Goodbye but I have no choice.

[ewetwo]

Hey guys and gals. Don't know how much longer I'll be able to access this site seeing AT&T decide to do away with the Homebase system we need for internet and phone. So my days might be numbered and I'll no longer be here. There is no other options. But it's been wonderful being here. Hopefully they change their minds

[bobthehobbyguy]

I do not have a landlines for internet.

I have an iPhone se 2020 and use it as a hot spot for  my tablet and computer. You may be able to do some along the same line.

[Dave Van]

Two things you may check out. 

1. Local Library .....I live in the most rural county east of the Miss. yet have a library near me with free PC & internet.

2. I have internet service on my cell phone. Unlimited on my wife's and my phone with phone service $80 a month......cheaper than local ISP.

Good luck

[ewetwo]

1 minute ago, Dave Van said:

Two things you may check out. 

1. Local Library .....I live in the most rural county east of the Miss. yet have a library near me with free PC & internet.

2. I have internet service on my cell phone. Unlimited on my wife's and my phone with phone service $80 a month......cheaper than local ISP.

Good luck

Dave. Please send me your phone plan. There is a cell tower about an 8th of a mile behind our house but can not find out what carrier it is. 

[peteski]

David, go to your favorite search engine and look up "cell phone tower near me" , then select one of the websites  to find your tower.  Towers can be shared by several providers.

[1930fordpickup]

Dave. my buddy goes to the local fast food restaurant's by him  for his internet.  Just ask for the password and get a coffee or soda. 

[NOBLNG]

I’m sure you’ll find a solution David. And I’m glad it’s not as ominous as the title sounded.?

[cobraman]

Would be sorry to see you go. I hope you will find a way to hang around.

[iamsuperdan]

I have a few friends with remote cabins, and they have recently signed up for Starlink.

No cell coverage, but they have high speed internet.

 

A client of mine was in California over the Christmas break, and they chartered a fishing boat. Out in the ocean, but had high speed internet thanks to Starlink.

 

Might be worth looking into. 

 

Glad your possible absence isn't as dire as that of others.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

T-Mobile has an internet plan that works through their phone service, and you can connect your home computer through an in-home hot-spot. I've used it, it works well.

The cost is reasonable, and can be tailored to fit your data usage.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[OldNYJim]

4 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

T-Mobile has an internet plan that works through their phone service, and you can connect your home computer through an in-home hot-spot. I've used it, it works well.

The cost is reasonable, and can be tailored to fit your data usage.

Came here to recommend this.

We had Verizon at $100+ per month and got an offer for T-Mobile home internet.  It's a little box that you just plug in the wall outlet, no additional wires or cables required.  They recommend you put it by a window, which we did, and it works great.  Gets better service than our T-Mobile cell phones, and haven't noticed any dropouts or issues having used it for 6 months now.  Have a couple of laptops, an iPad, a couple of TVs, both our cellphones my desktop computer and our home security connected up to it - works great! 

$50 a month, works better and faster than the Verizon connection that we had before.  Definitely recommended!

[MrMiles]

i use mint mobile and they use the tmobile network. I only have 4gb month, but they have unlimited plans. it is 30 per month for unlimited, and you can ask for a 7 day trial chip to check out your service. 

 

if you have a smartphone, you can use it as a hotspot for a computer for internet. or you can just use your phone for internet

[NYLIBUD]

13 hours ago, Dave Van said:

Two things you may check out. 

1. Local Library .....I live in the most rural county east of the Miss. yet have a library near me with free PC & internet.

2. I have internet service on my cell phone. Unlimited on my wife's and my phone with phone service $80 a month......cheaper than local ISP.

Good luck

Yea the local library is a good resource.A friend of mine has no cell phones ,wi-fi ,or a computer in his house.So besides using my phone when we get together,he goes to his local library and uses their computers.I know it’s probably out of the way,but it is an idea that maybe can help you.

[BlackSheep214]

What about your cable television provider? Seeing you’re in New York, Spectrum Cable does offer phone and internet services in a bundle package.I don’t understand why you would need AT&T for your Internet and phone.

Edited January 5, 2023 by BlackSheep214

[Ace-Garageguy]

20 minutes ago, BlackSheep214 said:

What about your cable television provider? Seeing you’re in New York, Spectrum Cable does offer phone and internet services in a bundle package.I don’t understand why you would need AT&T for your Internet and phone.

Not every carrier offers every service in every area.

There's only ONE carrier in my particular location that provides all the services I need, but a few blocks away, there are multiple choices.

[BlackSheep214]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:28 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Not every carrier offers every service in every area.

There's only ONE carrier in my particular location that provides all the services I need, but a few blocks away, there are multiple choices.

New York State has Spectrum, Dish, Verizon, and a couple others. NYC has at least 10 choices to choose from.

 

Looks like he’s given up and didn’t take an effort to find a replacement cable provider. Sad really how some folks just throw in the towel so quickly when he probably has a few choices in front of him.

[stavanzer]

10 hours ago, BlackSheep214 said:

Looks like he’s given up and didn’t take an effort to find a replacement cable provider. Sad really how some folks just throw in the towel so quickly when he probably has a few choices in front of him.

I see no evidence to support your comment. We have no idea exactly what he is doing to solve his problem. Possibly he is following up on some of the suggestions that have already been made.

[ewetwo]

Starlink is too costly. $600 set up fee and $120 a month. Plus I don't want to support Elan Musk. I don't like him. Hughsnet and Viastat also too expensive. From what's dug up on them it's over $100 a month. Just for internet.   I've checked all the other mobile phone companies in my area and they say just keep checking in as we may expand into you area. I did a search or the cell towers and haven't been able to find out who owns the one I can see from my kitchen window. A young man from Spectrum came to the house and I saw the direction he came from. From the East my house. He said I am 1.5 miles from the last house on my roads so no. I tried to explain to him that if he came down the road from the West to my house. I'm 3 houses, 1000 feet, from the last house with Spectrum. He wouldn't hear of it. He said I'm 1.5 miles from the last house. Anyhow. I got a quote from Spectrum for... Are you ready?... $30,000. Maybe the person at AT&T jumped the gun telling me my service was getting axed. She did say I was grandfathered in. If it's going to happen. Let it be. Will it be this year or 5 years down the road. Who knows. I'm 68 and can barely operate my cell phone. LOL!  I have Raynaud's disease so the finger touch thing doesn't really work for me. I had to  erase and reset my cell phone to factory specs last night because for some reason. The phone suddenly goes straight to voicemail. Which I know nothing about. Never set voice mail up. The reason I won't put "bill pay" or what ever on my cell. Too much info for someone to snatch. Had something similar happen getting my Mac mini fixed at the Apple Store. They had to erase and re-install the software on it because I tried doing an update and the connection was so slow it disconnected half way through the update. That was my local phone service when that happened. Anyhow. Got home. Got an email from Amazon asking if I just spend $150 in China. Called Amazon and told them know. I was hacked in the Apple Store while they were working on my Mini.

But I now have other things that are going on in my life that makes loosing my internet the least of my priorities. I can live without it. Pay bills my mail. Call and talk to someone on the phone instead of sending a message or an emojis.  When I get the time I'll certainly read everything posted here. I have enough time each day to see what people finished building and look at. Then off to take care of the "priority" in my life. Those who know will figure that out as I don't want to go into it right now. Just hoping Dana Farber is in our future. Thanks for the suggestions guys. As Snake says. Model On! ?

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by ewetwo

[ewetwo]

Oh. And thank you Bill Ace-Garage guy. You nailed it. ?

[ewetwo]

And the AT&T HomeBase is basically a hot spot that works the same as others mentioned above. Off the cell towers. It was originally for people who traveled in motor homes so they had internet and phone service where ever that traveled. I get unlimited calls and 250 GB each month for $74.00 which is amazing. I heard a year or so after I got ours they dropped the data amount to 25 BG a month and giving you the option to buy more as needed. I'm going to ride it out and see what happens. I figure they are now loosing money with this system and that is why they are phasing it out. Hopefully we'll have another option coming. Can't go back to Frontier which I was a customer for 34 years until I found out about the HomeBase. You use to see a parking lot full of worker's cars at their headquarters here in Johnstown. Now there are maybe 3 or 4 cars there on any given day. And all along the country roads are their green boxes sticking up out of the ground which house electrical connections and most are totally destroyed. Some are duck taped together. Some are wrapped in a plastic bag. One even has a traffic cone on top I guess to keep the rain out. A neighbor still has Frontier because the only other option for us is something like the home base and they didn't change. I asked him if Frontier Internet has it gotten any better? He said it's like watching paint dry. Ugh! 

[BlackSheep214]

Wait....$30K !?!? For what? To put up a line to connect to your house? What exactly is the $30K charge on? What difference does it make how far from the last house when you have one 1000 ft from the other direction? I’d go down to Spectrum and speak to a supervisor and complain. Raise a little hell. They don’t like it if done in front of other customers around them. 

[ewetwo]

Yes. $30K. They told me to get the other neighbors to chip in. The guy 2 house from me towards that last house that has it called Spectrum and they quoted him $17,000. With the same "tell your next door neighbor to chip in.

It's insane.

Another excuse they told me was the power poles are back in the fields. Hello. What do you call that wooden thing in front of the house. They were moved to the road 28 years ago!

Get this. One of my neighbors down the road who I've know for 40 plus years has Spectrum. She and her husband are retired school teachers. They called Spectrum because they were having issues with the programming.  They didn't know at the time it was a wide spread issue with Spectrum. Not just their house. The repair guy comes out. Looks things over and asked her "what is your house built with?" She said "why wood of course. Why?" The repair guy said to her "Oh. We're noticing that house made of wood are causing issue with our cable lines and that's why you having issues". The guy didn't even know it was a Spectrum issue. Not the wooden house. LOL.

My sister leaves in the Gloversville and dumped Spectrum. Went to DirecTV. So I'll keep calling and asking Verizon, T-Mobile, and any other phone carrier that is in my area if they have yet expanded in to my area. Kind of makes me think of the agreement Wegman's and Price Chopper had in not infringing on the other's territory.

My wife Chemo doctor said he tried calling and it just kept ringing busy. Now I randomly call my cell phone and if the call rings busy but my cell phone doesn't ring at all. I know enough to reboot the router. But I told him to call my cell from now on.

 

[stitchdup]

5 minutes ago, ewetwo said:

My wife Chemo doctor said he tried calling and it just kept ringing busy. Now I randomly call my cell phone and if the call rings busy but my cell phone doesn't ring at all. I know enough to reboot the router. But I told him to call my cell from now on.

 

record an answer phone message saying thanks for calling but please send an email or text message instead as you are having phone problems and often the phone doesn't ring at your end. you dont want to miss important calls due to a trash service provider

[Ace-Garageguy]

What's kinda sad today is that a lot of service providers don't really give a rat's rump about providing "service", but they're more than happy to keep raising the rates.

I hate my home internet guys, but they're the only ones offering what I need at that address. If I'd bought the place, I'd damm sure be looking at something like Starlink, but since I'll be down the road in not too much longer, I'll just put up with the high cost and frequent outages (usually during my morning business sessions).

Hard to believe T-Mobile isn't available where you are. I've traveled extensively with someone who uses them, and coverage has been really great everywhere, even podunk towns in the desert.

[ewetwo]

50 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

What's kinda sad today is that a lot of service providers don't really give a rat's rump about providing "service", but they're more than happy to keep raising the rates.

I hate my home internet guys, but they're the only ones offering what I need at that address. If I'd bought the place, I'd damm sure be looking at something like Starlink, but since I'll be down the road in not too much longer, I'll just put up with the high cost and frequent outages (usually during my morning business sessions).

Hard to believe T-Mobile isn't available where you are. I've traveled extensively with someone who uses them, and coverage has been really great everywhere, even podunk towns in the desert.

I can access all the mobile companies and submit my address to find out if they are covering me. All of them seem to have jumped onto this wireless internet and phone bandwagon and streaming service. Not sure why AT&T is planning to leave. Unless they want me out of the “grand fathered” plan and into a new more costly one. That could very well be the case. $70 a month for 250 GB of data and unlimited calls is pretty cheap. And the service has only begun to give us issues. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by ewetwo