Mobile wifi for one month? Options needed...

[riversend]

My wife is going to be in a one month rental and does not want to spend the extraordinary costs to get internet hooked up in the house. It would be much easier to get a usb modem that could use a prepaid plan (or even better, one you could just top off) to access the net.

Usage would be about 30-60 minutes of streaming video per day, plus standard e-mail and surfing (looking for a house to live, so this will be a couple of hours per day at least).

Any ideas? We use Verizon as our carrier (she has an iPhone 3g I think).

Thanks, any assistance here is greatly appreciated!

 

[zerocool84]

The 30-60 minutes of streaming video every day would eat up a huge amount of any option since you'll only be able to use a couple GB for the whole month. There are pre paid options from Virgin Mobile and other pre paid carriers that would probably be cheap but definitely something you would only use for browsing the web and not for video.

 

[bearxor]

If you're on Verizon, then she at least has an iPhone 4. But disregard that.

There are a ton of prepaid hotspot plans, you can check out any of the carriers. You might be best to see if TMobile has service in your area and see if you can do their $30/5GB plan. You'd probably have to renew that a couple of times though.

What is the cost of getting service there? Is their cable run? Is there a phone line? If its the cost of setting up an account at all, would that account then be transferable to your future home where you're going to sign up for it anyways?

I'd say that if the cost of getting cable or DSL going is around $100, then do it, because you'd likely spend over that with the purchase of a device and topping off your prepaid data a couple of times.

 

[Kenmitch]

Maybe nice neighbor with wifi could kinda sub-lease a connection to you?

Public wifi spots are another option. Not the best but it's something.

 

[Digital Savior]

Check to see if you have Clear coverage in that area. I've been using it for a month now and it's great. Much better prices than Verizon or ATT.

 

[riversend]

Just checked for coverage and it is a no go. She will have to check reception and see if any wireless options will work. If not I guess I will work with local service providers and see what I can come up with. Last resort will be hot spots. Ugghhh.

 

[Ksyder]

My wife is going to be in a one month rental and does not want to spend the extraordinary costs to get internet hooked up in the house. It would be much easier to get a usb modem that could use a prepaid plan (or even better, one you could just top off) to access the net.

Usage would be about 30-60 minutes of streaming video per day, plus standard e-mail and surfing (looking for a house to live, so this will be a couple of hours per day at least).

Any ideas? We use Verizon as our carrier (she has an iPhone 3g I think).

Thanks, any assistance here is greatly appreciated!

Can you add tethering through her iphone 4/4s for just the month? If she has decent 3g signal then it would probably suffice. Sure it won't be the fastest but its decent and you wouldn't have to get any additional hardware- ie Verizon iPhone turns into a wifi hotspot for the laptop (which I assume she will be using)

 

[Red Storm]

If you've got unlimited data with Verizon then any 4G phone would do the job perfectly.

 

[riversend]

She has unlimited data, but is using an iPhone. I know there is probably a workaround, but supposedly Apple does not support tethering apps. Also, according to what I have read we would still have to pay a fee since we are still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan (Verizon).

 

[bearxor]

You may want to buy the App available right now that let's you tether. There's a thread in this forum about it.