Hotspot recommendations

docj · March 17, 2019

2 hours ago, whj469 said:

When people sign up for a plan they are generally required to live up to that agreement.

Pretty much all these plans have "early termination" clauses. In our case it made more economic sense to pay the penalty on our Jetpack to take it from a postpaid plan with 15GB of hotspot per month to the "new" unlimited prepaid plan. I think it cost me ~$100 to do that. At the same time I canceled an AT&T plan that was providing 100GB/mo. That cancellation cost me another ~$100. But in ~3 months the monthly savings offset the cancellation fees. Now, I'm ahead each month by $70/mo and have unlimited data.

Edited March 17, 2019 by docj

whj469 · March 18, 2019

It would not be my desire to pay $200 for cancellation fees. I started in August 2018 so it will end in August 2019 and I currently pay less then $70 per month.

docj · March 19, 2019

2 hours ago, whj469 said:

It would not be my desire to pay $200 for cancellation fees. I started in August 2018 so it will end in August 2019 and I currently pay less then $70 per month.

With all due respect, it's pennywise and pound foolish not to pay a cancellation fee if the levelized payments result in an overall savings. Sure, a cancellation fee is money spent without direct return, but in my case the overall savings were such that it made economic sense.

To be very specific, I was paying AT&T ~$115/mo (with taxes) for 100 GB/mo. I was paying Verizon $20 (plus taxes) for my Jetpack on my Unlimited plan with the usual 15GB LTE hotspot cap. So, I was paying ~$135/mo for 120GB/mo. Currently I'm paying ~$70/mo (including taxes) for the prepaid unlimited plan so my rough savings is $65/mo and I get unlimited data service. The cancellation fees were roughly $200 which offset the savings for the first ~3.5 months. Now that I'm in my fifth month of the prepaid plan I'm now reaping the $65/mo savings.

Alternatively, I could have continued to pay for the previous plans. If I did that I would be paying ~$65 more per month for about a year (until the end of both plans) which would have been a sum in excess of $700 which I would have been spending in order to have saved ~$200. In addition I would have had a 120GB/mo data budget instead of an unlimited one. To me that didn't make any sense. JMO

Friz · April 9, 2019

On 3/10/2019 at 10:28 AM, docj said:

There's nothing wrong with using your phone as a hotspot, it's all about the plan you have to do it under. Most smartphone plans limit the amount of 4G/LTE data per month for hotspot usage. When that is exceeded the speed of the connection drops significantly.

As for Consumer Cellular, it's primarily a service marketed to people who don't expect to use much data. It's largest monthly plan is 20GB and if you exceed that your speed drops and you are charged $5/GB for the excess. Furthermore, if you use more than 30GB in a month you may be shut down until the next billing period. The attached screenshot is from the Consumer Cellular website. IMHO if you're planning to use a significant amount of data you should change carriers.

You are right about Consumer Cellular. I have a 2G plan and rarely exceed 1G per month. I guess I will have to try and see how much data I use on a daily basis while on the road. I am reluctant to start another phone service. There would normally be no streaming but trip planning, email and banking. Can't think of anything else at the moment. Outside of public WiFi I don't know of how else to get WiFi Have read public WiFi can be dangerous and slow. Do you use it? So with the stated usage do you think 20G would be enough?

Edited April 9, 2019 by Friz

Carlos · April 11, 2019

On 3/18/2019 at 6:15 PM, docj said:

With all due respect, it's pennywise and pound foolish not to pay a cancellation fee if the levelized payments result in an overall savings.

Well said. I see people regularly get hung up on fees or other costs, and fail to do the math on 1-2 years of TOTAL cost. A friend asked for advice on his crappy Sprint service, I gave him a small spreadsheet showing what he'd save switching even with fees, and he'd be off the junk Sprint service. Wife said nope, "never going to pay a cancellation fee!" Um, but, you gain it back in a few months...

Smitty77_7 · April 11, 2019

OP - With the 5G starting to slowly (SLOWLY) roll out, I would not invest too much money in a hotspot at this time. Unless, you feel it's OK to do so to get you out say 2+ years of usage. If you want to save some funds now, I'd suggest looking for a used Unite Explore 815S, used or refurbished in the $65-90 range. Run with that for a few years, and then buy a 5G capable HotSpot when the rollout has evolved far enough to make sense to do so.

As like Dutch, and others here too, I saw no reason to upgrade to the latest Nighthawk, a far more capable piece of equipment then the Unite Explore 815S is. If my device were to break today, I'd probably go ahead and spend the money on a used or refurbished Nighthawk in the $150 + or - $20 range, but only because we crave high download speeds. And I'd be willing to approximately double the costs of investing in the Nighthawk. Which I'd suspect would support me well for two or so years until I believe I'd be ready to start looking for 5G capable gear.

It all depends upon how much you want to spend.... No comments on the ATT plans, as that has been covered. The data provided by Technomadia is always good info:)!

In reality, both of the above devices, especially with external antennas (Does not have to be on the roof as I have. You could get the Netgear directional MIMO antenna unit you put on an inside window.), should yield great download speeds in good coverage areas.

Best of luck to you, have fun,

Smitty

Bill Joyce · April 11, 2019

"Wife said nope, "never going to pay a cancellation fee!" Um, but, you gain it back in a few months..."

Some people are not prepared to pay the larger bill that month, even if it saves money in the long run. Others hate paying fees (or taxes) so much they will make emotional decisions that cost them real money.

Carlos · April 11, 2019

They can spend the cash, no problem. They are just emotional about it and would rather throw money away than face the reality.

Friz · May 22, 2019

On 3/10/2019 at 10:28 AM, docj said:

There's nothing wrong with using your phone as a hotspot, it's all about the plan you have to do it under. Most smartphone plans limit the amount of 4G/LTE data per month for hotspot usage. When that is exceeded the speed of the connection drops significantly.

As for Consumer Cellular, it's primarily a service marketed to people who don't expect to use much data. It's largest monthly plan is 20GB and if you exceed that your speed drops and you are charged $5/GB for the excess. Furthermore, if you use more than 30GB in a month you may be shut down until the next billing period. The attached screenshot is from the Consumer Cellular website. IMHO if you're planning to use a significant amount of data you should change carriers.

I see you edited your response a few hours ago so I have a question. Changing carriers is pretty much a non-starter. At home, Consumer Cellular "suits my style". Last time we were RVing, the internet was not a real RV interest. I realize that we now have more things we cannot live without. As you look to be savvy about Rving and the internet, please help me out. If I use the internet for 1 hour/day, no video streaming, what would you estimate my daily data usage be? A nominal 31 day billing period would afford me 645 megabytes/day. In response to your last sentence, no I do not plan to use a significant amount of data. Once again, I estimate 1 hour/day.

docj · May 22, 2019

11 hours ago, Friz said:

I see you edited your response a few hours ago so I have a question.

Actually, the only reason my post was edited was to remove the attachment to free up storage space.

But, as for your question, if you can keep your internet activities to what you specify you should probably be fine with the data budget you propose. Just make sure you have your browser set to not automatically play embedded videos and set Windows to not automatically load updates, if possible.

Carlos · May 22, 2019

It's impossible to estimate your usage based on time. The usage is based on the types of content that you send back and forth, and that your devices transfer such as synchronizing files and doing updates. Everyone is very different. I'm connected 24x7 and yet usually use very little data. Although 645 MB is a really tiny amount.

Aside from the recommendations above, turn off "show images" in your email. They can consume quite a bit too. And images don't belong in email anyway, it's usually much cleaner with images blocked. They are also often used to track you.

I have customers who use ridiculous amounts of data when they swear that they "don't use much." I have others who use so little, but they are constantly using their phones. It just varies so much by the sites/services you use.