Wifi in the Everglades at Flamingo - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

Wifi in the Everglades at Flamingo

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

I wasn't sure of the exact location of the campground you're referring to... but here's a screen cap from our app 'Coverage?' that overlays recent coverage maps from all of the carriers. Blue is AT&T and Red is Verizon.

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the response. Flamingo is 40 or 50 miles south west of Homestead down there in what looks to me like a green section of land right on the edge of the water but off the map to the left. I pulled up a google map, did a screen print and tried to put it here but no luck.

Can't tell for sure but it looks like it's the same as always, solid AT&T. Any idea where I could get a short term card or way to use their tower?

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

At&t has a pre-paid go plan......find a used card and use there prepaid no contract plan

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

I've searched all over on line for a prepaid card and can't find a thing. Any idea where to look for what you suggest? That's just what I want. Something I can just for two weeks or a month.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Walmart!!!...................carrys AT&T prepaid cards and set ups.......you can bring your own equipment, most walmart plans are ATT or verizon plans.....

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

AT&T has prepaid phone plans under its own name and AIO, but not data plans. They are also buying Leap Wireless, which you know as Cricket, and if the buy goes through they will kill AIO or merge it with Cricket. An AT&T hotspot or datacard costs only $100 to buy outright and then you can get month to month service instead of a contract. It costs $50 per month for 5GB, plus any taxes.

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Bill. I was wondering why they told me there were no prepaid AT&T air cards when I went to Walmart. I thought maybe it was just the one I went to. All I can find anywhere is prepaid phone. $150 to have data for 2 or 3 weeks is mighty high but it would be great as a permanent source if their coverage has gotten to be as good as Verizon. We had AT&T and just had too many places we couldn't get a good signal. With Verizon so far we've had two - Flamingo and most of Texas. Interesting info about cricket.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have an AT&T hotspot to supplement our Millenicon/Verizon 20GB plan. One place we frequent due to family has lousy Verizon data coverage since it is extended network, but great AT&T data coverage. There are definitely places where AT&T is better than Verizon. But there are also places where Verizon is better. A couple years ago I didn't think AT&T was near Verizon in coverage, but now it seems to be from our experience and those of friends who swear by AT&T.

Looking at AT&T's coverage map I followed 9336 from Florida City to Flamingo and it shows 3G data at Flamingo and data coverage for much of the route. I did the same with Verizon's coverage map and there is "no service" in much of Everglades National Park, including Flamingo. (You have to select "data" and zoom in to see 9336 much of the route with both online maps.) It has been a couple years since we visited Flamingo on a day trip, but I know our Verizon phones had no service there.

ausarb · RV-Dreams Community Member

Sherry, did you ever make it down there with AT&T? If so, how was your speed?

AT&T's coverage maps look all the same to me. Aiowireless, which is prepaid AT&T, shows that region as 3G clearly (better contrasting colors than AT&T's maps) but on their legend, they show separate colors for 4G and LTE. That makes me think when they say 3G, it is the sloooooow 3G of around 1Mbps or less.

I'm planning on being there in a few weeks and face a similar dilemma. Walmart sells the AT&T Unite 3G/LTE Hotspot for $99 that you can use with a prepaid data plan. There are some Walmarts that stock them, but for others you simply buy it on walmart.com and do ship to store. AT&T sells that same HotSpot online but for more money.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The Unite works well. It is what we have, though ours is on contract. Amazon has the prepaid version for $79.99 - http://www.amazon.com/Unite-Mobile-No-Contract-Hotspot-Prepaid/dp/B00GJY6XI4.

Now someone needs to go try it at Flamingo.

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have been and gone to the Everglades. We put a limit on how much time and effort we will willing to put into this and didn't have any luck putting the AT&T thing together for this one two week period. $150 or so seemed a bit too much for such a short time. I can do without for that long by planning ahead. But I do like Bill's plan with Millenicom and AT&T. Verizon signal is fine at the COE visitor center just north of the entrance booth and may work at the northern campground but no dice nearly all the way down and in Flamingo. One ranger who lives there told me even his AT&T is quite variable. IF we go to Texas this year then we will break down and do AT&T. They seem to own Texas. If any of you do this AT&T temp no contract data thing please report back on how it works for you.

ausarb · RV-Dreams Community Member

Bill, thanks for the tip on Unite! I looked on Amazon but I swear it was $150. You just saved me over $20!

Thanks for following up Sherry! I too have Millenicom (Verizon) and I haven't had any issues with getting Internet so far. I need to have Internet for work while there though and I know that I'll need AT&T again sometime in the future, so I'd eventually need this device anyways. I'll count the $80 towards capital goods. That leaves $50 for data + $36 activation fee for a week's service. As a bonus, if I have any left over data after that week, we'll finally be able to stream a movie!

I've got a Wilson booster that works with AT&T and Verizon, so hopefully I won't have problems with a weak signal. I've set myself a reminder to reply back to this thread once we've been down there.

Speaking of Texas, Garner State Park only has AT&T coverage. It's one of my favorite parks.

Sherry · RV-Dreams Family Member

Greg,

Is the$36 activation fee a "one time" fee or does it recur every time you reactivate? Looks like you are in to about $170 for a week of on line.

Looking forward to having you test out this solution to the AT&T owns certain places.

Sherry

ausarb · RV-Dreams Community Member

As I understand it, it is $36 per activation. Counting the device, it is $170 for that week (3 days really) but it's either that or burn vacation days. Since I'll certainly reuse the device sometime in the future I'm not counting the full cost of the device for these days. At least that what I'm telling myself to make it more palatable. After that I'm expecting to pay $86 every time I choose to stay someplace where AT&T is the only option.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Since this thread has been "revived" and more discussion has been made about technology than campgrounds, I've moved this to the "Technology..." category.

Terry

ausarb · RV-Dreams Community Member

Well, we're here and we've got 4 bars and according to SpeedTest.net on my laptop connected to the AT&T Unite hotspot, my ping/down/up is 100ms/0.95Mbps/1.04Mbps. Not fantasitc but not horrible. I should be able to work with these speeds, although nothing heavy duty.

My wife's phone (on AT&T MVNO) says it is on HSPA+ (The top speed for that phone) but the speeds are less than the hotspot. I have a Wilson booster that I may setup to see if the speed is any better, but I doubt it will help since we've got 4 bars already. But who konws, I may be able to pull in T-Mobile.

ausarb · RV-Dreams Community Member

No luck on the booster. I was half expecting to get some T-Mobile because my phone works on either AT&T or T-Mobile and I connected to T-Mobile unexpectedly for just long enough to receive a text message while at the Flamingo visitor center. I was never able to reconnect though, either at the visitors center or while on the booster.

The booster had no effect on my AT&T speed. I didn't expect any change since the tower is less than 2 miles away and I get 4 bars already. When the booster was on, my Verizon hotspot fluctuated between 1x and 3G but none of those times could I connect to the Internet with it.

BTW, I wasn't charged an activation fee for the AT&T hotspot but I'd expect one if/when I let the current service expire and reactivate it.