back-ups, because we absolutely rely on being able to get online.

AT&T is also a viable option as a primary carrier for RVers these days.

For getting AT&T access, there's not too many options - and their online tools aren't nearly as easy to figure out as Verizon's.

• Data Only Plan: You can get a data only device with AT&T for up to 10GB a month for $80/month.
• Share Everything Plans: AT&T is also running double data deals through the end of this month. The cheapest options start at $120/month for 30GB of data with two data devices on the plan (which might require pushing to get), and go up from there by adding smartphones and other devices. You can play around with their configuration tool to construct your deal plan. (And apparently, if you call AT&T's retention department by 10/31 they will double 10GB plans to 20GB for the same $100/month charge, to stay competitive with Sprint's current offering: More Details.)
• Prepaid: AT&T's prepaid data plans range from $15/week for 250MB to $50/month for 5GB. Ideal for those who want an AT&T option on board.

Also, don't forget to ask about any discounts you might be eligible for - such as being a veteran, or working for a partnered corporation.

Examples of What Others are Doing

There's so many ways you can go with this, and the options become pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. Here's some posts from fellow full time RVers, outlining the choices they've made going forward:

• WheelingIt: Nina shares how they bought a Verizon LTE smartphone off eBay, and took their Millenicom MiFi device to a no-contract More Everything Plan on Verizon.
• Technomadia: We recently shared the changes we made to our mobile internet setup, which involve ditching Millenicom and taking over a UDP with Verizon. And we also doubled our data on our AT&T Share Everything plan to 40GB a month (contract free)

Further Resources We Offer

Join the Mobile Internet Aficionados: We also have a premium membership portion of this website for those who rely on mobile internet to 'keep in the know'. We provide a lot of other benefits to our members - including a Q&A forum for them to ask us questions about their setups, we host periodic webinars to cover topics and we create gobbles of in-depth guides and product overviews. Here's some recent relevant resources our MIA members are benefiting from:

• Acquiring and Assumption of Liability (AOL) of a Grandfathered Verizon Unlimited Data Plan
• Cellular Data ‘Wars’ – Guide to Picking Your Plans (October 2014 Options)
• MiFi/Jetpack, USB Modem or Smartphone Hotspotting?

Live Webinar - THURSDAY (Oct 23): We're also hosting a live webinar for our members Thursday evening at 5pm PDT to overview all of the October Data Options. We'll be going over the Millenicom situation, sharing more about our recent acquisition of a UDP (which we're now successfully utilizing) and answering any questions about how to move forward. If you'd like to join that session, be sure to join the MIA by 5pm PDT - we're still extending the launch price of just $39/year.

Personal Mobile Internet Advising: If you'd like us to review your unique situation and offer our advice on your best path forward, we do offer personal and private advising. Our Mobile Internet Advisor package starts with an interview about your needs & budget, then we have a video/phone session and follow up with a written report. We can also just do a simple 'open' session and talk out your cellular options with you. More information on booking a session (we only have a limited number of sessions available in the coming days).