New Flagships New Spectrum
Att has released two new flagship mobile hotspots for its 5g network. The Netgear nighthawk m6 and the Netgear nighthawk m6 pro. With this new generation of flagships hotspot for their 5g network in place, att had now discontinued the old nighthawk m5. which was outdated when it launched and did not support all the latest frequencies from ATT. The M6 and M6 Pro come with the latest generation of Qualcomm chipsets in their bracket. The M6 comes with the x62 Qualcomm chipset, and the M6 Pro comes with the newest generation X65 chipset supporting the high-frequency millimeter wave spectrum. The critical thing to note about the M6 and M6 Pro is that it is rumored to support some new spectrum from att’s upcoming 5g Andromeda spectrum. Andromeda is a new band of mid-band 5g that will start rolling out in late summer and into the fall of 2022 and will be deployed more widely across 2023. Andromeda will be the heart of att’s mid-band high-speed, long-range 5g network expansion.
Good Hardware Terrible Data Plans
The real catch with getting these hot spots is that there are no good data plans that att is offering with these mobile hotspots. Their present lineup for data plans is laughably bad with small data limits, and a fat pipe means that you could burn through the entire data plan in next to no time. There are mixed reports to make matters more complicated if you happen to have an old legacy att unlimited hotspot plan. You can just move your old plan and use it in this hotspot and still get unlimited data. However, those plans are not provisioned for 5g (Att has conflicting information on this matter HERE). Also, if you have one of their legacy plans (that is anything not current), you will not be able to take advantage of att financing or device payment plans. Courtesy of an Att employee on their forums: “The MR1100 is a HSPA+ 4G device, and the M6 is a 5G device. Your Grandfathered plan does not support the upgrade, which is why the system won’t allow it…. only select plans support your hotspot router device. To upgrade, you’ll need to select a currently offered data plan for the Netgear Nighthawk M6.” -Sydne, AT&T Community Specialist
Rewarding loyalty: AT&T price increase on the way
AT&T confirmed price changes to encourage customers to consider switching to newer plans. Using a carrot and stick approach, they plan to increase the price of legacy plans while at the same time showing that their new plans are at a “lower monthly cost.” It should be noted that if you do upgrade to these new plans, you will lose your unlimited hotspot plans. This may ultimately be the goal as the pandemic caused a shift in where workers work, along with workers’ desire for mobility freedom means that more people are using tower data plans more often than before. To read more about our original coverage of the Nighthawk M6 and M6 Pro click here