Hotspot Tips

The District is deploying cellular hotspots for staff and families in need of Internet access.

Make sure that only those who need access for District-related purposes are connected to the hotspot. Families should not be using the hotspot for non-District use -- especially during instructional time.
While hotspots have great bandwidth in terms of cellular connections, it may not be as good as they're used to from a normal home broadband connection.
Plug the hotspot into wall power during use. This will ensure the hotspot stays powered on and is performing at maximum bandwidth levels.
Bandwidth-intensive applications, such as YouTube and Zoom are going to use a lot of bandwidth that may affect other traffic.
Where possible, the hotspots are configured to use 5 ghz Wi-Fi for maximum performance. If customers are using old devices that support 2.4 ghz only, we can work with them on a case-by-case basis. Typically, I'm going to recommend they check out a District device, all of which should support 5 ghz Wi-Fi.
If a hotspot is getting poor cellular reception, have the customer move it closer to a window, or to a different part of the building they are in.
If a customer is getting poor Wi-Fi reception to the hotspot, have the customer move their device closet to the hotspot.

Verizon hotspots are probably going to have the best general coverage in Oregon. There are some Verizon dead spots in certain areas, like portions of the South Eugene hills.
AT&T hotspots have pretty good general coverage that gets spotty as you head east or west off the I-5 corridor.
T-Mobile hotspots should be good in town, or along the I-5 corridor.