Mobile Hotspots / Internet-as-you-go

[mrudman]

Looking into one of these for dh for Christmas. He's always been eyeing them, but I've told him no way.

What I want is one that is No-Contract and no monthly fee required. Where you can just buy top-up cards when you need them to use it.

Does anyone have one that they really like? Anything to look for as I'm looking at all the various companies/models?

Thanks!

 

[Burnedout]

I'm interested in this also!

 

[starwood]

You might look at Netzero. From the way I understand it you buy the device and pay when you want to use depending on how many gb you use.

 

[Kies99]

Wal-Mart has a Virgin Mobile mobile hotspot on Black Friday for $39.88. If I happen to be there, I'm getting one.

Our family has had VM for years for phones and not had an issue. I currently have the LG Optimus V and even though I'm not suppossed to, I downloaded and app that let me make my phone into a mobile hotspot for no charge. I use it periodically with my ipad with no problem.

 

[Brer Shay]

I bought a Virgin Mobile hotspot for my parents to use when they travel. It has worked out beautifully for them. You register the device, and can pay with a top-up card or credit card. You can choose the amount of data that you want for different prices and the plan they have is good for a month at a time. They activate it 3 or 4 times a year, it's dormant the rest of the time with no charges. They've been throughout the US and never had issue with connectivity.

 

[mrudman]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Will definitely have to look into those.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My DH has the Virgin Mobile Hotspot and loves it! No contract required.


He works from home a few days a week and with his crazy luck twice now our internet at home went out on his work from home day! We decided to look into a hotspot devices and plans and now he doesn't have to worry. Plus ever try to use the free wifi at MCO their wifi is the pits. But with the hotspot we are worry free. Especially if your travel plans change ie: flight is cancelled and you need to make new arrangements the hotspot is a life saver. We were able to rebook our flight online without having to wait in a long line at the airport, booked a new rental car and make a hotel reservation with no problems.

You can get top up cards at Target, Walmart, Best Buy.

 

[Cleocat]

I was also looking into something like this. I have Verizon now and son't feeli like paying the monthly fee. I only need the wifi for my ipad a couple times a year for my business. I will definatley look into this. I also thank you all for this info.

 

[Burnedout]

So you don't have to pay for a month, just for use

 

[bear_mom]

What kind of phone does he have? I have turned my iPhone into a hot spot for $20/month with Verizon when I needed it for a few months last winter. It worked great.

Emily

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My DH hotspots with his tablet.

We have Verizon cell phones so we thought this would be the way to go until we found out about the reconnection fee.

Upon researching we found that with Verizon you have to pay a reconnection fee. For example if you need it in Jan but don't need it in Feb but then you need it in March you will be charged a reconnection fee in March. So each time you disconnect and reconnect with Verizon there is a fee. But as long as there is no intruption of service with Verizon you will not pay a reconnect fee.

With Virgin Mobile there is no reconnection fee. If there a month we don't need to hotspot then we don't top up for that month. There was a 3 week period this summer when he was on vacation for 12 days and we knew we would not need it so we did nothing with our account and on the end of the 3rd week we paid the $35 and had service for the next four weeks.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I was also looking into something like this. I have Verizon now and son't feeli like paying the monthly fee. I only need the wifi for my ipad a couple times a year for my business. I will definatley look into this. I also thank you all for this info.

Cleocat then you will want to look into Virgin Mobile. Verizon will charge you a connection and reconnection fee. VM does not charge a fee. I have a smartphone that we only use every now and then and we use VM service. I go to Walmart buy the top up card. Come home sign into my account on my computer enter the top up card to my acct and my smartphone is activated for the month. $35 gets me 300 minutes of talk, unlimited 3G and 4G for the month. I only use the smartphone for the internet access.

 

[zoemurr]

be used with an itouch or just or a phone?

 

[mrudman]

OP here... thanks again everyone for all the advice and suggestions!

I ended up noticing a hotspot device on sale at Walmart, but since I was definitely not knowledgable about these, I wanted to talk to someone local about all the options out there.

So I went and talked to one of the guys at Best Buy to see what they offered, and if dh was going to be using the internet a ton while away from wi-fi, most of the plans they have would've worked out really well.

But the problem is, the only times he really would like a hotspot is a few times/month for a few minutes, and bit more frequently in the summer while we go camping for him to check e-mail, etc. Most of the time we're around wifi. All of their plans have you buying $25-$30 top-up cards, which expire in 30 days (which I think is kind of ridiculous, but just my opinion).

I kept asking him about a no-contract option that the time would not expire in the 30 days, and he said there was no option like that.

So I hopped over to Walmart just to look at the device I had seen in the paper, and it was exactly what I was looking for. So I ended up buying that, getting a $10 top-up card (which never expires), and will be giving that to dh for Christmas.

be used with an itouch or just or a phone?

These are meant to be used with something besides a phone that has its own access.. such as an itouch, ipad, kindle, etc., In our case, it can have 5 devices accessing it.. so thinking if we go on vacation, etc, then dd's will be able to use the wifi on both their Touches in the car, and dh and I will be using it with his iPad and my Touch.

 

[Burnedout]

May I ask which one it was?

 

[mrudman]

May I ask which one it was?

Sure! It's this one.. http://www.walmart.com/ip/TruConnect-Internet-on-the-Go-Mobile-Hotspot-3G/20665535

It uses the Sprint network, which our whole area is very heavily covered by Sprint, but you might want to make sure your area is first.

Looks as if it is not as fast as some of the devices out there, but for our use, it's perfect. No contract, no monthly fees, no reconnection fees, etc.


And the great thing is, you get a choice of 2 plans every time you refill.

The first plan is the one dh will be using the majority of the time.. you add the top-up card, and it never expires as long as you use the device at least once a year.

The second option is to add the card, but that card will then expire in 30 days. I'm thinking we might use this during the summer on vacations, etc. where we might have heavier usage than normal.

The benefit to the second plan is that you're given more usage per top-up card. For example, with a $25 card, on plan #1 you get 1.5 gb of usage (which never exires). On plan #2, that same $25 card will get you 3gb of usage (but anything not used will expire after 30 days).

 

[Cleocat]

Just looked at it via the site. Now I know what DW can get me for Christmas. Unit is reasonably priced and the reviews seem good also. Only need for when I do some work related fairs and vacations where we can't get WIFI like on the train.
Thanks for the info mrudman.

 

[Burnedout]

You are awesome. Thanks!

 

[rock_doctor]

Easy, get yourself a Boost Mobile or Virgin Mobile (Sprint) phone and $10 more per month turns it into a WiFi hotspot. They give you 2.5 gigs to work with and if you go over that they slow you down to what is effectively slow 3G speeds. They only catch they use Clear for 4G (their not LTE yet) so if you have Clear access in your area you will have good 4G if you don't then you will have 3G. I have Clear 4G at work and have gotten 6mb downloads. Anyway, check with you cell phone company, you may be able to add a tether option and use you current cell phone and account for internet access.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

We have Verizon Wireless and now that I moved our plan from the unlimited data to shared data ALL of our phones can be used as hotspots anytime. No extra fee. Also, when we want to add a tablet to the plan to share in the data it's only an additional $10 a month. NO RECONNECTION FEE associated with adding and dropping it as we need it. And our bill went down about $70 a month when we switched to shared data . YMMV.