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Rural Americans who cannot get cable broadband or DSL will now pay more money for less service as wireless carriers continue to cancel affordable mobile broadband plans with a generous usage allowance in favor of premium-priced, stingy usage-capped wireless Internet.
Two weeks after Millenicom was forced to drop affordable Verizon wireless broadband service, Blue Mountain Internet received word its unlimited Sprint broadband reseller agreement was being terminated the following day, forcing the company to hurry out cancellation notices to affected customers.
“We received notification yesterday from our upline provider that our mobile broadband accounts utilizing the Sprint network (Net2) will all be cancelled on Friday, Oct. 31st, 2014,” the company wrote in an email to customers. “We apologize for the short notice but we just received notice yesterday.”
BMI had offered customers an unlimited use mobile broadband plan from Sprint for $99 a month. It has been replaced with a Verizon plan that costs a dollar more and comes with a 10GB monthly data allowance with a steep $20/GB overlimit fee. “Heavy users” can pay $120 a month for a monthly allowance of 20GB. Affected customers intending to switch to Verizon get a discount off the monthly plan price if they pay quarterly: $85 (10GB) or $100 (20GB).
Blue Mountain Internet Mobile Broadband Rental Prices & Plans
| Package | Network | Traffic | Traffic | AV | Optimizer | Best Price | Monthly | Quarterly | |
| Optimized | Accts | Licenses | Software | paying quarterly | 3 months | ||||
| VMBB-HalfGig | 1 | 1/2Gb | 1.5Gb | 1 | 1 | Yes | $19.99/Mo | $24.95 | $59.97 |
| VMBB-1GB | 1 | 1Gb | 3Gb | 1 | 2 | Yes | $34.95/Mo | $39.99 | $104.85 |
| VMBB-3GB | 1 | 3Gb | 9Gb | 1 | 2 | Yes | $52.95/Mo | $59.99 | $158.85 |
| VMBB-5GB | 1 | 5Gb | 15Gb | 1 | 2 | Yes | $69.99/Mo | $79.99 | $209.97 |
| VMBB-10GB | 1 | 10Gb | 30Gb | 1 | 2 | Yes | $84.95/Mo | $99.99 | $254.85 |
| VMBB-20GB | 1 | 20Gb | 60Gb | 1 | 2 | Yes | $99.99/Mo | $119.99 | $299.97 |
| Plan Details: Network 1 Overages are charged at a rate of $20/Gigabyte – regardless of plan. Hardware options available or you can bring your own device (BYOD). Traffic optimizer software is free for Windows & Macintosh. Optimizer does not compress video or already compressed files. | |||||||||
EVDOinfo notes that with Millenicom and BMI losing their relationships with Verizon and Sprint respectively over the course of just one month, “it seems unlikely that we’ll see another [reseller] emerge with a no-contract, high-data plan using one of the major carriers’ networks.”
Millenicom customers were being offered a slightly different plan if they agreed to switch to a Verizon Wireless account: 20GB a month for $99 with a $15/GB overlimit fee. Customers signing up for a “More Everything” plan will pay considerably more. A 30GB plan with a mobile hotspot device costs $150 a month, not including fees and taxes. A one-year contract commitment usually applies.
