Wi-fi & Mobile Hotspot Devices

Thinking of getting a Wi-Fi Hotspot Device probably from AT&T. Wondered if you have one and your experience with it. Things to consider before picking one or a plan? I would want to connect my phone and my laptop. Thanks for any info or thoughts.

 

I use a Straight Talk 4g LTE . There's two different colored boxes. Blue and red - for different carriers. Mine is Verizon. I get a 4gig card for $45. Last me about 3-31/2 weeks depending on how many videos or large software downloads I do in the time frame. Can have 5 devices max. On speedtest I average about 3M down and 1.5 up. It's quick enough that I really need the higher gigabytes I used to have with cable or dsl. That's the only thing I miss. Video and movies would eat it up too quick.

 

Can't really help you, but here's the option I'm considering.

Vodafone R216 Wi-Fi Router through Vodacom (South Africa).

• Connects up to 10 Wi-Fi devices.
• LTE 150 Mbps.
• 10 GB data/month.
• ± $16,50/month

A 3G 21.6 Mbps will cost $13,90.

You need to consider:

• Price you're prepare to pay per month.
• Data required per month.
• Speed required.
• Number of devices you have.

Good luck.

 

What am I missing? That breaks down to about $15/week or $60/month. I pay less than that for cable internet and I have a much faster speed 25Mbps versus your 3Mbps and a much higher quota 300GB or more (Comcast never specifies) versus your 4GB.
oops I see the limit is 1TB.
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/27/11521566/comcast-data-cap-raised-1-tb-limit

 

I had Comcast before and it was good. Fast and back then a 250g limit. I never broke over 130g. For 2 yrs it was $69 a month, after 2 yrs it more than doubled. But there was 2 other folks here that really were the ones wanting it and promised to share the cost. Never happened. So when it doubled in price I said no way.

If Comcast would offer here a cable internet/ or wireless only even internet for the 60 bucks I would get it. I don't need the t.v.

I can support my habits and would gladly buy a service that suits my needs.

 

The reason for wanting a HotSpot is to be mobile.

 

here's a list of the best mobile hotspots: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400503,00.asp

 

Thanks ragmacaron. My current wireless carrier is Cricket which is owned by ATT. I have Unlimited Data/Talk/Text for flat rate of $65 a month. It seems to be able to tether a laptop to my phone through Cricket I would have to downgrade to a limited data plan. I still have ATT DSL in my home office which is currently $30 a month but that guaranteed price expires in about 8 months. So still giving it some thought.

 

This is a little confusing.
Do you want your phone to share your laptop's data?
If so, what kind of modem does your laptop have?

 

Cricket will let up to 5? or 6 devices use the phone as a hotspot. By usb or wifi. I use a dongle to get wifi hotspot to our pc's.
2 pc's - 2 dongles but with a Verison connected hotspot. Could have more.

But yeah - the plan has to be changed and an extra 10$ for the tethering capability. These thing are more expensive in the US than a lot of other place, but that is a different topic.

Hope you find a good setup KatKat.
For me the wireless 4G LTE is really a good product.

https://www.cricketwireless.com/sup...s/mobile-hotspot/customer/mobile-hotspot.html

 

It is my understanding Cricket does not let you have unlimited data and also allow tethering to that account, but you can tether with a limited data account.
I would be dropping my DSL and use laptop on my phone data. Which means I would have to watch my data use and not go over which should not be a problem.

 

Does this mean you can't use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot?

 

Hotspot is $10 a month add on to limited data plans but not available on the unlimited plan.

 

Sorry for my confusion...
If you get an unlimited data plan for your phone, how is Cricket going to disable your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot feature?

 

See this -


http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/12/cricket-has-started-sending-warning.html

 

Thanks Imandy Mann.
I was wondering what would happen.
AT&T's Cricket Wireless is of no value to me, and in South Africa 'unlimited data plan' doesn't mean that. The ISPs have a so-called 'fair usage policy' - exceed it and the connection speed will be severely limited.

 

Unlimited just means you never get charged more no matter what you use but supposedly it does slow down after you use a certain amount of data. I have not reached that usage level ever and probably won't.

 

I cant believe how long I have been wanting to do this but it seems this time procrastinating worked to my benefit. Cricket has changed their policy and I do not have to give up my unlimited data on my phone to add a hotspot. So I have unlimited data on my phone and 8GB of Mobile Hotspot usage each month for my laptop or my tablet. After I have used 8 GB the speed will slow down to 128 Kbps for the rest of the billing cycle. Not sure how slow that will be. I use my phone more than my laptop now days.
Phone bill plus hotspot is $65.00. After trying it for a few days I don't see any negative issues so I think I will cancel the slow DSL from ATT that I am paying $51.00 a month for. Hope this is a good decision. Guess time will tell.

 

If what you found holds true in my area I may have to finally change up my plan(s). I current use tracphone - 20.00$ lasts 3 months or more But hotspot is about 75$ a month so Cricket is a better look if it plays the same way in my area. Thanks!

 

I looked at their web site and unless I am missing something I don't think I would save any money because I don't see that they offer unlimited data on their phone plan. $65 includes taxes and fees with Cricket.

 

Probably not as much as I think I do. I just want to have more than I need with no overages. I am not under a contract so I could change providers if I want to at any time. So giving it a try.

 

Here are the current plans with costs
https://clark.com/best-of-mobile-electronics/best-cell-phone-plans-deals/

I use VirginMobile on a plan no longer offered: unlimited talk, text and 5GB of data for $35/month. There are no overages. If I'd go over 5GB, then they slow down the data speed.

 

I walked into my local Virgin store a month ago and was offered triple data for life (= 15Gb/mth) and 500 mins talk for £6 (= $7.50). I couldn't sign fast enough

 

We never get offers that cheep here in the USA. At least not that I have seen.

 

All I heard is that VM (US) will continue to support their android users. VM in the US is NOT a part of VM in the UK any longer so your offers are different to ours.

Since Virgin Mobile is on the Sprint network and that is being bought out by T-Mobile, who knows what changes will happen.

Up until January, when I didn't renew the $80/year phone that was my husband's (my hand-me-down), they still supported an old Kyocera from 2005 or 2006. My husband is now using a newer hand-me-down, a Vox 8610 flip phone @ $80/month plan. VM's support of old phones has so far been fine.

An internet friend in another state bought the same phone as me, Samsung J3 Emerge and went with Boost mobile. Here are their current plans
https://www.boostmobile.com/content/boostmobile/www/en-us/plans.html?INTCID=HP:Wide:GetStarted:Plans
Very similar to VM but 3GB instead of 5GB of data a month.

 

I just got a text message from Cricket saying they have increased my hotspot data from 8g to 10g per month at no extra cost to me. So far the hotspot is working very well. The only issue is one of the software needs wifi to update on the phone. Not sure what I'll do about that.

 

Take it to a library or another place that offers free wifi and isn't too crowded and update it there.

 

That is one option nust wish it was not 25 miles away.

 

You must be pretty rural. Even when I rented a farmhouse, a library was closer than 25 miles.