Category: tech

Goodbye Karma Neverstop

On By JohnIn techLeave a comment

Karma is a relatively new in the whole wireless data biz. You’ll recall we ordered one of their units and subscribed to Neverstop – an “unlimited” data offering at $50/month.

A few customers treated it as truly unlimited – they were pulling down about 1TB a month. Not many, but some.

So, about month later, Karma announced they were going to limit the capacity to 15GB per month, still at $50. Seemed reasonable to us.

Today, about another month later, Karma announced they’re pulling the plug on Neverstop.

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Karma will be rolling existing Neverstop subscribers into their new Pulse program. $35 a month for 5GB and no rollover. Actually, it’s $40/month for 5GB of data – it’s just that existing Neverstop subscribers get $5 for the first three months.

Insert joke here about “never stop” having, in fact, stopped.

Us?

We’ll keep it for awhile and have switched to the 5GB plan. We have a business data plan for our primary usage, but because internet connectivity is critical for work, the Karma will remain in the arsenal as a backup plan.

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Oh, and I don’t feel like peeling the Karma sticker off the rig just now.

Another Unlimited Wireless Option?

On By JohnIn sysadmin, tech, tiny house, travelLeave a comment

We reported the other day that Verizon pulled the plug Omnilynx unlimited wireless project.

Obviously, we’re a bit bummed about that – $50/month for unlimited data at LTE speeds was an incredible deal.

The next offerings from the big players – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile – come nowhere close to unlimited. Very much the opposite of unlimited. In fact, most of them are capped at about 30-40GB/moth and can get obscenely expensive ($400/mo). With some of them, when you reach the cap, they’ll throttle you back to effectively-unusable speeds.

Maybe the days of unlimited data are gone.

Or are they?

Here’s Karma, for ya:

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Karma’s another player billing themselves with unlimited data. And for only $50/mo.

It’s not the fastest thing in the world – 5Mbps. But for telecommuters – we full-time, working RVers! – 5Mbps is loads better than 0Mbps. That’s certainly enough for email, browsing, Hipchat, Skype, Google Hangouts and all of the other video-conferencing platforms on which we depend.

We’ve ordered ours and we’ll do a quick unboxing/setup/performance video when it arrives.

Oh, and if you want to sign up for Karma and get your own portable, unlimited (or even one of their less-expensive limited but still quite generous) hotspots, here’s $10 to get you started.

Verizon Pulled the Plug

On By JohnIn annoying, tech, tiny house, travelLeave a comment

Well, that’s certainly unfortunate:

Dear Subscriber:

We regret to inform you that your wireless service will terminate effective November 30, 2015 (the “Termination Date”).  This termination of service and any resulting inconvenience has resulted from the service provider, Verizon Wireless (“Verizon”) and its decision to discontinue its support of the program.  Needless to say, this circumstance is unfortunate and we are disappointed by Verizon’s decision – particularly in light of the fact that Verizon publicly endorsed and applauded the Omnilynx program less than one year ago.

I wonder if this is for all of the Omnilynx subscribers, or just the “general public”.

At any rate, we’ll be on the ongoing lookout for alternatives to supplement our rather expensive T-Mobile coverage and AT&T hotspot.

Broadband a “Core Utility”?

On By JohnIn techLeave a comment

Broadband is a “core utility” like electricity, White House report says – Ars Technica

In particular, it calls out wired broadband. And I read the article from a wireless device, while in our house on wheels, parked in an entirely empty campground that has no running water or sewer hookups.

You know: core utilities.

Actually, this got me to thinking: we should see about getting the obscene cost of RV dumps lowered to something realistic and make potable water hookups more accessible.

RVing is, of course–as long as one isn’t constantly in transit–far less expensive than a house or apartment.