[sygnus21]

So, I read a thread here earlier this month on some complaints about the Note 9’s 4G performance and wanted to share an experience I had with my mobile hotspot after upgrading from an S7 Edge to Note 9.

So I use my mobile hotspot a lot with my laptop since I don't trust public hotspots like those provided by Barnes & Noble. Anyway I was t my local Barnes & Nobles and needed my hotspot. Using the Note 9 it turned out my hotspot service was so bad as to be useless (and frustrating). Restarting both phone laptop made no difference and I immediately thought about the thread I read earlier and planed on calling Samsung about it.

Coincidentally the next day I received my Verizon bill and needed call them about the charges. Long story short it turns out the kiosk vendor I got my phone from had switched my plan without explanation (though a well meaning attempt to lower my bill). In this discovery I found the new play they put me on had lowered my mobile speeds from 15gig a month to a daily use of 600kB/s! Apparently the kiosk hadn’t bothered to notice my original plan included mobile hotspot, and the speed was much higher than the 600kB/s plan they moved me to. it's sorted now and things are back to normal.

So, what’s my point? If you’re having 4G / Mobile Hotspots issues and just recently upgraded, make sure your plan wasn’t finagled with.

Just something to think about.

[Rukbat]

Just one comment - about 15GB/month and 600kb/s (it's not B, it's b - 600kB/s is 6mb/s)

You can't compare them like that - it's like comparing 30mph and 10 feet. One (600kb/s) is a speed, the other (15gb/month) is an amount. (If you're depending on what the customer service rep or the billing rep told you - don't. What they know about cellphones could fit in a thimble and leave room for your whole leg. They don't supply technical information, they're technical information sinks - when they enter a room the technical expertise of the room drops precipitously just from their presence.)

You were probably dropped to a plan with a lower data allowance and a slower tethering speed.

But kiosk salespeople know less than carrier representatives. (I actually had to teach one how to set up my account when I switched to Verizon at a mall kiosk. And I never worked at Verizon, I just owned cellphone stores - and we diodn't set up accounts, the carriers did. But the screen is laid out so simply that a well-educated 5 year old could follow it.)

Glad you got it straightened out in the end.

Good idea, BTW, about using your phone's hotspot instead of a public wifi. That's about 70% of the way to as secure as it gets. (Using a VPN and Tor makes it almost impossible for anyone but the NSA to see what you're doing. That's 99% of the way,. The only way to get to 100% is to turn the laptop off. [The army found, years ago, that enough signal leaks out of a laptop that, without any internet connection, they could spy on one from about 15 feet away.)

[Almeuit]

You were probably dropped to a plan with a lower data allowance and a slower tethering speed.

No.. he was moved to a plan with 15 GB hotspot at normal speeds then 600 kbps after that 15 GB until the next cycle.

[Rukbat]

Oh, yes, that "unlimited, except" plan. An all you can eat restaurant that uses micro-tweezers after the first mouthful. It's still useful for email and such, but if you suddenly need to download a ROM, and you just hit the limit? I don't want to do the math, but 1.6GB at 600kb/s? My calculator says about 44 hours.

I'm glad I use actually unlimited wifi for everything. 2GB of data/month of mobile data is enough for the rest.

[sygnus21]

Just one comment - about 15GB/month and 600kb/s (it's not B, it's b - 600kB/s is 6mb/s)

It actually should have said Kbps - Kilobit per second as stated by Verizon's data plans. It's a mistake on my part not worthy of a lesson in data transfer speeds. Thank you.

(If you're depending on what the customer service rep or the billing rep told you - don't. What they know about cellphones could fit in a thimble and leave room for your whole leg. They don't supply technical information, they're technical information sinks - when they enter a room the technical expertise of the room drops precipitously just from their presence.)

You were probably dropped to a plan with a lower data allowance and a slower tethering speed.

But kiosk salespeople know less than carrier representatives. (I actually had to teach one how to set up my account when I switched to Verizon at a mall kiosk. And I never worked at Verizon, I just owned cellphone stores - and we diodn't set up accounts, the carriers did. But the screen is laid out so simply that a well-educated 5 year old could follow it.)

Yeah, I said I was dropped to a lower plan - The "Go Unlimited" plan with a mobile hotspot speed of "up to" 600kbps. vs. my "Beyond Unlimited" plan with a mobile Hotspot speed between 5-12 megabits per second (Mbps) with a cap of 15gig per month. After that it drops to.... 600 kbps.

Anyway.... the "technical" knowledge of the "customer service" rep I spoke to is irrelevant here as all she needed to do was check my account and switch back to my original plan. I'm not sure how that equates in you needing to question her intelligence.

Same goes for the kiosk vendor, yeah, they failed to notify me of a plan change, but that hardly means they lack intelligence and need to be equated to a 5 year old.

At any rate I'm the one who had the issue, and never felt a need to belittle anyone, so why do you need to do so?

And BTW I've a fair amount of computer experience and training so...

[sygnus21]

Oh, yes, that "unlimited, except" plan. An all you can eat restaurant that uses micro-tweezers after the first mouthful. It's still useful for email and such, but if you suddenly need to download a ROM, and you just hit the limit? I don't want to do the math, but 1.6GB at 600kb/s? My calculator says about 44 hours.

I'm glad I use actually unlimited wifi for everything. 2GB of data/month of mobile data is enough for the rest.

I only use mobile hotspot for my laptop, and only in areas where I can't get secure Wi-Fi. As for streaming and all that other stuff, I don't do it on my phone so 15gig a month is well more than enough for me. And when I'm at home my phone is on my Wi-Fi.

Anyway, I think my plan was switched when the kiosk rep looked at my data usage and thought "he's not using that much data so why keep him on a high usage plan".

Unfortunately I never know when I might use a lot of data so I keep that plan just in case, since I've come close to 15 gig in a month before. It's rare but it happens.

[Almeuit]

Oh, yes, that "unlimited, except" plan. An all you can eat restaurant that uses micro-tweezers after the first mouthful. It's still useful for email and such, but if you suddenly need to download a ROM, and you just hit the limit? I don't want to do the math, but 1.6GB at 600kb/s? My calculator says about 44 hours.

I'm glad I use actually unlimited wifi for everything. 2GB of data/month of mobile data is enough for the rest.

You mean the unlimited except plan like all carriers?

The tethering limit was put in place due to people abusing it when it was unlimited and using it as home internet. Thank them for it.

I have unlimited WiFi at home as well with a gigabit backbone so I can pull ridiculous speeds... Doesn't help when I'm not at home though.

[Rukbat]

You mean the unlimited except plan like all carriers?

I think erizon was the only carrier that had "unlimited unless you get ridiculous".

I have unlimited WiFi at home as well with a gigabit backbone so I can pull ridiculous speeds... Doesn't help when I'm not at home though.

I don't see gigabit speeds from the ISP when the internet itself is still slow. For 20 people all downloading and watching 4k video at once, sure, you get the bandwidth, but I'm one guy who occasionally downloads a 1.6GB file, so 100mbps is more than I need (and the cheapest plan my ISP has these days). And I'm usually home so it's not a problem for me. (And even with a Pixel 2 I still don't get near 100mbps download tests from the same server I get over 100mbps test from with my Ethernet-connected desktop.

[Almeuit]

I think erizon was the only carrier that had "unlimited unless you get ridiculous".

On the OG unlimited from years ago they allowed it -- it went away due to people replacing their home internet w/ that hotspot.

I don't see gigabit speeds from the ISP when the internet itself is still slow. For 20 people all downloading and watching 4k video at once, sure, you get the bandwidth, but I'm one guy who occasionally downloads a 1.6GB file, so 100mbps is more than I need (and the cheapest plan my ISP has these days). And I'm usually home so it's not a problem for me. (And even with a Pixel 2 I still don't get near 100mbps download tests from the same server I get over 100mbps test from with my Ethernet-connected desktop.

I do see gigabit and it is amazing for my gaming rig (wired of course) when downloading games. Tops out around 940-950 Mbps down/up on speedtests. While I definitely don't "need" it -- it costs me the same as Comcast back then for 75 Mbps down/ 10 Mbps up + 1 TB monthly cap. I now get 1,000 down/up + unlimited data for the same price so it was a no brainer.

[sygnus21]

You mean the unlimited except plan like all carriers?

The tethering limit was put in place due to people abusing it when it was unlimited and using it as home internet. Thank them for it.

I have unlimited WiFi at home as well with a gigabit backbone so I can pull ridiculous speeds... Doesn't help when I'm not at home though.

Exactly!

And you're right about the "unlimited except" plan" abusers helped create.

Anyway had a chance check out my "new plan" where mobile hotspot was concerned and all was back to normal. No more "crawl speed" @ 600kbps. Pages were flying open left and right today