Hello,
I am an AT&T Firstnet customer and go out on single resource assignments where (not surprisingly) I’ll have no service and the guy next to me with Verizon has a solid signal. I don’t spend enough time out of county that I want to switch back to Verizon, but I am considering going with a pre-paid phone from Verizon to have and activate when I go out. I’d like to have one for phone calls and hotspot capability. Looking for any advice from other folks who may do this, and how its worked out. Thanks in advance.
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Verizon wifi hotspot and then hook your phone to that on wifi?
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Verizon has their Critical Response Team who will send out Verizon flip phones and hot spots at no charge to the incident. They just need a resource order. They FedEx them overnight. 800 -981-9558 Next incident work with the COML and see if they can get some. I got 5 of each last year early in the season and use them on several fires here on the Sierra.
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That’s what I do. Phone is ATT FirstNet and then I keep a Verizon Hotspot when needed for secondary coverage. Phone can do wifi calling through the hotspot.
And as logchief1 said, COML has access to a lot of goodies depending on your role on the incident. Burner phones for verizon or firstnet, order up a COW/Colt, satellite phones via CalOES TComm or 3rd party vendor, Sonim rapid response kits etc.
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And you can put ATAK on those Sonims…unfortunately the processor and RAM are pretty week. Maybe next purchase will be Samsung X cover Pros.
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Thanks everyone for your responses and ideas. I ended up buying a Verizon jetpack and will activate it before going out. Should work out pretty well.
This is my 12th year as a Driver with Type I Pickup and an AT&T phone. This is also my second year buying a Verizon phone so I can make and receive calls, plus the ability to use the HotSpot with my computer and my AT&T. I’ve only been to two fires in 12 years where AT&T brought a satellite truck into camp. Almost every time reception was even marginal, Verizon had their trailer there.
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Had one for a 2 year contract with unlimited data and the data slowed way down after the gig usage was up, had to wait for a new cycle to use it again. They work good for a bit