My Pepwave Max Transit 5G CAT 20 Buying and Set Up Experience

["EZ"]

Let me start by saying that all this technology was waaay over my head a few months ago. I'd like to thank Neal and Captain Gizmo as well as several others on this forum that have tirelessly answered all my questions. Thanks to Mobile Must Haves for their great videos. They helped a lot too. I bought the unit from the 5G Store because Neal promised they were great .........and they were. No complaints. I also bought the 7 way Poyntang antenna but haven't hooked it up yet. The paddles are doing fine so far in the house in and sitting on the dash of the RV. We're leaving for Florida tomorrow and my wife is taking 1 week of vacation but we're going to stay gone 2-3 weeks. She will use this set-up to work the other two weeks and won't have to use any more than 1 week of vacation. We'll see how it goes.

I went with the 100G data plans from AT&T as well as T-mobile. Both are $55/mo but T-mobile gives you a $5 discount for turning on auto pay. I have no idea how each will work when we get to Florida. We're starting in Panama City and will probably wind up in Daytona or Ormond Beach. So far here at HOME (Ringgold, GA.) the AT&T works better during the day and T-mobile works better at night. I went over to our lake property in Alabama and T-mobile blew AT&T away! The AT&T SIM wouldn't even connect over there so I'm glad I bought both.

The buying experience was night and day different between T-mobile and AT&T. I spent maybe 15 minutes in the T-mobile store. They knew what a Pepwave cellular router was. They were well aware of the pre-paid plan for 100G for $55/mo. They had me in and out in no time. When I got home I went to the T-mobile app and set up my account in less than 5 minutes. I stuck the T-mobile SIM card in the Pepwave Max Transit 5G Cat 20 router and we were on the net in a flash! I give T-mobile 10 stars out of 10 stars from start to finish. The sales process. The app and account set up. The SIM card that worked and says 5G when I log on to the Pepwave. Everything has been EXACTLY THE OPPOSIT with T-mobile than it was with AT&T.

I went across the street from the T-mobile store to the AT&T store. It was like entering the Twilight Zone. They had no clue what a Pepwave cellular router was. I explained it to them as best as I could and told them to just sell me the prepaid 100G for $55/mo data only SIM card and I would be out of their hair. Dude spent the next 45 minutes trying to get me an account set up in the AT&T system. He seemed a little put off when I told him I used Verizon for my phones and didn't have an AT&T account at all. Then he still couldn't find the plan I was talking about so he made 15 trips to the back room where the "Manager" was hiding out (and refused to come out to help). They landed on a 100G POST PAID plan which was not what I asked for and said it had to be a Business Account. He said if it didn't work in my "machine" I couldn't get my money back so he suggested several different plans that had MUCH less data for the same or more money. This went on for at least an hour. I thought I was going to lose my sanity. So I had to pay a total of $71.50 to get a SIM and get out the door. My nightmare was only beginning............

During the next few weeks I tried to make the AT&T SIM card work. No matter what I tried it just wouldn't log me onto the 'net. Looking at the Dashboard of the Pepwave I could see the AT&T card with all it's information on the screen. Everything looked good but it wouldn't connect. I'm glad I had the T-mobile SIM that was working perfectly so I could tell it wasn't me or the Pepwave that was the problem. Remember, nobody could tell me if the AT&T 5G SIM cards would work with the Max Transit 5G CAT 20 router. AT&T and VERIZON neither one have certified this 5G CAT 20 router for their SIM cards. Only T-mobile has if I'm not mistaken. I made 2 different phone calls to AT&T "Customer Service" during the next 2 weeks. I spent over 30 minutes EACH TIME on hold, waiting to get to talk to a human. Then I spend another HOUR AND A HALF on EACH CALL trying to trouble shoot my problem. The girl on the second call finally admitted that it didn't look like the guy at the AT&T Store set my account up correctly. She said she couldn't help me and kept suggesting I "go back to the store".

So Tuesday I went back to the store. I took my laptop and my Pepwave and both SIM cards with me. I wasn't leaving until it was working!! Luckily the new Dude behind the counter knew the AT&T stuff pretty good. He wasn't too up to speed with the Pepwave but I had it plugged in and showed him the Dashboard screen on my laptop so he picked it up pretty quick. He finally found my account in their system. He agreed that it was all wrong. So he got me a NEW SIM and we started over. Since it was a pre-paid account he said they didn't collect any money (So why did I have to pay the first time?) So he gave me the website to go to so I could set up my own payment account. I got it all set up, and paid my $55 for the month and the SIM still wouldn't work. We decided that the payment would have to post to the account before it would become active. So I went home to wait 24 hours. Thank God it started working yesterday. It only shows 3G when it connects though. Every time. At home and over in Alabama at the lake. 3G is all I get on the screen even though the SIM plainly says 5G right on it. It's slow but it works. I'm hoping it's better down in Florida. Or maybe it will get better once AT&T certifies the CAT 20 5G modem.

So there it is. My story as a NON TECHY guy trying to buy and set up a system that will allow my wife to get on the internet by using an ethernet cable and not using Wi-Fi as per her IT department at the Hospital she works for. It was not easy. But most of my problems were caused by the total lack of customer service at AT&T. Both their store employees and their customer service on the phone both just plain sucked. BTW..........I took my email receipt back to the store today to try to get my $71.50 back since the account was never set up properly and never would have worked no matter what I did. Guess what? That's right. The store personnel have NO WAY to refund any money and NO AUTHORITY to refund any money of any kind. Not even the Manager who refused to come out and talk to me again today. But the Dude at the counter did give me the 1-800 number to the "Loyalty" Department and said if I called them I could probably get them to give in and at least give me a credit on my account. I'm not looking forward to sitting on hold for 30 minutes again but at this point it's the principle of the thing!!!

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Wow - sorry to hear about the struggles you went through to get the ATT working.

Based on a post you made elsewhere sharing some of the initial ATT saga I decided that going to an ATT store probably wasn’t the right route for me. (You saved me a bunch of grief)

I am tech literate, but when it comes to communication tech, not so much. For anyone who reads this who is considering a Pepwave and ATT, but the ATT SIM from your Pepwave dealer. We paid $10 for the SIM when we purchased our router from Mobilemusthave. It was easy peasy to follow the directions with the SIM card to setup an ATT account and select the $55 prepaid 100GB account. Took roughly 10 min. Once that was done, popped it in the Pepwave and it worked!

Sorry you had to go through the ATT headache, just know that you helped others avoid that headache.

 

[Neal]

We all have different experiences, cellular stores are a mixed bag of minimally trained sales clerks, not techies. I've had various experiences with all carriers phone or in person, it's the nature of the beast. AT&T doesn't certify the pepwave, Pepwave just has to certify from their testing that it works as they designed which I'm sure it does and will. With a SIM properly setup (account) it should be plug and play. I had an issue with a Sprint SIM a while back, a call in to tech support fixed it.

 

[CaptainGizmo]

[BELOW IS IN HUMOR - SPOKEN IN OLD FATHERLY VOICE]

EZ, EZ, EZ...if you've learned anything, here, my son, have you not learned what we have taught you?
NEVER EVER...EVER...discuss the hardware platform to the 'STORE BUFFOONS'!! LESS IS MORE, or you're in for headaches. You were supposed to WALK IN LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE, speak, pay, then run.

Unfortunately, this is the problem with having all this advice spread out all over the place; easy to get distracted, confused, or just plain miss the info. But you survived and now be an EXSPURT! LOL

Now, as for AT&T's horrid service? Again, ZERO surprise. To every one of Neal's good experiences, I'll raise him a half dozen "jump off a cliff" ones. I don't need to give examples, because that's of no help. Just know it's nothing to do with you...aside from you putting your thumb under the falling hammer. ? If you're a glutton for punishment, go ahead and try all this with Verizon! Be sure to have plenty of Bourbon on-board before, during, and after though.

But, you've got the good hardware; but you have a single modem. So, it will be up to you to set it up with the desired SIM/CARRIER being selected as the first priority. Also remember that switching over will take a minute or two as the modem disconnects then reconnects with the new carrier.

Enjoy!

 

[Kcmusa]

Yes. ATT, a few different stores before I got the 100G $55 plan. They are clueless

 

["EZ"]

I'm now down in Florida in Panama City. The T-Mobile SIM is pulling down 100-120 during a speed test. I've been here all day trying to get the damn AT&T SIM to even reach the internet for me. It did connect one time for 2 seconds then went back to "connecting". I've tried everything that I know to do. I'd call the AT&T service number but I'm only going to be here for a week. I'm afraid I'd spend my whole vacation on hold. I'm going to have to call them and I'm dreading it. But so far I've given them $120 and haven't gotten anything but headaches so far. I'm about done.

 

["EZ"]

BTW..............just so you know, the AT&T 5G SIM card is trying to connect at 3G still. So even if I get it to connect it will still only be 3G. I bought the 5G CAT 20 Peplink.

 

["EZ"]

Wow - sorry to hear about the struggles you went through to get the ATT working.

Based on a post you made elsewhere sharing some of the initial ATT saga I decided that going to an ATT store probably wasn’t the right route for me. (You saved me a bunch of grief)

I am tech literate, but when it comes to communication tech, not so much. For anyone who reads this who is considering a Pepwave and ATT, but the ATT SIM from your Pepwave dealer. We paid $10 for the SIM when we purchased our router from Mobilemusthave. It was easy peasy to follow the directions with the SIM card to setup an ATT account and select the $55 prepaid 100GB account. Took roughly 10 min. Once that was done, popped it in the Pepwave and it worked!

Sorry you had to go through the ATT headache, just know that you helped others avoid that headache.

Glad I could help! LOL!

 

[Joe Hogan]

My experience with AT&T was very similar to EZ. I however ran out of patience, abandon $$ as sunk cost and never did get online, or an apology or offer to refund my money.

 

["EZ"]

My experience with AT&T was very similar to EZ. I however ran out of patience, abandon $$ as sunk cost and never did get online, or an apology or offer to refund my money.

At least I'm not the only one. I was starting to feel like it was me and my lack of expertise!! But then again I have the T-Mobile SIM that has worked flawlessly from day one so maybe it's NOT me..............

And to be fair to AT&T whether they deserve it or not............some of the issue may be because my Peplink is the new 5G CAT 20 box. And technically AT&T has not certified their 5G SIM to work in this box yet. Maybe if it was one of the older Peplink boxes it would work better? I'm not sure.

 

[Neal]

If you're having issues I suggest contact the vendor you purchased the Pepwave from or reach out to Peplink directly. Their support is outstanding. Also ask them the question about certification. Does AT&T certify them or is that Peplink just saying they have not completed testing of the carrier. I think there is some confusion on who certifies what here and maybe you can find out from Peplink directly or 5GStore.com etc.

 

["EZ"]

As an update to let you know............I was finally able to get the AT&T SIM to connect to the internet. I've had it connected for the last 2 days. I'm afraid to switch it out or disconnect it in any way because I'm afraid it will not re-connect to the 'net again. I'm going to leave it running even though it's much slower that the T-Mobile SIM just so I can use the 100G of data and not have to pay for something I didn't use. I've done many speed tests and this AT&T SIM is only operating at 3G and the best download number it's pulled so far was a 7. Compared to the T-Mobile number of 100+ I think this is pretty sad.

If I find the time to call the 5G Store while I'm on vacation I'll see if they have any thoughts about my performance issues with the AT&T SIM. I'd say that AT&T just doesn't have enough towers down in Panama City but this is exactly how it was working at home in Ringgold, GA and over at our lake property in Cedar Bluff, AL. So, I'm beginning to thing it isn't a tower issue.