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Kellen

Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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45 Comments

  • I’m currently using at&t fixed wireless internet which I’m guessing will be about the same as this. It’s 60 a month and I’m getting between 30 and 50 MB a sec. And haven’t had any issues. They do put a 500 gig limit but if u go over they charge 10 bucks for an extra 50 gigs

  • I hope this is expanded, but also at a $50 price point for 50-60 Mbps. Getting rid of spectrum would be fantastic, as they have a monopoly in my area and have outrageous prices.

  • It’s extraordinary that the US is the only developed country that doesn’t see internet as an important utility and should be accessable to all for each household just as important as water, sewage, electricity.

    • Doesn’t fit into the concept of free market and capitalism! I 100% agree that it’s a shame.

  • Now more options for rural areas with
    Verizon’s LTE Home Internet that costs $40/mo but need more affordable plans to lure more customers… #TelecomVibe

  • Got to love the hate that will hate on Verizon no mater WHAT they do. meanwhile at&t’s fixed 4G is 10Mbps up to 25 Mbps and has a 250 GB cap with $10 per 50 GB overage for $60 a month and yet crickets form the Verizonhate crowd.

    • No hate from me, my Verizon phone experience has been good. Service for me has been much better that I experienced with AT&T. That said this is not as available even in the limited markets as the reports would lead you to believe. Either that or their address lookup is FUBAR.

  • We need this for our property near Mazama in Okanogan Co, WA. We are currently using Hughesnet Satellite Internet, which really sucks and is really expensive.

    • Find what cell provider is fastest and most reliable for you in that area and invest in a mofi4500 or any LTE router that supports the correct bands. Worst case scenario you’ll have to invest in some LTE roof antennas but it’s totally worth it. Look up John Barth on YouTube he has lots of video on this.

  • My in-laws currently use an LTE hotspot for their internet but its capped at 15gb then drops to 3g speeds. This would be a fantastic upgrade for them with the satellite their only alternative. If it truly doesn’t have a data cap then even if it’s a little more per month its a good deal for them.

    Edit: I also find it ironic this marketed to Rural areas, yet being rolled out to cities. It’s LTE not 5G, so why can’t they just make this available everywhere LTE is currently available? It’s essentially no different than the LTE hotspot my in-laws already have. What is the point of “rolling it out” to network with very little expansion since all the focus is 5g now anyways.

    • Hey if you’re a bit hands on and willing to do the research there are better ways than using the hotspot. I’m using LTE router(Mofi4500). Has bands for Verizon, ATT, and TMobile. Yes the router is a bit pricey but totally worth it. I’m using prepaid TMobile sim paying $60 a month for service. Getting anywhere 20-40 Mbps download and 25-30 upload speeds. After 50gb TMO “deprioritizes” you but I already used over 170 GB in half a month and no slow down as of yet. Best thing to do is download netmonster and start scanning what bands are closes to their home. That what I did to find the best service in my area. If you have any questions feel free to message me!

      • Thanks, I will check that out. Up to now Verizon has been the only decent service in the area. My sister-in-laws family use AT&T with iPhones and hardly get signal. I’ll check out netmonster.

        • Yeah what I did I bought cheap prepaid plans to test out the speeds. I already had att. So I tested Verizon with a visible sim since the first month was $25 then I tried TMO for $35. Verizon still had best coverage but like mentioned in a other reply the towers would get slow due to high traffic. I bought a roof LTE antenna and was able to reach a band 4 tower for TMO and I’m getting 20-40 on the regular with no slow downs.

      • I really need to understand this option but what is the sim for? Do your router gets the 4g signal? What does the sim go into?

        • Yes my router uses the 4g signal and we use that as internet. You just install a sim that currently has service into the router. You have to buy an LTE router like the mofi 4500 that have a LTE modem built in.

        • Nice what’s your set up? Do you have some lte antennas outside? What speeds are you getting with visible? Have they throttled you? I’m thinking of jumping back to Verizon and try to reach a tower that’s 6 miles out. I’ve tested speeds there with my phone and I get 170+ Mbps consistently!

    • It’s not just Springfield it covers the surrounding area as well. I may be silly but I signed up, I live about 45 minutes west of Springfield.

      • It does not cover the surrounding area. I live in Strafford just 8 miles up I44. Checked for service at my address and is said no go. I would add this in an instant if it was available because I do get great speeds With Verizon on my phone and our current service is 2.5M DSL.

        • I live just a few miles north of Aurora (Rural), I hit the link yesterday as soon as it was posted. The site said it was available in my area. I ordered it with overnight delivery ($15.00), FedEx honked at 8 am this morning. The unit is setup and I am posting this from my device. Google speed test shows that I am hitting the 25MB speed. With marginal, three bars of signal.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c529f02b1b21298736f79fa4cdf15d62b8fa937f67a34bf4446f7581503e0b9.png

          • Well consider yourself lucky, it says not available for my address and I even plugged in my Dads street address in central Springfield and it said not available. Not available even though a new telephone mounted cell transmitter the tall cylinder style was installed 1 block from his house, maybe 200 yards. I don’t know how many actual people will be able to get this but it seems like it is based on how busy your closest cell tower may be. If that’s the case it isn’t going to reach very many. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86c46a1dd302bd3ea2581efd8e7e0f25064e2c8d3a77ddfbc71d06666603d9e3.jpg

          • Apparently I am not supposed to have the LTE Home Router. I received a call from Verizon stating that there were issues with the order process and that “some users” were able to get the device without being in service area. I guess I just get lucky. @disqus_S8yPhK0Gli:disqus I stand corrected! Thank you sir. They stated that I can continue to use the device or return it within 14 days. I think I am going to keep it at this point.

          • I was able to get this service in a very rural area of Conway, MO. When it says it’s not available, I believe all spots may have been taken for particular towers. Also, it should not be available to customers with other options like Mediacom and U-Verse IMO.

  • I don’t believe no data caps, especially coming from Verizon. One of the main reasons I left Comcast was their 1TB data cap, kept breaking it constantly…can’t imagine how bad my bill would be had I not left during this pandemic with everyone streaming everything including work in the house now.

    • They will absolutely apply a data cap at some point, this is Verizon after all and data caps are a huge money maker for an ISP. The shame is no data cap will draw a lot of people. I have family stuck on rural satellite internet, you get a 30 GB data bucket making video streaming and the like impossible. So people will switch to this and as soon as they have a large enough user base they can expect a stupid low data cap.

      I’ll never stop being mad that they sold everyone on the idea that internet throughput is scarce and should be metered.

      • You now if they gave everyone true unlimited data you’d be bitching about you sub dial-up speeds because they networks never could handle that much data before

        • You have no idea what you are talking about. Many ways to handle peak congestion, but we are talking rural networks where that isn’t even a thing. You work in Verizon PR or something?

  • ALL of those areas have access to cable internet. Which most likely STARTS at 100 Mbps. So when you say “Verizon says to expect typical speeds of 25Mbps down, with peak speeds hitting 50Mbps. They haven’t provided upload speeds at this time.” I LAUGH

    Runner up for hilarity: “There are (supposedly) no data usage caps.” @Kellex forgot the word “YET” at the end of that sentence.

    • I’m a K-12 IT person in the Tri-Cities area. Yes, some of our area has broadband, but much of it does not. The biggest technology-related complaint from parents regarding virtual learning is that they don’t have Internet at home other than cell phones. This will be a game changer for many of them.

    • I’m in rural Virginia. My neighbors within the limits of the small town I live near get Xfinity, but they won’t serve where I live because of the population density. I currently pay $150/mo for an AT&T LTE based mom and pop for 20-40Mps. VZW is my phone provider so I would love to chop $110 off my monthly bill.

      • I have a lame AT&T DSL connection the is usually 2-2.5M down on a good day. I’m happy that I’m not stuck with low latency Sat service and would absolutely do this if I could. I checked availability and it said no, interestingly I checked for my fathers address in Springfield and it also said not available and he has a telephone pole mounted cell a block away that literally says “Verizon” on it. So far this seems underwhelming and not ready for primetime.

      • I get that, I am JUST on the cusp of having cable (literally the next neighborhood over is out of luck right now). Have you considered satellite-based alternatives like Hughes and others? When I was pissed off at my cable provider I used them. It worked pretty well. Not great, but better than 20-40, as I recall.

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