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Ford Lightning's ATT hotspot is very reliable, even in Winter across Newfoundland Canada.

21st Century Truck

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Folks,

I had forgotten to add this point to our review of our Newfoundland Canada road trip this past December / January.

I have used the Ford OEM ATT vehicle hotspot all across North America, coast - to - coast, in our now-gone Mach E and now in our Lightning. After running out the free trial service, I now turn it on only for long multi-state and Canadian province trips when our European nephews are passengers, for their immediate social media and video connectivity with their parents and their buddies.

I kind of expect good ATT hotspot service in our lower 48 states. To add, after our trip in December & January from Virginia up to and across frozen Newfoundland Canada, even in pretty trying climatic conditions (two blizzards) and on a very remote, unpopulated corner of North America the ATT-provided Lightning hotspot was consistently so reliable and high-quality that I called ATT after our frozen camping trip and gave a pretty high review to the customer service lady.

In the words of my 17-year old nephew who never ever switches his Apple I-phone off and who is constantly messaging and videoing and posting stuff, "this Internet service in the Ford just whistles, it's that fast". This nephew lives in a sizable European capital and both his parents, a college professor and a lawyer, have high sped internet in their condo for professional careers, so he has a good basis to compare. His amazed observation came in the center of the island of Newfoundland, where there was literally nothing for 50+ miles around us except the two-lane road, and the nearest city was about 150 miles away.

That's a pretty high quality Internet vehicle hotspot service in my book.

For those whose trial has run out, this year it costs $15 for the Ford connection and another $25 for the ATT connection, billed every 30 days. These need to be managed by separate turn on / turn off actions with both Ford and with ATT. I turn it off after every long trip.
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I have Visible/Verizon for my phone carrier, but I subscribed yearly for the truck wifi, and yeah, it's pretty good, in the relatively rare event I don't have phone coverage, the truck connectivity has my back. My only complaint about it is that I can't route its traffic through my VPN directly.
 
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I have Visible/Verizon for my phone carrier, but I subscribed yearly for the truck wifi, and yeah, it's pretty good, in the relatively rare event I don't have phone coverage, the truck connectivity has my back. My only complaint about it is that I can't route its traffic through my VPN directly.
I have T-Mobile 5G and the nephew has some European network (maybe Orange?). The point of my post is that we were so far out in the boonies, without the Ford/ATT hotspot we would have had nothing. And yet, with the Ford/ATT hotspot we were completely connected.
 

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ATT is a sore spot with me, not for their coverage but their corporate practices and what they did to me personally. Glad it worked out for you, I've noticed some carriers are stronger than others and it's highly dependent on geography. In my neck of the woods, Verizon was the best for the longest, then T-Mobile bought out Sprint iirc and maybe some other to become the best coverage in my area, having a 55+ discount plan was a nice benefit.

I refused to use the onboard hotspot when I had the trial, damn sure not paying for it. Didn't need it anyway as I have it on my cell phone.
 

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ATT is a sore spot with me, not for their coverage but their corporate practices and what they did to me personally. Glad it worked out for you, I've noticed some carriers are stronger than others and it's highly dependent on geography. In my neck of the woods, Verizon was the best for the longest, then T-Mobile bought out Sprint iirc and maybe some other to become the best coverage in my area, having a 55+ discount plan was a nice benefit.

I refused to use the onboard hotspot when I had the trial, damn sure not paying for it. Didn't need it anyway as I have it on my cell phone.
I agree completely about ATT, I thought about adding it but was feeling lazy. ATT policies is why I ended up on Verizon, then Verizon started jacking my rates to add all of the dumb useless 'perks'. Tried out Mint, just didn't have the coverage I needed. Tried out Visible, exact same coverage and speed at less than a 1/4 the cost. Please, someone make it make sense....
 

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21st Century Truck

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ATT is a sore spot with me, not for their coverage but their corporate practices and what they did to me personally. Glad it worked out for you, I've noticed some carriers are stronger than others and it's highly dependent on geography. In my neck of the woods, Verizon was the best for the longest, then T-Mobile bought out Sprint iirc and maybe some other to become the best coverage in my area, having a 55+ discount plan was a nice benefit.

I refused to use the onboard hotspot when I had the trial, damn sure not paying for it. Didn't need it anyway as I have it on my cell phone.
Of course... I added this thread to note for our members that the Ford / ATT wifi works when there is zero cell phone coverage of any cell network for dozens of miles. Zero cell phone coverage = no cell hotspots either.

I have frankly no idea how they make it work in such remote spots, yet it did and very well at that.

I guess the next time a member here takes their Lightning up to the Yukon or down to the Darien Gap, this might be useful info for them.
 

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Of course... I added this thread to note for our members that the Ford / ATT wifi works when there is zero cell phone coverage of any cell network for dozens of miles. Zero cell phone coverage = no cell hotspots either.

I have frankly no idea how they make it work in such remote spots, yet it did and very well at that.
Very likely larger antenna/built in booster.
 

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I have frankly no idea how they make it work in such remote spots, yet it did and very well at that.
The truck will have a better antenna than what they can squeeze into a phone. It also can transmit at a higher power.

EDIT: …as Chris said. :)
 

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I asked Grok to look up Ford’s FCC filing for its TCU and it spit out (standard AI caution):

The Ford F-150 Lightning’s built-in WiFi hotspot runs off its telematics control unit (TCU) modem, which tops out at ~23-24 dBm (0.2-0.25 watts) conducted uplink power for LTE (and likely similar for 5G in newer models).

That’s basically phone-level juice—no 1W flex here. The real superpower? That external roof antenna adds gain and skips body blockage, so it reaches towers better than your handheld hotspot yelling from your pocket. Truck wins on range, not raw watts.
 

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Is this known as Premium Connectivity?
 

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I agree completely about ATT, I thought about adding it but was feeling lazy. ATT policies is why I ended up on Verizon, then Verizon started jacking my rates to add all of the dumb useless 'perks'. Tried out Mint, just didn't have the coverage I needed. Tried out Visible, exact same coverage and speed at less than a 1/4 the cost. Please, someone make it make sense....
I have used Consumer Cellular for several years, and I am completely satisfied with their service. They operate on the AT&T network, and offer free WiFi hotspot on the phone. In addition, their customer service is U.S. based with English speaking people. On the very few calls I have made to C.S., I have been on hold for less than 5 minutes.
 
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Is this known as Premium Connectivity?
It's one of the Premium Connectivity features (I think there might be more items under the PREMIUM label, for example maybe NAV updates, ALEXA etc.). On the Ford end, it costs $15/month after the WIFI trial period ends. It's accessible thru FordPass as well as thru the web Ford account. It also needs a separate ATT monthly contract for the wifi hotspot feature to work..
 
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It's one of the Premium Connectivity features (I think there might be more items under the PREMIUM label, for example maybe updates, ALEXA etc.). On the Ford end, it costs $15/month after the WIFI trial period ends. It's accessible thru FordPass as well as thru the web Ford account. It also needs a separate ATT monthly contract for the wifi hotspot feature to work..
Thank you. I recently let my Premium Connectivity free trial lapse to see what I would not have as had difficulty getting clarity on what it is and what it provided. It did say I'd lose Alexa but I can still issue questions to it. I heard nothing else about capability loss as expiration neared. I never used the hot spot feature and since I didn't see much else of value I didn't want to pay for Premium Connectivity. Coming from a Tesla I didn't see any value, frankly, in Fords capabilities in that area. I had read articles and Ford literature about adding music streaming apps to Sync, but that turned out to be very misleading at a minimum if not deceptive altogether. The hot spot seems good, but not for $40 per month.
 
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Thank you. I recently let my Premium Connectivity free trial lapse to see what I would not have as had difficulty getting clarity on what it is and what it provided. It did say I'd lose Alexa but I can still issue questions to it. I heard nothing else about capability loss as expiration neared. I never used the hot spot feature and since I didn't see much else of value I didn't want to pay for Premium Connectivity. Coming from a Tesla I didn't see any value, frankly, in Fords capabilities in that area. I had read articles and Ford literature about adding music streaming apps to Sync, but that turned out to be very misleading at a minimum if not deceptive altogether. The hot spot seems good, but not for $40 per month.
As per my OP post, it's a great teenager pacifier for a month's price :crackup:
 
 







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