We have just started our Airstream life and one of the issues, I've read a lot about here is how expensive bandwidth is (with AT&T or Verizon ) while on the road.
We curretly have cable in our home, and I like watching certain channels (Velocity, CNN, History, etc) but we don't want to add a DIRECTV or DISH Network dish and service and the costs associated with that.
My solution. AT&T recently announced a new service called
DIRECTV NOW that lets you stream channels on many
different devices and also has a variety of
available plansraging from $35.00 per month to $70.00 per month.
Up to this point your probably asking so what's the big deal? Well for us the big deal here is that
if you currently have an AT&T Cell phone service plan that includes the ability to turn your phone into a hotspot then streaming will not count against data caps for its mobile phone users.
I put this idea to use in order to be able to watch unlimited cable like service in my Airstream. Here's how I do it.
1. I currently have an AT&T phone plan that allows me to use my phone (iPhone) as a hotspot.
2. I added an Amazon Firestick to my AS TV and dowloaded the DirectTV Now app.
3. When I want to watch DirecTV now, I first turn on the hotspot feature on my iPhone then I go to the Amazon Firestick and settings and select my hotspot as the WIFI network.
4. I launch the DirecTV NOW app and I can watch all the TV I want without it counting against my 15GB Data cap for my service.
I have watched more than two days of continuous TV on our Airstream this way and my data usage on my iPhone bill has not gone up.
As an added bonus you can also watch all the DirecTV Now content on your phone (cellular network) or other devices if they are connected to your hotspot
The only downside so far is that I must remember to turn on the hotspot on my iPhone, and choose it when using my Firestick.
I picked the "Just Right" $50.00 per month plan. It has an eighty channels and it's like being at home with my cable provider. You can even add HBO etc for as little as $5.00 extra per month.
As an added bonus when I joined they had an offer that gave us a free Apple TV box (latest model) if I paid three months in advance. Once I get the Apple TV then I can do the same thing on our other television in the Airstream and even wirelessly project the image from my iPhone directly to it.
I will report if I run into any issues, but I think it's a slick solution to a problem that would have costs me a lot of money to resolve otherwise. I hope it helps you.
Linear Mode
