ZTE MF833V (Customized Version Covering Global Bands) 4G LTE Mobile USB Modem Dongle, an IoT Device.

UPDATE: It looks like the unlimited throttled data doesn't work with the stick right now, or I couldn't get it working anyway. Slapped a booster on my lucky account and it sprang back to life no problem. If you're going to try to get the throttled unlimited data def save up and get a new cheap phone instead. Bought this along with a Lucky Mobile sim card on next day shipping after my slumlord cut the internet to my apartment. The instructions are a bit unclear and tiny, but basically pop the top off (the piece with ZTE on it), slide the card in like it's a phone sim on the very end of it (opposite to the usb plug), and pop the top back on. Plug it in. It'll only light up as solid red at first, what you want to do is wait for your computer to recognize it as a USB stick. Open it through the folder explorer and click on the "autorun" application. Install the software/firmware/whatever ware it is. From there it should open up a web browser page. Then CAREFULLY follow the instructions linked in the description of the Amazon listing if you need to change anything. I don't believe this creates any wifi hotspots so you don't have to mess with the pin settings/security since other reviews mention bricking theirs quite easily, and really, it's small enough that you can just unplug it and take it with you if you don't want someone else using it. Immediately worked after that, switched to the blinking blue and displays all the info about current speed, connection strength, sim card number, warning on monthly usage amount, whatever basic stuff you could need on that little webpage - even has a little option to check and send SMS through that sim card's number. I highly highly suggest getting a data usb extension cord though - it is a bit big to have sticking off the side of a laptop, and depending on the length of the cable you can run up by a window/somewhere you get a better signal. Even if this thing dies in 6 months if it works this well until then I'd consider amazing bang for your buck, especially if you're in a situation where you absolutely cannot get traditional wired connections set up.

This model supports the fullest list of mobile Bands and everything works. I've tried it on an Asus router and it worked right away, successfully served its purpose as a back-up mobile modem when the main modem from the ISP is down. However, my principle use of this is for implementing an SMS server (which I wrote in PHP) on a Raspberry Pi server. You'd could find the web APIs for this modem from some github repo. Everything has to go through the 192.168.0.1 address this modem uses. Now my home-brew security network (based on ESP8266s) could notify me not just through Signal/WhatsApp messages (which relies on the internet) but also using good old thrustworthy SMS even when everything else is down! I could also send SMS commands (I defined) to this thing and have it controlling the entire security system. So far it worked perfectly and has never failed me once! (2024-01-25 Edit: The modem's server on 192.168.0.1 stopped responding after a continue run of perhaps a month and needed a restart to get it back to working. Oh well, nothing is perfect I suppose...) It is pricier than many other USB mobile modems, but given the unbeatable list of bands it support and its reliability, this is the best (so far). I hope other companies could offer similarly good and hopefully better products. Why aren't there any 5G models even now?

Didn't work upon arrival, took some time to try several different SIM cards to ensure it was the product and not the SIM card that was the issue. By the time the troubleshooting pointed at this product, it was too late to return.

The set up is quite easy. Put in your sim card and plug it in to the USB port and software installs easily. It has a slick look to it, plus the led lights red, blue and green really help when connecting. Great product.

It works fine with a SIM card from PC Mobile, a Canadian telecom reseller, after a call to tech support. I had to set the APN (Access Provider Name) in the cell modem's settings before it would connect to the cell network. Something to note that may not be obvious is that this is more than a cell modem, it's a full on router. So if I plug it into my travel router, the travel router gets an IP from the cell modem and my laptop gets an IP from the travel router, so in the end your traffic will go through at least two layers of NAT (three if there's CG-NAT). This is probably fine if you're a casual user who doesn't want to use terrible hotel internet. It worked out of the box on my laptop as well running Fedora 39, it presents itself as a USB-based NIC (which I suppose in a way it is) This has a slot for a microSD card slot and I don't know why.