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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?
Ok?
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Use groupies to download stuff using their own cell connections.
If that bus company doesn't offer it,
Since when is a bus company in the business of providing mobile data? They aren't. Why are they capping it? Why are you buying it from them in the first place?
For those thousands of dollars, you can get a lot of basic unlimited cellphone lines. Who cares if each member has his own account and his own "unlimited"?
I see T-Mobile has 4 lines for $40 each, and the only "cap" they show is if you go above 32Gb when they de-prioritize. Verizon has "unlimited" for a phone and two devices for $80/mo, with the "cap" that anything above 22Gb is at a lower priority.
I'm wondering, why isn't this person just doing the same thing I am doing: google for cellular services and see what is available? It's a question of how much you want to pay, so we can't tell you what will work because we don't know how skinflint you are.
Google's service has a very straightforward and reasonably priced approach.
Fun fact: Finding things rich people don't want to waste their time figuring out and letting them just throw money at it instead is a great way to get paid way more than you're worth.
Right, fuck trying to engage with your fans and post pictures and videos from the road. No, the drummer needs to practice! Never mind that all of the equipment is stored in the trailer, if they've made it to international tour status they need to practice, practice, practice.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Another fun fact. Having rich people to pay you to post their question to Slashdot, Stack Overflow etc instead of figuring out the answer yourself like the expert they are paying you to be, is an even easier way to get paid way more than you're worth.
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'm in an Indy band from AU that is touring the US again this year (toured last 4 years), and we're definitely not famous/well known and we don't get a bus, we get a u-haul :-) We have to keep it cheap because airfare is $$.
We go to walmart, we all buy SIM and cheap phone packages, generally AT&T cos they have better coverage where we tour.
There's unlimited data on a few plans, but they can't be tethered (bummer) but 1 month unlimited phone calls and data was like $70 last year. Not bad. Speed was good and alternatively, WIFI is ubiquitous. We spent the first tour in carpark at McDonalds comping their wifi to contact home, so you have options.
Considering that a bus costs a crap load per day (yes I know the figures) and you've got 12 people on the move, it's hard for me to imagine that your Data costs are a Tour Killer, but yeah you don't have to get ripped off and the Yanks are deffo a Caveat Emptor bunch, if you don't know better, you'll pay more.
If you're blowing through that much data, may we also suggest looking out the window for a bit instead of downloading Fap Content :-) Turns out the US is quite pretty in places, especially if you like Corn.
'Fun fact' - What you call rich and entitled people whining describes the 1% of the music biz. I'm working with this band and am taking no fees whatsoever (and have no affiliation with any business associated with them). What you don't realize is that a large majority of the bands that you know from your streaming service of choice (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc) is that you'd consider them working class if they were in a white colllar profession. Most of your favorite artists don't make 'billions' and are very far away from 'Kardashian money'. Managing expenses on a yearly tour, while paying venue fees, accompanying act fees and miscellaneaous cost of living fees eats well into a major source of income for the people who you listen to, disposably, in your white and red high-def earbuds. The music industry isn't what it used to be, when bands like Led Zeppelin could request rooms on the water and have 'red snappers' delivered to their rooms. The music industry today, is comprised mainly of hard working individuals who make fractions of a cent on the dollar for thousands of streaming plays, and depend on regular touring to support the tour, their families and pay for production of more of the music that you love and expect. Hate on bands all you want for their ideaology, but I challenge you to form a valid argument against a hardworking touring band wanting to save on expenses....
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.
Why in gods name do you need continual, high-speed internet? Can you not pull yourself away from the computer? That's a problem all by itself.
Buy Straight Talk from Walmart. $55, 12 GB of LTE data. When you use it up in one day, buy another (you can still text and call with the card, it just gets 2G data after the 12 GB are used). Rinse and repeat. If $55/day sinks your budget, rent a smaller bus next time.
If you want a local SIM in the US, this is it. Not cheap, but it does cover the entire country. Anyone got any recommendations for something similar in central Europe? Probably going to go with Google Fi just because roaming rates are reasonable, but have a two-week vacation coming up from Germany to Hungary and back...
Right, fuck trying to engage with your fans and post pictures and videos from the road.
You missed the reason why they need 12Gb per day: to stream videos and download music. They're not engaging the fans, they're consuming other people's content.
Please see my comments below; that pertain HIGHLY to your opinion...
Not only are you too lazy to do your own research into mobile broadband solutions, you are too lazy to make any attempt at a clear reference to some "comments" that might "pertain highly", other than the "see below". Sorry, there is nothing from you below this. The comments above this are all a whine about how poor the band is and how awful those people who listen to the music by using a streaming service are. Ignore the fact that those people are likely the ones who come to see your band perform and pay the probably excessive ticket prices for a cut-rate band, you should insult them for listening. (Cut rate band hires a zero salary consultant for it's networking.)
Why in gods name do you need continual, high-speed internet? Can you not pull yourself away from the computer? That's a problem all by itself.
Have you tried touring for extended periods? In a bus? It isn't like these bands just go out for a day then go home at night, or even every week or two. Many spend months at a time on the road, with lots of long drives (hence the bus) and a sizable crew (the 12-14 mentioned). In 2017 it is not realistic for a group like this to NOT use 10GB+ per day. It isn't like they are just sitting around watching Netflix all day, and you obviously have no clue how this works. Few people on Slashdot would go days or weeks by choice without streaming anything.
Mobile data consumption is not the problem, the problem I see is people like you trying to tell the OP what his problem is rather than bothering to offer a solution. Folks on the road don't have their home internet connection to fall back on, or even slow hotel wifi, much of the time. Believe it or not, many bands also do a lot of work while travelling too, which requires internet use.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
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?
it's not whining..
it's just that in finland they could get an entire month of nonstop 3g/4g streaming for 10 bucks.
anyways, I suggest just keep buying prepaid sims, even in usa. one per day or whatever.
another option: tailgate a greyhound bus. maybe the wifi works in that particular bus.
and for americans I suggest you write your congress representatives or whatever and tell them to do something about the data cartel your operators have going on. yes, there is no excuse for your data limits except operator profits. you cannot excuse it with either higher or lower population densities, since elsewhere both of those work out just fine.
the whole thing is legacy for you getting screwed over with subsidizied phones.
and on top of that your monthly plans are STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE.. with those rates you should be all having unlimited 5mbit/s stations.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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.
Introduce them to the wonderful world of book reading
Either you missed the bit about this being a band on tour, or you have an over inflated view of Hotel WiFi. The big problem here is that if you're bored out of your mind in transit a few GB doesn't go far for entertainment. I have enough problem with downloading offline movies for a 1 week intercontinental trip, let alone going to tour, and the WiFi in the hotel typically barely allows me to get an additional movie in for the day after, let alone cover 14 people in a bus all day.
There is a LOT of data that needs to be planned ahead if you're trying to do this trip without relying on mobile data.
Customer: I'd like a burger, fries and cola please.
More like "Customer: I'd like Kobe steak every day month, and Kristal to drink, but I'm just working class and we can't afford it."
You have two options:
1) make more money.
2) eat something else.
How'd someone with no balls for negotiation like you even get the job you have?
He's great at negotiation. He underbid every other competitor to get the job! And they're getting every penny's worth from what they are paying him. Win win!