Hi, I’ve been using an ATT sim from Never Throttled for a few weeks without issue. As of yesterday the sim is no longer connecting. The connection stays at “Obtaining IP Address” indefinitely. I have not used the data card very much at all; definitely less the 50GB over the last couple weeks.
I’ve tried changing all of the typical settings such as turning on roaming, changing network mode to auto or ATT, setting the APN to “broadband” manually and letting the router auto select. Nothing seems to be working.
The vendor says the sim is fine, but given that it was working for a couple weeks and now is not working I’m thinking ATT has deactivated. After persisting, Never Throttled says they are looking into this.
Is there anything else I should be checking? Also, is there any way to know that the sim is deactivated definitively?
One additional bit of info… I put the sim in an unlocked phone. The phone was not able to register on the ATT network which father makes me think that the sim is deactivated. However, I was able to pull up a browser and get a response from a google search. Pretty weird.
Please let me know what I should do to figure this out.
You’ve taken all the logical steps you can, testing in a 3rd party device is usually the most conclusive test.
I don’t know much about Never Throttled, but there are many 3rd party resellers of carrier data plans who sound to be a bit of a moving target in terms of plan stability. I think this is the tradeoff with many of these services that offer more than the carriers directly.
Lots of AT&T resellers had problems starting on New Year’s eve. Paul, the one I direct messaged you about a few weeks ago had it’s problems too starting on Jan 1st. I had the same as you’re seeing now. “Obtaining IP address”. They sent me a new SIM and it’s good again so I’m staying with them. I think they’re probably as good as any but the whole reseller business in the US is definitely full of confusion and dubious deals with few good options.
I’m hoping that maybe AT&T is clearing them out to make way for their own high volume plan but who knows.
Not working in a phone could make sense. I have had data-only SIMs not work in phones, I take that as normal. I would get a spare/backup hotspot/mifi type device, and test in that, instead.
@paulbfelix
Did you ever settle on another ATT options.
My reseller att option quit a few weeks ago and I’ve purchased an option from ATT.
I went with the “BYOD Business Unlimited Elite 100g” option.
I still need to get time to attempt to get this fired up in my MTDuo.
Maybe someone has settings / suggestions.
I’m sure there will be a call to tec to set the IMEI at minimum.
@paulbfelix
I’ve also read that Cricket is on ATT towers and has a 100g plan. However, looks like my cat-12 MTDuo modem may be a bit problematic if I try that route.
Got cha … that is where I got my MTDuo package. I forget they resell cell as well I’ll check there also. My ATT business can be canceled at anytime so that was my out if needed / couldn’t connect
No, I haven’t. Sounds like I should give it a try though. Are there any tricks, or do you just buy a sim for a tablet plan and pop it into the peplink router?
It’s ridiculously easy. The plan isn’t publicly advertised, but if you call AT&T or go into an AT&T store, you just ask for the $20 standalone Unlimited for Tablet plan (NOT an add-on to an existing phone plan). Some reps might not know the plan, but every time I’ve tried, they know exactly what I’m talking about.
You will need a tablet or iPad IMEI, but not the physical device. I’ve used the same IMEI to activate eight lines…it’s only required to provision the line. Let me know if you need one.
After that, you pop the SIM in the router and that’s it. You can disable Stream Saver in your AT&T account to get full speed video streaming.
Yeah, you could put balance two of them in a Transit Duo and still save $120/month over that prepaid plan!
It is deprioritized after 22GB. But network congestion/management is totally dependent on your location. I don’t see much change in speed after 22GB. I’m still hitting 120-160mbps after 300GB this cycle, but as low as 20-30mbps during peak daytime hours (Transit Cat18).
There is no data limit. Using 1TB+ is not uncommon. I have a Transit Mini averaging 32GB/day, sometimes exceeding 60GB/day. This is not to say AT&T won’t be more vigilant in the future, but there is scant evidence of enforcement on this plan amongst the heavy users.
That doesn’t sound bad. Internet on the road is critical for me. I’m running AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile plans currently just to be sure I have internet service if service is available. I know hte AT&T plans I have both are not throttled; true unlimited. That costs more, but it is probably worth testing out tablet plan to see just how much throttling I’ll need to deal with.
Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s difficult. It can be a tedious process because they do a credit check so you need SSN and driving license numbers ready. I had to do it twice because after the order is created you receive an email with a link to order status which has a link to a form to accept the terms and conditions “before we can complete the order”. That form didn’t work for me. It returned a big red TC009 error. Calling support just ended up going round in circles getting nowhere. That order was canceled overnight. I ordered again the next day and got the same problem with the T&C form but a few hours later it shipped. Some people have reported going through the process three times and hitting the T&C error every time and giving up in frustration.
The whole concept of needing to verbally exchange long numbers with someone on a line with poor audio quality, possibly in a different country with a potential “accent barrier” pretty much sums up AT&T. That said, the sales people I got both times were really good. They knew exactly what I wanted and it went quite smoothly. Other people report calling several times and being told that there is no such plan.
My intention was to use it in an iPad for tethering. It had unlimited hopspot / tethering but that has changed in the last few weeks, It now throttles to 128 kbps after 10 GB.
Lots of people are still successfully using it in a router with an APN of “broadband”. There are mixed reports and opinions on how safe that is from being shut down for being an unapproved device. I think AT&T is looking at this plan and wondering why the traffic is so high. They killed the unlimited hotspot but that’s probably not going to reduce the traffic as much as they think. Logically the next step would seem to be to go after those using it in a router. Of course the bulk of the traffic is probably all the routers that have had their IMEI changed to look like a tablet which seems to be pretty much standard procedure on some forums. When they finally figure that out, who knows, they might cancel the whole plan.
Sorry to sound a bit gloomy. I guess you might as well use it for as long as it lasts. The thing that stops me using it in my Pepwave is fear of getting the IMEI blacklisted which is much worse than simply having an account shut down. I don’t know if there has been first hand reports of it happening but I think it could.
I still have my 400 GB for $79 reseller plan. Unfortunately it’s no longer available at that price. If it falls apart and I consider doing something unapproved, I think I will go for a post paid phone plan like Unlimited Elite. Surely they’ll go after those abusing the system for $20 before those paying $85.
