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Ask Slashdot: Best Option For a Touring Band With Mobile Data?
New submitter SEMLogistics writes: I'm working with a well-known rock band, that is not based in the U.S., and has an upcoming U.S. tour this fall. The issue they always run into, however, is when renting a tour bus and traveling with 12 to 14 people, they consistently blow through data allowances set by the bus company. This leads to tremendously expensive overages, and greatly throttled data. "When chartering a Nightliner tour bus, travel companies only typically allow for 10GB data a month. With 12 people, downloading music and streaming movies, we can easily exceed 12GB a day! This leads to thousands of dollars every month in overages!"
Slashdot, help! Are there any good mobile hotspot options with unlimited data, and monthly contracts (I haven't found any), or other alternatives than to simply be held a data-hostage?
Slashdot, help! Are there any good mobile hotspot options with unlimited data, and monthly contracts (I haven't found any), or other alternatives than to simply be held a data-hostage?
Order multiple 4G access points with the largest data plans available, bond them all together using an aggregation platform, then pump thru a good wifi router/access point. This gives you: 1) more speed, 2) combining the data plans to give you an overall lower cost per gigabyte transferred. I'm doing this today and reselling to my customers. I own a stretched limo, my friends and guests enjoy the wifi - never any overage fees, lot's of bandwidth and about 300 gigabytes worth of data for a max of $450/month. Easy to do, cheap to maintain. I own an airplane too, but haven't found a good/inexpensive/reliable way of getting bandwidth on board yet sadly.
I have been touring the U.S. and worldwide for 23 years. I have never had a problem with data caps on a tour bus from the major providers (Senators, Roberts Brothers, Hemphill, etc...) Additionally, most tours get a high bandwidth connection in each venue, and use a touring wifi system from road-wifi.com (I think they also do North American licensed walkie talkies so you can kill 2 birds with one stone.) Finally, most hotels have free/included wifi, so you only actually use the bus wifi on submarine rides.
Top class bands use airplanes, and they don't worry about data use on a fucking tour bus.
Real top class bands are too busy shooting heroin and getting blowjobs to whine about data caps. WTF kind of pansy rock band is this about?
With 12 people, downloading music and streaming movies, we can easily exceed 12GB a day!
plus
you'd consider them working class if they were in a white colllar profession.
equals:
Hey dummy, don't do that.
Continually streaming music and movies while on a big road trip is expensive. The 'working class' solution to the problem is simple: don't.
Have them download movies movies and music to local storage for the bus; or dump what you need on a NAS and run a bus-wifi network or stick it on a USB drive. Throw 100GB of music on it and stream from that.
Pop into used dvd shop and pick up a couple dozen movies, and bring a portable dvd player or a laptop with a dvd player or ensure the bus media center can play DVDs.
Netflix also lets you do download stuff for offline movies. etc.
Hit up GoG.com and buy some games -- no drm, no online requirements, massive time sinks. Buy a Nintendo handheld. Buy some books, or an e-reader.
Get your fix of 'breaking news' streams while on wifi at the hotels.
Frankly, this should be fairly obvious, my children figured all this out pretty quick, because I won't let them stream netflix and youtube on my cellular plan on a road trip for the same reason.