Cell phone as Hot Spot

[Huston55]

I have the Verizon MiFi (currently the Jetpack) and a data plan of 30gig per month. Just yesterday I was testing its capabilities for responsiveness and I connected 9 devices (MiFi limit is 15 devices) all devices were set to streaming various streaming sources.....e.g. Netflix , YouTube, Curiosity Stream, etc..... All 9 devices performed well, which really surprised me because I did not think the 4G LTE connection would carry that much bandwidth. The monthly charge for this 30 gig plan is 20 dollars per month. I may just flat out cancel my cable ISP and just use this as my "sip carrier"!?!?!? Also, the reason I was experimenting with using this device as a "whole house" wireless internet relay is my anticipation of the upcoming 5G introduction. If we get 5G soon, then I am going to join the ranks of the "cord cutters"!!!!!

Hmmmm...interesting thought. I just spent a week on a boat & used my phone as a hot spot (Xfinity) and it worked fine; even for a bit of online gaming. Now, you have me thinking about whether this might be a step in cutting the cord.

 

[Cobra9777]

No. Mainly because we have no tablets and rarely use a laptop for anything. Years ago, we took our laptop when traveling and, if there was no WiFi (rare), I would connect via my phone. Nowadays, we don't take the laptop because it's just dead weight. We can do everything needed with our smartphones. At home, we only use the desktop PC or the smartphones.

 

[mpeirce]

I'm on ATT and I use my iPhone as a hotspot for my iPad when I'm traveling sometimes. I probably wouldn't use it for streaming movies, but for most anything else it works just fine.

Actually, if streaming a movie isn't a big deal really. Even with 5 people in our family plan, we never use up the 30 gig we have each month (and ATT rolls it over!).

 

[pb4uski]

I have the Verizon MiFi (currently the Jetpack) and a data plan of 30gig per month. Just yesterday I was testing its capabilities for responsiveness and I connected 9 devices (MiFi limit is 15 devices) all devices were set to streaming various streaming sources.....e.g. Netflix , YouTube, Curiosity Stream, etc..... All 9 devices performed well, which really surprised me because I did not think the 4G LTE connection would carry that much bandwidth. The monthly charge for this 30 gig plan is 20 dollars per month. I may just flat out cancel my cable ISP and just use this as my "sip carrier"!?!?!? Also, the reason I was experimenting with using this device as a "whole house" wireless internet relay is my anticipation of the upcoming 5G introduction. If we get 5G soon, then I am going to join the ranks of the "cord cutters"!!!!!

A friend of mine uses Verizon MiFi as his home internet.... he is a very modest user of internet so it works for him.

 

[6miths]

Yes when at cottage. Also use a cell booster to make it possible. Not the fastest and can't video conference with it that's for sure. But here I am so works for stuff like this.

 

[Senator]

I have used several carriers as a hotspot, as my place in FL is fairly remote.

With Verizon unlimited business, I had a 22 GB limit before I was throttled down with a JetPack. It worked great until the 22 GB was used up. Then it was 200K speeds. Think of it as being stopped.

The phone plan had unlimited, however when you use it for a hot spot, your hot spot data gets throttled. The carrier can tell the difference between regular data, and a hot spot usage.

I have recently switched to an AT & T premium unlimited data plan. I now have a Pepwave Balance Pro 30 Router and a unlimited Ipad plan from ATT. It does not get throttled and is only ~$35 per month. I put my ATT SIM card in my Pepwave router and away I go. ATT had a 10 GB hot spot limit, but I am not sure if they actually throttle you when you reach it.

https://dcp2.att.com/OEPNDClient/

We've been using an ATT iPad unlimited plan since starting our summer trip to Alaska. $35/month and have been averaging about 100 Gb/month and are streaming our Roku with no slowdown. Speeds have varied depending on where we are from 0.5Mb/sec (no streaming) to over 15Mb/sec.
We canceled our Cox internet at the house before leaving and may just keep using this at home.

Definitely a solid plan. ATT rocks!

 

[NW-Bound]

We've been using an ATT iPad unlimited plan since starting our summer trip to Alaska. $35/month and have been averaging about 100 Gb/month and are streaming our Roku with no slowdown. Speeds have varied depending on where we are from 0.5Mb/sec (no streaming) to over 15Mb/sec.
We canceled our Cox internet at the house before leaving and may just keep using this at home.

Wow! Last year, in Alaska with T-Mobile, we were denied service when trying roaming on local provider networks. Even in large cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks, we could not connect.

At the end of the trip going south on the Alcan, we got no service at all. No voice, no data. Zilch. And it was also the same going down through the Yukon and BC. We did not get service again until re-entering the US.

Of course, I am talking about the times the phone showed a signal, but we could not connect. In remote areas, of course there was no cell service at all.

It appears T-Mobile did not get favorable roaming agreement with other networks. T-Mobile worked better in Europe than in Alaska.

 

[bushpilot]

It is all I've got. I use it on a two windows machines and a tablet, going on 6 years now. I am on an unlimited plan, but do not pay the extra for hotspot, there are work-arounds.