-If your interested in the "WHY" your services are offline and or continue to go offline every couple of months, read this blog post by our Nerd and Chief Nathan Stone.-
As you are painfully aware, some data plan services with AT&T have halted for unknown reasons to us. From what our AT&T account manager vendor has stated, they were told that the parent account (one of their large scale accounts) in which your data plan/ service fell under, was shut down by AT&T due to the excessive and seemingly abusive amounts of data on the account as a whole. In order to stay in good graces with AT&T, they opted to close the "abusive account" per AT&T's wishes. This was all very sudden and actually 2-3 levels above us here at the reseller/ end user level. Our direct contact vendor was not even told of this happening and didn't find this out until very recently on Friday the 20th after our close of business.
I understand for many of you waiting for the length of time in which you've already waited is simply not an option as you have work, school, and other responsibilities that require internet access. If you fall into this dilemma we have the following update.
As of right now the trend (outside of excessive usage) is that older routers such as the Netgear LB1120, Netgear MR1100, and Mofi4500 SIM4 model are being disallowed service. Often times this means that the service will work for a period of time, but something triggers the carrier's alarms (likely data usage) and this leads to a review of the service line in which they find that the device is no longer certified (MOFI models primarily) or previously flagged for abuse (folks over 400gb/mo for consecutive months) and is not allowed on their network. While we show the Netgear model devices are certified with the carrier, that is the trend we are seeing. If your using a Netgear model device and you've lost AT&T connection in the past, it would indicate that either your device is flagged, OR that you've violated AT&T's acceptable usage policy to some extent.
Our guess is that they are noticing non-mobile traffic running through their network and they are terminating services to those lines as a result. Examples of that traffic would be Windows updates, and X-Box game updates, Playstation updates, Nintendo connections, and/or 4K video streaming/ gaming. Any of these are potential red flags to the carrier, which flag your device IMEI and put your network connection under review.
We are not asking that you quit using these services, but we do highly recommend using a VPN service such as Express VPN, Nord VPN, or Pure VPN to mask that traffic from the carrier. The MOFI model devices do have a VPN settings page to implement a VPN service. For those using a Netgear model deivce, these services are not compatible to our knowledge and it would be recommended to attach wireless router to your existing hardware that VPNs can be used with.
Current options for getting service back as soon as possible are listed below:
Option 1 - Start fresh with new hardware (MIT Wireless Beam X71 - $200, or Beam Double Eagle - $250) and a new data plan by any of our 3 carriers AT&T ($130), Verizon ($130), or T-mobile ($120))
Option 2 - Switch to our Blue 300 or Blue 450 plan. Be advised that these plans are DATA CAPPED to either 300GB or 450GB. They will shut off once that usage is reached and reset on the cycle renewal date. These plans have a different price point ($120 and $150 respectively) and also require a different APN configuration to be setup on your device that will be sent along with a new sim card.
Option 3 - Implement a VPN service on your router and/or device connections as stated above AND re-signup with another AT&T "Unlimited" plan sim card (Blue Basic Plan- $130). ///// Disclaimer: Please understand that by going this route, you do acknowledge that this is a prepaid, automatic month to month renewal with NO guarantees on service speeds or the length of time in which this plan will continue to be supported or authorized. Time without service credits will not be applied in the event your service line (sim card) is terminated. This is the same option that you've been on with our service, and as your well aware, they tend to go offline every 2-4 months, based on the overall accounts usage typically, which is well outside of our control as we can dictate what end users are doing with their home networks.
As always, we will process time without service credits for those of you whom choose any of the above option. If you do not feel any of the above options will work for you and wish to cancel service, please let us know and we will be sure to process applicable refunds and close your account.