Mobile Hotspots

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

Now that is one great ideal.

It is - I think it's a brilliant idea. BT are British Telecom - the phone company in the UK, and by far the biggest broadband operator here.

[WT Sharpe]

Here's an update on the MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hot Spot (Virgin Mobile). The system works well, but it does get mighty warm when operating from a wall plug rather than it's battery. The battery life of the one I have is not great by any means; slightly over a couple of hours. The first two times I used it (on battery alone), it seemed to eat a lot of megabytes. I'm thinking this was because while charging it, even though my iPad was off, the hotspot was still showing activity. The iPad may have been accessing it in the background. The last time I used it, I had it plugged in to a wall socket, and the device seemed to deliver the goods with quite a bit less usage of my MB allowance. The device did get hot, though, and I found it quite useful to keep a gentle fan blowing on it to keep it cool.

I'll know more about the MB usage by this time next week, as I plan to use it exclusively while plugged in to a power source.

Originally Posted by ApK

I'm glad I stumbled on this thread. I have been avoiding smartphones because the data plans are silly-expensive for the non-essential stuff I'd want it for, but a pay-as-you-go thing at a reasonable price like this might be just the ticket for my wife and me, who often travel with an iPod and/or notebook PC.
$10 for a 100MB...Hmm...anyone know off hand how much data a low-quality Netflix video stream uses...or a Pandora audio stream?

Originally Posted by HarryT

Low-res video will about 150-200MB/hour. Audio perhaps 30MB/hour. You really don't want to do streaming over a 3G connection. That way lies mega charges!

What Harry said, ApK. Video will swallow your wallet whole if you try streaming movies on a 3G connection.

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you're interested in WiFi hotspots, you may wish to consider getting BT Broadband, carpetmojo. They operate a very useful system called "BT-FON". Essentially you agree to "donate" about 5% of your broadband bandwidth for use as a public WiFi hotspot (it's completely segregated from your personal traffic) and, in return, you get to use every other FON member's hotspot for free. They have something like 2 million FON hotspots for use; no matter where I go, there seems to be at least a couple of them in range. It works really well.

That sounds interesting, but (1) the service doesn't seem to have arrived in my neck of the woods, and (2) even though "it's completely segregated from your personal traffic"; if someone, unbeknownst to me, downloads pirated material, can the download be traced to my system? (I speak as one who only secured their home WiFi after getting accused by Sony of downloading a copyrighted movie. We believe one of our neighbors was piggybacking on our system.)

[wodin]

My SGT has mobile hotspot and 3 GB/mo off contract. I checked with VZW if there was a premium for mobile hotspot and they said, "no, unless you exceed your limit".

Alternatively my Sprint EVO 4G (unlimited) has mobile hotspot for a $30/mo premium. I don't need 4G badly enough for that.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by wodin

...Alternatively my Sprint EVO 4G (unlimited) has mobile hotspot for a $30/mo premium. I don't need 4G badly enough for that.

That's really a great price. Virgin Mobile wants $50/month for unlimited.

Which is why I don't have unlimited.

[wodin]

Yes, I agree, but when I already have 3G on the SGT for no additional cost the only thing the Sprint option buys me is more than 3 GB and 4G speed. Together that's not worth $30 to me.

[WT Sharpe]

Understood.

Oh, yes, and I forgot to mention, that $50/mo. price that I quoted is for 3G. That's why I said $30/mo. premium for 4G sounds like a pretty good deal (if you need it).

And although it makes no difference to unlimited plan customers, I have read complaints from some who are paying by the MB that if they had realized how much more quickly 4G eats into their MB allowance as compared to 3G, they would never have switched.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

And although it makes no difference to unlimited plan customers, I have read complaints from some who are paying by the MB that if they had realized how much more quickly 4G eats into their MB allowance as compared to 3G, they would never have switched.

4G by itself doesn't use a lot of bandwidth. It's just that users aren't aware that they're downloading that much because they can get a lot more things done at a fraction of the time. Kinda like moving from dial-up to DSL/cable. On slow dial-up, it takes you forever to load a webpage. On DSL/cable, pages load more quickly so you tend to consume a lot more.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you're interested in WiFi hotspots, you may wish to consider getting BT Broadband, carpetmojo. They operate a very useful system called "BT-FON". Essentially you agree to "donate" about 5% of your broadband bandwidth for use as a public WiFi hotspot (it's completely segregated from your personal traffic) and, in return, you get to use every other FON member's hotspot for free. They have something like 2 million FON hotspots for use; no matter where I go, there seems to be at least a couple of them in range. It works really well.

That's a neat idea, Harry - problem is we have recently signed up with that happy Yorkshire lot !
Their "bundle" deal was too good to pass on, given our usage patterns - free calls anytime, with Broadband.
And it's true what they 'baht their support - excellent, and you get through to a real person very quickly.Quite refreshing really - especially as they then sorted out the two problems we had super-quick....

The Macdonald wheeze is a very good tip though - I intend to try that !And there are probably other firms that do that - some research on the cards I think.

[WT Sharpe]

BTW, if anyone else is interested in getting in on the $59.99 Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hotspot (Virgin Mobile) deal that I got, Amazon is at this moment offering it again in one of their Lightning Deals. Shipping is free. Only minutes left (but who's to say they deal won't be repeated?).

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

BTW, if anyone else is interested in getting in on the $59.99 Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hotspot (Virgin Mobile) deal that I got, Amazon is at this moment offering it again in one of their Lightning Deals. Shipping is free. Only minutes left (but who's to say they deal won't be repeated?).

Thanks for the heads up. In for one. It's inexpensive enough that it won't bother me should Sprint's coverage in my area prove abysmal. Question, is there any expiration or anything? Say you don't use it for 5 months, can you just add credit to your account and then you can use it again?

[WT Sharpe]

That I don't know. Since it's a prepaid plan, I would assume that you could, but it's best to check with the folks at Virgin Mobile.

Huh! When I first posted that, I could have sworn there were only minutes left on that deal. Now the clock says one hour and nine minutes left.

[ApK]

I was tempted to go for this deal on impulse, but I decided to wait a bit.

I see that the 4G prepaid hotspot from T-Mobile is only $82 regularly, with similar data costs, and I figure that's got to come down soon.
While 4G can eat up data quicker, sure, that also means you're done doing what you need to do quicker.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ApK

I was tempted to go for this deal on impulse, but I decided to wait a bit.

I see that the 4G prepaid hotspot from T-Mobile is only $82 regularly, with similar data costs, and I figure that's got to come down soon.
While 4G can eat up data quicker, sure, that also means you're done doing what you need to do quicker.

I actually got a 4G Android phone for T-Mobile intending to use it as a wifi hotspot with the $30 Monthly 4G unlimited data plan (when I read it, there was nothing in the prepaid terms of service preventing this). Unfortunately, while I am getting speeds of 5Mbps at home, at work, I get a measly 50Kbps (2G).

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I actually got a 4G Android phone for T-Mobile intending to use it as a wifi hotspot with the $30 Monthly 4G unlimited data plan (when I read it, there was nothing in the prepaid terms of service preventing this). Unfortunately, while I am getting speeds of 5Mbps at home, at work, I get a measly 50Kbps (2G).

I'm confused. I was thinking you got the same deal I got, but mine's only 3G. I did notice that Amazon has an upcoming deal in a couple of hours from now on what I assume is a portable hotspot (the blurb reads "Connect your tablets and e-readers to the internet with 4G speed").

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I'm confused. I was thinking you got the same deal I got, but mine's only 3G. I did notice that Amazon has an upcoming deal in a couple of hours from now on what I assume is a portable hotspot (the blurb reads "Connect your tablets and e-readers to the internet with 4G speed").

Yeah, I just bought the Virgin Mobile Mi-Fi a couple of hours ago (no idea what Sprint's coverage is like). I tried T-Mobile last month but as I mentioned, network coverage where I work leaves much to be desired.