[OPLINTECH] Hotspot management

[David Brown]

Hi, Mark.
We are just now deploying a new Hotspot system that should yield radical improvements for our patrons. Here’s what I heard back from the IT person who arranged the switch. Hope you find it useful!

We recently chose to go with AT&T for hotspots.

AT&T offers truly unlimited data for government accounts but AT&T’s coverage was nearly equivalent to Verizon’s in our Bookmobile route tests.
AT&T’s prices are about $5/mo better in that we don’t need to pay that 3rd party service to add a 1G/day data cap to keep us from running out of data before the month is over.
Sprint’s coverage and their device quality were lacking, although their pricing was $5/mo better per line and they also offer unlimited data.

In addition, AT&T is providing at no additional charge, the Netgear Nighthawk hotspots.
Those are far more than a hotspot.  They offer routing, device charging, storage, and other features that are not available on other units.
Finally, AT&T’s customer service has been amazing.  I usually get responses in less than an hour for equipment requests, moves/adds/changes, and they let us keep extra SIM cards in stock.

Feel free to forward this information do Mark, Penny, and any others you might think would be interested.
I also have some more specific information about the device, a graph of coverage results from our Bookmobile tests, plan details, and other information that guided us in our decision to switch.


David Brown
Web & Digital Manager
Stark Library, Communications Department
p:   330.458.2697
e:   dbrown at starklibrary.org
w:   StarkLibrary.org<https://starklibrary.org/>
[FREE Lynda.com access from Stark Library: Your Smart Store]<https://starklibrary.org/email-signature>

From: Technology Coordinator via OPLINTECH [mailto:oplintech at lists.oplin.org]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2018 4:29 PM
To: OPLINTECH
Cc: Penny Neubauer
Subject: [OPLINTECH] Hotspot management

Hello everyone!

We are running into an issue where our Verizon MiFi/Hotspots(chosen for best coverage in our area) are being used past the 25GB cap and then throttled down to minimal speeds.

Some suggestions have been that we shelve the hotspots once they are near their high bandwidth, or use management software at a cost of $5 per unit to cap usage to about a GB per day.

Would love some better suggestions!

Thank you,
Mark





Mark Sanzotta
Technology Coordinator
Ashtabula County District Library
4335 Park Ave.
Ashtabula, Ohio  44004
Office phone: 440.990.2339

“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.” - Neil Gaiman
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