Reply With QuoteI suspect this will be a difficult process for you. I seriously doubt that any US carrier will allow for a BYOP for a hotspot, especially if not sold by that carrier. Please share your experiences for others who may try to do this later.
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Mobile Pro
I've purchased a hotspot device, and I'm looking for a provider/plan to use on it.
Any recommendations?
I'm willing to pay a bit more if it meets any/all of the following criteria:
Some preferences about the company/plan
* I'd prefer a pay-by-GB rather than an "unlimited" plan
* I'd prefer decent tech-support or an online knowledgebase; if they have a "compatible devices list", my device probably isn't in it, but that's probably just because they haven't heard of it, so hopefully either they're willing to work with me regardless, or they have good generic device config information on their website.
* I'd prefer not to deal with a company where their plans/marketing/whatever make it feel like they're trying to "trick" me.
Super Moderator
I suspect this will be a difficult process for you. I seriously doubt that any US carrier will allow for a BYOP for a hotspot, especially if not sold by that carrier. Please share your experiences for others who may try to do this later.
Just another day in paradise.....
I've climbed a cellphone tower
pretty much eliminates all telecom companiesOriginally Posted by bsammon
that said for limited amount of usage it is often a better deal doing hotspot from a phone device/plan as opposed to a dedicated hotspot.
it might help a bit is you could provide an estimate of how many GB you expect to use monthly ?
I've got more phones than fingers
Also knowing what make model device you're talking about would help.
Mobile Pro
Ha, yeah. With all my preferences, I'm pretty much looking for a unicorn here; I did say "any/all of the criteria".pretty much eliminates all telecom companies
That's what I'm currently doing. But it's a cheap phone, and I suspect there's apps/android stuff trying to mooch data for tracking/analytics crap. I could buy a better phone, or reconfigure/root/hack this phone to have a more trustworthy version of android, but I've chosen the hotspot approach instead.
I previously had a "4G"-but-not-LTE hotspot and 5GB/month was generally enough. When TMobile kicked it off their network ("not 4G enough"), I switched to the hotspot-on-android-phone situation I'm currently using, also with a 5GB/month allowance, and immediately after the switch, 5GB was not quite enough. I'm inclined to blame the phone, at least partially, because I don't think my usage patterns have changed all that much/rapidly. Granted, webpages get a few % bigger every month, but still...
Oh, and I do (when I remember to) turn off the phone whenever I'm not using it for hotspot, and I think that helps a bit.
Mobile Pro
It might, but I'm worried it might lead off into a tangent. The manufacturer has a support forum on their own site; I'd take my device-specific questions there.
It's not a secret or anything; I'll happily talk about the hardware (and maybe post a review of sorts) after a bit, but I'd like to see what kind of responses I get to my initial question first.
There's reports of people using the device (which is not sold through any carrier, AFAIK) successfully with T-mobile, and I think most of the other major carriers, but it's possible that's only postpaid service. And I haven't seen any reports (good or bad) about MVNOs.
Phone Collector
T-Mobile prepaid and Metro by TMO Device Data plans are probably your best bets. You can check compatibility of your mystery device if you follow their BYOP plan links and enter the IMEI. APN info, etc are all out there, too.
Phone Collector
I've made your scenario work using Franklin T9 devices which can be jailbroken and programmed with the right IMEI and APN to resemble a cell phone device. Tello has low cost price per GB and if you renew manually instead of automatically your unused data rolls over from month to month.
When I can get a deal on unlimited I grab those and the T9 still works. One poverty-stricken acquaintance of mine is running his apartment on a T9 with a $15 a month SIM from Visible.
Dan
I've climbed a cellphone tower
I feel like I slipped into a parallel timeline here.
Phone-as-hotspot
Branded hotspot (battery powered, small mobile gadget)
Generic travel router - not branded, compact, open source firmware, some battery powered some USB
Cell-based full-on Routers require AC, external antennae, not compact not for travel
all do the same stuff, just different pro's and cons.
With USB or Ethernet input, the router needs no SIM card capabilities, can use the phone as the cell modem.
Some let you have 2,3 or more networks at the same time, hot failover for redundancy, switching over for best signal, or even aggregate bandwidth bonding.
TMO network Just Works cheap reseller plans for lotsa GBs or Mint if you only need 40/mo. The Home service apparently can be nomadic
ATT is a bit harder need whitelisted modem IMEI in there
VZW same and getting the newer bands is hardest, but new stuff showing up every few months...
Their Home service I believe needs to stay in a fixed location?
Mobile Pro
Uh... was that a response to my question?
Or beat poetry?
Mobile Pro
So I've discovered that Boost has(*) a promo for a hotspot-plus-plan package. Poking around their website makes me think that they don't really have a hotspot-specific plan, and this deal is just the hotspot along with one of their standard voice/text/data cellphone-oriented plans.
This makes me wonder:
1) would any of their plans work with a hotspot device?
2) If i got this promo and then moved the SIM into my other hotspot, would the plan still work?
(*) - Or "had" -- when I tried to order it, the website errored out. I'm thinking they may have already sold off all their inventory of hotspots for this promo, and I've missed the window of opportunity.
Phone Collector
I cannot find a TMo reseller called "Just Works" - do you have a link?
Dan
I've climbed a cellphone tower
i think the poster was saying SIM's from T-Mobile resellers just work in hotspot devices without having to fool the network by modifying IMEI's to match a whitelisted device or other trickery.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
Generally yes.
VZW and ATT get fussier about paying more when the hotspot device used can service a house full of gaming / torrenting teens
But anything is possible when you get up to speed on The Magic
Phone Collector
Thanks for clarifying - my experience with TMo and "just works" in hotspot have been restricted to Tello and Mint because internet research indicates they don't care if you use your high speed data for hotspot - I now understand that with other cell networks with extra overhead like whitelisted IMEI I would need to do more work and perhaps worry if spoofing a whitelisted IMEI would be enough to run hotpot data under the permissions and in the amounts allowed for on device cellular data.
Dan
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