Novatel Verizon Wireless Jetpack 7730L 4G LTE Advanced Mobile Hotspot

The Jetpack 7730L on Verizon network works very well. We do a lot of "off-grid" camping, and there is often weak or no cell phone coverage. We have cell phones with a different carrier, and were using one as our hotspot for Internet access. This works well for the most part, but there were some trouble spots. We went with the Jetpack to get Verizon as another carrier. So far now, wherever we go, we seem to have coverage on one or the other, and the Jetpack does a Great job creating WiFi access. It was very easy to set up, and worked right out of the box. This unit did Not come with a SIM card, but the folks at Verizon fixed that. I do have an issue with Verizon, as it seems their "Unlimited" plan isn't really unlimited. It's only 10 GBytes, and then metered to 3G, which by comparison with the 4G signals we've been getting, is painfully slow. Please note that the Jetpack device is not the issue, and it has worked very well. I recommend this unit, and I would buy it again if we needed a new one.

This has worked just the way I needed it to. I have a MiMo and needed two antennae ports. I already had two Verizon JetPaks but they each only had one antennae port, so would not work with the MiMo. Because of my contract with Verizon, I couldn't buy my way out of the two JetPaks I had. So I purchased this one. So far I have only used this one, and the other two are sitting aside, waiting until the contract runs out. Another thing, the Verizon store I went to, to have it activated and a sim card put in, did not have a sim card for it. So.. I just took one of the sim cards out of one of my other JetPaks, put it in this one, and works great. I was ready to have to pay for three JetPaks, but only have to pay for the original two that I have. I'm very pleased.

I purchased this about a year ago and having never had one, did not know what to expect. First problem- the listing says it includes a charger and cable, but it did not. I contacted the seller and they said they'd send them, but never did. So I had to buy a USB C charger that was SUPPOSED to be included just to use the device. Second issue- the jetpack has always had a problem powering on. If device is turned off, or shuts down, when press and hold the power button, it comes on, but will NOT stay on. It shows home screen and all that, but it then shuts back off and goes to charging screen. I have to restart several times to get it to stay on. And finally, the reason I'm writing this review a year after purchase- the battery makes a difference in reception!! I did NOT know this until I bought a new battery, which arrived today. I have never been able to get more than 3 bars on this thing at home. I assumed it was just the network. But today I installed a new battery and immediate got 4 bars! And I am getting different info on the screen (an LTE display with an arrow). This leads me to believe that the battery the seller included with the jetpack was not very good. I would buy another jetpack, but I would not buy it from this seller.

Needs better internal antenna. My VZW phone shows 2 bars but MiFi shows none. I get 2 bars by connecting to a yagi mounted on the roof pointing at my the VZW tower. The TS-9 antenna connectors are so delicate. Battery swelled up soon after purchase. Kinda scared after those Note 7 fires. This is a 4400 mAh battery! Software seems buggy. Sometimes have to power up two or three times to get it booted up and not stalling on some boot process. Maybe needs another software update. Works great when it's on and has good signal. I finally upgraded from 3G in 2017 so can't help but love LTE.

I bought this device for my road trip from New York City to San Francisco (about 2.5 weeks) and I paid for the Verizon Pre-paid datapack 4G LTE network plan for it. Gotta say I am very disappointed and here are some hard facts: 1. Reception was hit or miss near the boarder or outside of city areas. My iPhone X (with t-mobile) has better reception than a dedicated datapack device (with Verizon) which feels very strange to me... may be iPhone X technology is that much better even when t-mobile is supposed to have less coverage outside major city areas compared to Verizon? 2. This device often indicated there are 4G LTE data streaming available near the boarder or outside the city areas; however, my Macbook Pro or iPhone X connected to this device's wifi network received no internet at all. This is very puzzling because you would at least expect the device to speak the truth on whether there are internet. If it is slow, the device should not have indicated full service bar with 4G LTE logo on it. Of course, if you are to use this device in cities, you are fine, doesn't matter which carriers you pay for. I suppose most of the reviews must be pointing to in-city-use? Nonetheless, fact 2 above suggests that this device is not trustworthy. If you have an iPhone already, my suggestion is that you just pick a carrier of your choice instead (or find a better device). Moreover, the device is made under Verizon's brand and the sim card came with it did not even work when I brought it to Verizon store to buy the pre-paid 4G LTE data plan. Verizon even asked me to pay $10 for another sim card and I had to debate with them that the device was made under their brand and I shouldn't have to pay twice for a sim card. Honestly, very disappointed with this device and no Verizon for me. Needless to say, I returned this device...