Anyone have a Sprint 4G phone they use as a modem for computer?

[tlh0726]

About time that we are due for new phones and researching our options.

Thinking about changing our plan with Sprint and going with the everything data family plan and adding the hot spot feature on my phone to be able to connect to the internet with my laptop. We would then get rid of our land line and dsl internet.

The cell phone portion of the plan will work for us. The big question is using the phone as a modem.

Does anyone currently do this and can offer me any pros and cons?
How is the connection and speed?

so far we have

Pros- being able to use the computer and internet while traveling in the motorhome

Cons- no internet at home while I am away with my phone

 

[Mommee]

Unless I misunderstood, the hotspot is a separate device from your phone that you must buy and then pay $60/month for use, on top of your cell phone plan. It's home even when you're not.

Sprint removed the phone-as-a-modem feature from the everything plan. And didn't tell us! It wasn't until I lost my internet at home and couldn't connect the phone that I found out. Apparently they were having issues with people using it as their only source of internet

 

[Dziactor]

Unless I misunderstood, the hotspot is a separate device from your phone that you must buy and then pay $60/month for use, on top of your cell phone plan. It's home even when you're not.

Sprint removed the phone-as-a-modem feature from the everything plan. And didn't tell us! It wasn't until I lost my internet at home and couldn't connect the phone that I found out. Apparently they were having issues with people using it as their only source of internet

No its not, the Evo can act as a hotspot. I dont have the feature, as I could never get rid of my internet.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

My dh has the Epic and it's a hot spot too - we haven't tried it yet cuz we have a desktop not a laptop and I don't know what we need to do to our desk top to get it to work or maybe we don't have to do anything - does anyone know?

 

[Jonny_Duck]

My dh has the Epic and it's a hot spot too - we haven't tried it yet cuz we have a desktop not a laptop and I don't know what we need to do to our desk top to get it to work or maybe we don't have to do anything - does anyone know?

Probably depends on your OS but on the bottom right in windows vista/7 you right click on the computer icon to connect to a network after you activate the hotspot feature on the phone. Should be able to connect right there.

As to the OP...Its very much gonna vary where you are. The 4G is not a huge map right now and even where its implemented there are dead spots. Speeds also vary and it will also depend what you use your internet for. Obviously streaming data will need somewhat faster speeds then if you were just to scroll around on Disboards.

I used an aircard through Sprint for about 3 yrs to scroll the internet on 3G and it was ok. Would I want this for my home internet? Probably not but again it comes down to what you use your internet for and how many in your household needs the internet.(Plus coverage/speeds in your area)

As for your Pro...Even if you don't have the hotspot option and you don't get rid of home internet while you are away from home you can use your USB to give your laptop internet for free using PDAnet app.(Not allowed secured sites for free version but its a one time buy of $30 for full version)

I have the Evo and do not have the hotspot feature activated currently. The reason is because we have no 4G here and data speeds are sad anyway.

My suggestion is if you have any friends with Sprint and data(perhaps any Android phone)have them check the Speedtest app and see what the data speeds are like, or go to Sprint store and check with a demo phone. You could always open up an account for 30 days and test it out only having to pay for a month if it doesn't work for you.

Btw if you haven't looked at Everything Plus Referral Program since this is a budget forum its a nice way to save a few $$s with Sprint if you don't get a discount through your work.

 

[tlh0726]

Probably depends on your OS but on the bottom right in windows vista/7 you right click on the computer icon to connect to a network after you activate the hotspot feature on the phone. Should be able to connect right there.

As to the OP...Its very much gonna vary where you are. The 4G is not a huge map right now and even where its implemented there are dead spots. Speeds also vary and it will also depend what you use your internet for. Obviously streaming data will need somewhat faster speeds then if you were just to scroll around on Disboards.

I used an aircard through Sprint for about 3 yrs to scroll the internet on 3G and it was ok. Would I want this for my home internet? Probably not but again it comes down to what you use your internet for and how many in your household needs the internet.(Plus coverage/speeds in your area)

As for your Pro...Even if you don't have the hotspot option and you don't get rid of home internet while you are away from home you can use your USB to give your laptop internet for free using PDAnet app.(Not allowed secured sites for free version but its a one time buy of $30 for full version)

I have the Evo and do not have the hotspot feature activated currently. The reason is because we have no 4G here and data speeds are sad anyway.

My suggestion is if you have any friends with Sprint and data(perhaps any Android phone)have them check the Speedtest app and see what the data speeds are like, or go to Sprint store and check with a demo phone. You could always open up an account for 30 days and test it out only having to pay for a month if it doesn't work for you.

Btw if you haven't looked at Everything Plus Referral Program since this is a budget forum its a nice way to save a few $$s with Sprint if you don't get a discount through your work.

It is definitely only 3G in our area. Nearest 4G is about 40 mins away.
I will have to find a local sprint store to test the connection out. Only 2 phones the Epic and the Evo currently have the hot spot capability. One is 199.99 and the other 249.99 after discounts and rebates. Not putting out that kind of money to find out that we don't want the service.

Unfortunately we are already Sprint customers.

 

[Evi]

I have the Evo and it works as a hotspot. I do get 4g signal at home. I haven't taken it to Disney yet so I can't say what the signal strength will be but I can probably answer that in a few months. If someone who has evo goes before me please do let us know what disney's 4g signal is at.

 

[tlh0726]

I have the Evo and it works as a hotspot. I do get 4g signal at home. I haven't taken it to Disney yet so I can't say what the signal strength will be but I can probably answer that in a few months. If someone who has evo goes before me please do let us know what disney's 4g signal is at.

Do you connect one computer or more from your Evo?

any likes or dislikes on the internet connection while on the computer?

 

[Jonny_Duck]

I have the Evo and it works as a hotspot. I do get 4g signal at home. I haven't taken it to Disney yet so I can't say what the signal strength will be but I can probably answer that in a few months. If someone who has evo goes before me please do let us know what disney's 4g signal is at.

I was down staying near Disney umm...August 14-21st ish and 4G was not lit up at the hotel. I do believe they have announced that Orlando is a 4G area but when I was near Disney I had no 4G. I am headed back in a cpl weeks and hopefully I can get a 4G signal then.

Tlh...Since you have no 4g imo it wouldn't be wise to drop your home internet for Sprint 3G. It is generally the slowest of the four major networks, with some exceptions.

Also if you do take my advice and check out the Sprint store make sure they are not connected to an in store wifi...I have noticed Sprint around here does that rather then have it connected to the network.

Also keep in mind that the Epic and Evo have an extra $10 charge added to it. Basically for 4G even though Sprint will not admit to that fact. So that is an unfortunate addon price on top of the $30 iirc it is for the hotspot feature.

Edit: Also looking at the Sprint website I can't find the addon price/fine print but the 3G broadband cards have a 5 gig limit and I am thinking tethering would be the same way. That may be a problem if you will be using your phones heavily and even at home as a home internet use.

Just as a point of reference I went over 5 gigs in my first month of having my Evo w/o tethering. Android is semi data intensive even though as of lately I am using about 1.5-2 gigs fairly regularly.

 

[aprince&princess]

My husband has the Evo with sprint. We tried the hotspot for 2 months this summer. The fee is $30 per month and I think you can connect 4 devices at once. It was great for when we were traveling and everyone was in the car for 6 hours straight; the kids could connect to the internet and use laptops, ipod touches, etc. The downside is that you need to have the person with the phone with you. Also it seems to drain the battery on the phone much quicker. And if no one was using it it seemed to turn off the connection and then he would need to turn it back on for us. We live in an area where there is not 4g coverage, so we did have trouble connecting to it at times. It worked greate while we were away in an area with 4g coverage.

So when we were done with our summer traveling we turned the service off. It seems to me that you can reactivate when you want, so maybe we would reactivate when we travel again and then turn it back off afterwards.