A while ago some people mentioned that some US carriers have basic internet
plans for backup access to their equipment. A few questions:
1) Do they give you a public IP per connection or do you tunnel back to a
central location and then connect via the tunnel?
2) Which carriers offer this and what kind of devices do you use to
connect? Is it simply a GSM card on a "MyFi" like device? We have lots of
Pi's out there that we want backup access to.
3) Can you send off list contacts and pricing that you have gotten in the
past?
TIA.
Dovid
I'd look at FreedomPOP's Netgear 341U. $20 - $50 NRC, single digit MRC for low usage.
Look into Ting if all you want is a backup OOB path:
https://ting.com/rates?ab=1
$6/month per active SIM card. Plus billing for actual data usage. Use it in
your choice of HSPA+/LTE modem equipment. They're an MVNO using, if I
remember right, a combination of T-Mobile and Sprint.
I had horrible experience when I tried to use Freedom POP many years ago.
Their customer service is awful and completely uncooperative. Their equipment did not work well
in my environment at all.
I would not wish them on my worst enemy.
Owen
Thank you everyone for your feedback. I also wanted to know if any
providers offered unlimited 2g since in some cases they want to stream back
some audio as well.
As a 3+ year “customer” of freedom-pop, I agree.
Their IP service was a bargain until the WiMax->LTE migration. Now the service is useless.
Their technical support continually redefines lack of effort.
4gantennashop has T-Mobile business with LTE data and unlimited 2G afterwards
Yang,
Thanks. I will check them out.
*shrugs* Seems to work here, though if Ting uses T-Mo and Sprint, I suppose Ting's more likely to have a good signal.
I don't expect much support on a $6 mobile wireless service.
Ting's support is the BEST support I've ever had in the IT industry. I
event ended up in a long discussion with one of the reps about custom
roms 
ting is owned/run by tucows, who are now also doing a 1Gb (GPON?)
residential single home FTTH project...
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/europe/tags/tucows