These days, cell carriers are pretty clear that they don’t want you using mobile internet as an alternative to hardline broadband. With the exception of Verizon’s weird smart hub router monstrosity, there’s nothing that provides a useful amount of mobile data for a good price.
Or at least there isn’t if you’re not a member of the Family Motor Coach Association. The FMCA has negotiated a special deal with Verizon for RC owners that gives you a Novatel MiFi 7730L wireless hotspot for free, and lets you have unlimited wireless internet (with a soft deprioritization threshold) for $50 a month.
There’s not much to the deal, either. You have to be a FMCA member, which you can become for $50. Then, head to the FMCA’s website, sign up for the plan here, and you’ll get billed $50 per month. The hotspot comes for free and is yours to keep whenever you cancel, which is nearly insane.
The best part about this entire deal might be that you’re billed by the FMCA, rather than Verizon. Cell carrier billing is notoriously full of extras and overages and special magic charges, which hopefully you can avoid in this instance.
The data is very nearly unlimited in the literal sense of the word. There’s a soft threshold at 25GB of data, after which you’ll be “deprioritized.” That means that your data will be a little slower if the cell tower is getting congested, so during peak hours or in a particularly busy location like an airport. In practice, it shouldn’t cut data speeds by a huge amount, but it could be a concern if you’re planning on online gaming.
If you want to take part, I’d suggest buying sooner rather than later. Deals like this tend to get yanked if demand rapidly spirals out of control.
