Update: I’m referring to “Wireless Broadband,” not business fixed wireless - thanks u/Dinoaide for setting me straight!
My husband and I are looking at purchasing a rural home. The only easily found WiFi options are satellite, which is a no-go as I work from home and do Zoom/Teams meetings/webinars daily.
My husband will be running a business out of the home, so I thought I had finally found a solution with AT&T’s wireless broadband, only available for business business. For whatever reason, the address is not eligible for any internet services when entered as a home but it is when I put it in as a business.
I thought this was going to be the answer, but then I re-read the fine print and saw that “entertainment and non-business sites” are blocked on this plan. Does anyone know what sites are blocked? I’m assuming things like Netflix are, which would make this not an option to be our home internet. We’re more than willing to do a usual residential plan, but again that is not an option per the website. I do plan to call them and see if there is any way to get residential service there, or the business service without the restrictions.
Appreciate any help or potential solutions!
“Plans are limited to use with business applications, including business video applications such as Skype, WebEx, Zoom, Facebook and YouTube.”
“Plans may not be used for … (a) video streaming entertainment services, including, without limitation, AT&T TV, AT&T TV Now, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and (b) audio streaming entertainment services, including, without limitation, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, and Soundcloud.”
I would not tell you that you can use VPN.
like someone else said, use the att business wireless internet and use a vpn if you wanna cover your ass. ive used it for a while with all the prohibited uses, never a peep.
you could also just open the standalone tablet plan on a business account and put the sim in an ipad.
att likes to put all kinds of language in the TOS but they never seem to really care about what people do. the only semi recent enforcement was the cancelation of prepaid tablet plans that were used in hotspots.
Have you looked at Starlink?
https://www.starlink.com/
It may be an option. It is satellite and mostly available out west, but is much faster (with no data cap, iirc).
Have you thought about a hotspot on your phones? Elite unlimited plans offer 30 GB each (2 phones, 60 GB).
Also what type of phones?
See if you qualify for T-Mobile Home Internet..
If T-MOBILE works they have 100gb hotspot plan for $50.00
Having the list is very helpful, thank you! Maybe we could get the business fixed wireless for actual work (anything not on that list) and that would leave all of our hotspot data for entertainment.
Yes! It is not available here yet but the first thing I’ll be doing if we do buy the house is putting down the deposit.
On business elite it’s 100 GB per hotspot
We have iPhones (10s & 12 Pro). We’re on Verizon now but got barely any service at the house so we’d be willing to switch if we got better reception with AT&T. I am not sure of any way to test that without switching.
I did a mini test yesterday by using my phone as a hotspot for a 1.5 hour Teams meeting and used 3 GB of data…I have 13 hours of video meetings this week so that alone would use up 26 GB of data, much less other work and home use.
My husband also isn’t going to be home most of the time that I’m working so I can’t count on using his hotspot data allotment, unless there is a way to use it without his phone being there.
Unfortunately it is not available here. AT&T’s fixed wireless (only the business service) is literally the only thing I have found that is (besides satellite). I’ve talked to a few local providers who haven’t officially said yes or no, one is going out to do a signal test.
Check out Cricket Wireless. You can get a 100GB of hotspot data for $90 a month, owned and operated by AT&T and uses the exact same towers.
My suggestion would be to get the AT&T Business Plan for business use and Cricket 100GB for entertainment. Sucks but starlink should be operational across the country and out of Beta by early next year so you probably only need to hold you over another 6 -12 months.
I’m pretty sure the deposit is refundable. So I wouldn’t wait. Get on the list more sooner than later.
Does a phone have to be physically present to use its line’s hotspot allotment? I know Verizon sells external hotspot devices you can use.
I wonder if you can get T-Mobile Home Internet because that one seems unlimited.
If you have strong AT&T signal and use video conferencing most of the time, I would think of using an unlimited tablet plan to do them.
Alternatively you can try AT&T Fixed Wireless (350 GB) if it is available in your area, or Business Elite (100 GB hotspot then deprioritized).
Do you have Sprint in your area? Check cellmapper.net and see if there’s good Sprint reception. If so, you could try Calyx Institute. It uses the Sprint network.
r/rural_internet might be of more help to you.
Thank you! That’s what I am leaning toward as well, as long as we can get good enough AT&T reception. Like you said this is just a hold over until Elon comes through! Another reason I’m avoiding satellite, those providers require contracts that I do not want to be stuck in.
Yes it has to be present. AT&T sells hotspot devices as well however the data is prohibitively expensive
T Mobile Home Internet unfortunately is not available.
The residential AT&T Fixed Wireless plan is not available either, but the business one is (but does not allow the fun stuff). I am not sure what the reason would be that one is available but not the other. Based on the suggestions here I’m thinking maybe we go with the business fixed wireless plan and then use hotspot data for everything else?
This is all assuming we get good reception…In your experience would you say AT&T’s coverage maps are accurate? According to them and the rep I spoke to today we should have solid 4G service but I’m apprehensive because Verizon’s maps also say that and we had barely any reception when we were there.
Also happy 
day!
day!