Solis WiFi

[Pahaska]

My Solis WiFi arrived today. It is orange, round, about 4" across and 1 1/4" deep. It includes a pretty good camera, but I don't really see a need for it. The setup on my phone and my home computer was painless.

I'm sitting here in the storage yard with WiFi for the first time. The Solis is inside the AI and under a tin roof and still has good throughput. I have WiFi on both my phone and my built-in mini-computer. I can add my wife's phone when she is next present. There are several plans by day, month, and by gigabytes to hook up to the great WiFi monster in the clouds. Not cheap, but we can buy service depending on our travels. My wife can carry it with her when she travels overseas.

[wachuko]

Had no idea what that was...

https://www.skyroam.com/

So the benefit is that you pay as you go? Instead of being tied to a monthly payment from a company like AT&T, Sprint, etc.? When using it, the cost is more expensive than a regular plan... but again, you are not tied to a monthly fee like the other services.

Great for travel and making sure you have connection to internet.

Does not seem to be recommended for heavy streaming (watching videos all day) as they throttle you down after certain amount of data usage (500 MB of data used). So if this is for watching, say, Netflix, not going to work... but for emails, website browsing, etc. it should be fine.

Looks like a good alternative. Thank you for sharing!

[wachuko]

John,

Sorry for the follow up question... but I have a couple of trips that I will need to work for a few hours from the AI and was in need of something like this that would not committed me to a monthly contract...

Did you research other options and this was the one that made more sense? Or was this based on a recommendation?

Yeah, I am asking if you already did all the research so that I do not have to do the same

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by wachuko

John,

Sorry for the follow up question... but I have a couple of trips that I will need to work for a few hours from the AI and was in need of something like this that would not committed me to a monthly contract...

Did you research other options and this was the one that made more sense? Or was this based on a recommendation?

Yeah, I am asking if you already did all the research so that I do not have to do the same

WACHUKO - Can't you just use your phone as a Mobile Hotspot? Maybe I should not assume everyone has Mobile Hotspot in their cellular plans? Mine has 50GB per month, wife, daughter, and son in law has same 50GB each. So when we travel, we have a total of 200GB of Mobile Hotspot to use. We rarely use more than 20GB per month total even when binge watching on the road and that includes grandson's stream watching while in our cars during local driving in-town.

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by Alex AVI

WACHUKO - Can't you just use your phone as a Mobile Hotspot? Maybe I should not assume everyone has Mobile Hotspot in their cellular plans? Mine has 50GB per month, wife, daughter, and son in law has same 50GB each. So when we travel, we have a total of 200GB of Mobile Hotspot to use. We rarely use more than 20GB per month total even when binge watching on the road and that includes grandson's stream watching while in our cars during local driving in-town.

This is what I have been doing for now... maybe I should just stick to that method until I see the real need for a dedicated device.

[Pahaska]

My plan doesn't have a mobile-hotspot option and I am tied to it for another 18 months. I accepted a bare-bones account to get my S10 Note half price.

I wanted something that would fit with our on-again/off-again mode of travel, and would not require any mods to the AI such as many WiFi boosters. Also, my wife takes one or more foreign trips yearly and the Solis provides WiFi in most countries. When I saw the Solis ads, I figured that was perfect for us.

The Solis came with an optional carry case and I ordered that to come later. My wife can tuck it in her suitcase and have great WiFi wherever she roams. It comes with a USB charging cable and a second short cable that can be used to charge phones from the large battery in the Solis.

I will say that both the Solis and the packaging are of obvious high quality. It was designed in Germany and manufactured in China.

There were a few gripes posted on the web, complaining that they had trouble setting it up initially. In my case, it was a fast and easy, 5-minute setup, both on my Android phone and on my Windows 10 micro-computer that is installed in my GT that feeds the front TV through HDMI.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by wachuko

This is what I have been doing for now... maybe I should just stick to that method until I see the real need for a dedicated device.

WACHUKO - Yeah, depending on how much data your Mobile Hotspot data provides, you may not need anything dedicated. BTW - throughput and throttling limitations on phone Mobile Hotspot plans vs. dedicated MiFi/WiFi track very closely anyways, so no advatage to having a dedicated one. Unless you pay for Unlimited and Unthrottled service which is uber-expensive and may only be worth it for heavy usage full-timers or heavy power users.

Originally Posted by Pahaska

My plan doesn't have a mobile-hotspot option and I am tied to it for another 18 months. I accepted a bare-bones account to get my S10 Note half price.
.

JOHN - Ok, then this makes a lot of sense, coz the best part of this that I see is the PAYGO, portability, and the convenience of no contract. Would be interesting to see how much data you end up buying in the next 18 months. Though I would guess since you are not full-timing, it would be reasonable compared to paying every month for Mobile Hotspot.

[BeSerious]

Originally Posted by Alex AVI

.....Can't you just use your phone as a Mobile Hotspot? ....

If I read the website info correctly….
One advantage of the Solis WIFI over a traditional 4G hot spot is that it will connect to (almost) any available 4G cellular service. So at least in theory it is not married to a particular cellular provider.

Has any AT&T cellular subscriber used the Solis WIFI to hook up to say Verizon 4G when out of the AT&T service area?

[Pahaska]

I can't tell what my Solis has hooked up to. I suspect that it looks at available services and connects to the strongest service.

My service is T-Mobile, I have found areas in Texas where I have no service and areas where the T-Mobile signal is a lot weaker than other services.

The Solis day passes are good for 24 hours from when they are started. I'm posting this using the last few hours of the pass I started yesterday to set up the Solis. Depending on when I start a day pass, I can get 2 days use, which halves the effective daily rate.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by BeSerious

If I read the website info correctly….
One advantage of the Solis WIFI over a traditional 4G hot spot is that it will connect to (almost) any available 4G cellular service. So at least in theory it is not married to a particular cellular provider.

Has any AT&T cellular subscriber used the Solis WIFI to hook up to say Verizon 4G when out of the AT&T service area?

I can't answer the question, but a few comments.

Number one, Solis does not offer coverage maps (they only state countries, not areas within countries). Their coverage map is probably the de facto sum total of all overlain cell coverage maps for a particular area. But that would be a difficult thing to look up manually.

Number two is a restatement of number one: it's cellular-only, which means that it suffers from the obvious geographic limitations.

Number three, it appears to represent unboosted cellular-only, which is even worse.

"One advantage of the Solis WIFI over a traditional 4G hot spot is that it will connect to (almost) any available 4G cellular service" - depending on which country you are in, your regular American cellular plan should give you this benefit automatically. Verizon does. While in Canada, my phone automatically flips among the major providers known as Telus, Rogers, and Bell, depending on which of their signals is strongest at the time.

This Solis device appears to be optimized for people who travel through multiple foreign countries and largely stay in populated areas. That being the case, it's a good niche device. But it's probably not going to offer much to people who remain in the U.S. and Canada and who need assistance in areas that are poorly covered by cellular service.

[UncleBad]

I have had a Solis for over a year. It’s main benefit is that it has a virtual SIM card and can connect to just about any tower. The second benefit is that solis has contracts with those providers.

I took mine on a trip to Guatemala and used in the the vehicle we purchase to provide Internet on the trip back. Worked like a charm in places where my Verizon phone would not.

Great product for what it does!

[BeSerious]

I realize that the Solis depends on cellular service. But that doesn’t make it useless.

Originally Posted by InterBlog

...."One advantage of the Solis WIFI over a traditional 4G hot spot is that it will connect to (almost) any available 4G cellular service" - depending on which country you are in, your regular American cellular plan should give you this benefit automatically. Verizon does. While in Canada, my phone automatically flips among the major providers known as Telus, Rogers, and Bell, depending on which of their signals is strongest at the time....

I don’t think roaming is quite that simple. Because currently the cellular providers in the US and Canada employ two different communication “systems” GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint, etc.). Many current smart phones have both cellular “radios” builtin. But roaming between these “systems” is generally not supported.

The following thread has a better explanation….

https://forums.att.com/t5/Network-Co...c/td-p/4179309

My query was intended to find out if the Solis WIFI would connect to either AT&T (GSM) or Verizon (CDMA) depending on the available signal. IF it does, that could make a Solis much more useful than either a GSM or CDMA cellphone acting as a hot spot while roaming.

[InterBlog]

Can anyone provide usage cost details beyond the "as low as $9 per day" figure quoted on their website?

Does it really just sit there and cost you $0 for every day that you don't use it?

On the roaming comment above, that is true. Anyone who is worth their technical salt will confirm that, if you are serious about connectivity, you need to have both Verizon and AT&T represented among your traveling device kitty.

We went the way of the AT&T Mobley device, which costs $20/month because we contracted it via that special deal that Technomadia advertised.

That might not be the best choice for everyone, because it's $20 EVERY month, but I use ours every time I take a road trip of more than about 1 hour. I use the Mobley to stream internet radio and podcasts because we are paying for the data anyway, and it keeps me from running up too many gigabytes on my primary Verizon account.

[Gsmblue]

I have the original skyroam product. I loaded with 10 day passes over a year ago and I use it on days when I have a heavy work load... the passes just sit there until you use one.

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by BeSerious

My query was intended to find out if the Solis WIFI would connect to either AT&T (GSM) or Verizon (CDMA) depending on the available signal.

Yes.

I have seen mine connect to AT&T and Verizon (and many others).

https://www.skyroam.com/how-it-works

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Can anyone provide usage cost details beyond the "as low as $9 per day" figure quoted on their website?

Here you go. I personally don’t use the day passes. I enable the monthly plan and then disable it when I get back from my trip. Cheaper if trips are at least 9 or 10 days long.
https://www.skyroam.com/wifi-pricing

Does it really just sit there and cost you $0 for every day that you don't use it?

Yes.

On the roaming comment above, that is true. Anyone who is worth their technical salt will confirm that, if you are serious about connectivity, you need to have both Verizon and AT&T represented among your traveling device kitty.

Yes.

We went the way of the AT&T Mobley device, which costs $20/month because we contracted it via that special deal that Technomadia advertised.

That might not be the best choice for everyone, because it's $20 EVERY month, but I use ours every time I take a road trip of more than about 1 hour. I use the Mobley to stream internet radio and podcasts because we are paying for the data anyway, and it keeps me from running up too many gigabytes on my primary Verizon account.

Solis Skyroam does have limits and will slow service down when you go over.

I find it great for when we are traveling without the Airstream Connected.

[BeSerious]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

Yes.

I have seen mine connect to AT&T and Verizon (and many others).

https://www.skyroam.com/how-it-works

UncleBad — Thanks for the info.

The Solis seems to be just what we need during our 1st year or so of camping in State Parks and areas which are likely be within cell phone coverage of AT&T or Verizon but maybe not both.

FWIW we are sensitive to the AT&T vs Verizon cell phone coverage issue, because we live in a narrow valley with plenty of AT&T signal and zero Verizon signal. The Solis would keep us from needing to get a Verizon phone/hot-spot just for travel.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

Here you go. I personally don’t use the day passes. I enable the monthly plan and then disable it when I get back from my trip. Cheaper if trips are at least 9 or 10 days long.
https://www.skyroam.com/wifi-pricing

My bad for not scrolling to the bottom of the gobbledegook. This part is competitive:

"Get 1GB of fast global 4G LTE WiFi per month. Use 10 minutes or 10 hours, top up anytime for just $9/GB. No contract, cancel anytime."

If I didn't already have a Mobley and a Verizon Netgear, I might consider that.

[Pahaska]

Mine came FedEx overnight air in a 1-pound package. Very nice packaging. The travel case arrived separately by USPS.

Surprisingly, I received notice from FedEx that a 2-pound package is arriving tomorrow. Surprising in that I haven't ordered anything else from them. I checked my accounts and found no charges, other than the original Solis.

I'm wondering now what it may be. A user manual, perhaps?

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by Pahaska

Surprisingly, I received notice from FedEx that a 2-pound package is arriving tomorrow.

I'm wondering now what it may be. A user manual, perhaps?

JOHN - the "portable" 2-pound brick AC/DC adapter with a desktop docking stand. It is something my beloved HP would do..