Need a phone tethering / mobile hotspot provider

[Jim Bancroft]

Until recently I was able to tether to my Windows 8 phone on PTel mobile (T-mobile MVNO.)

Now, I'm skunked, likely because of t-mobile's recent plan changes on their pre-paid plans. (When I called PTel to ask what was up they replied shocked, since they don't even offer tethering, had no idea I could do it until recently.)

I'm in a lot of coffee shops and other places that don't have wifi, and need a local solution. I only really need 1 GB per month (no videos or heavy duty streaming, just looking up info on web pages.) and would like to do it as cheaply as possible. I would like that speed to be at least 4G however, 3G is too painful. Though I don't need super download speeds either.

I have a second T-mobile pre-pay phone, any chance of just hooking that up to a data plan via T-mob? Other thoughts? I don't mind a second cheap phone using another provider, just for hotspot use.

Thanks!

 

[OBLAMA2009]

so you were able to tether on t mob and they killed it? thats what varizin did with their newer phones.

 

[ImDonly1]

Change the useragent on your browser? That's all t-mobile does to check.

 

[Jim Bancroft]

Change the useragent on your browser? That's all t-mobile does to check.

Well, what I get is a 'DNS server not available' message now in Win 8 when I'm thethered, so it's not just a browser thing I think? I can't even ping sites, much less browse to them.

 

[magomago]

Hmm Tmobile allows tethering on its post paid accounts. Given that its all monthly at this point, does pre vs post paid matter to you that much? I suppose it might come down to cost and services offered?

I have unlimited data with 5GB/month of tethering. I know others with data limits, and their tethering is just factored as a part of that.


http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/t...ring--and-unlimited-international-texting.htm
"...Simple Choice customers...[have] tethering to 1GB included in the $50 Simple Choice service plan."

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/t-mobile-is-on-a-tear-whats-the-catch-105426818359.html
"T-Mobile doesn’t charge anything extra for tethering. (On its unlimited data plans, you get 5 gigabytes a month to use for tethering.)"


Seems like you want to look into that if you want cheap no hassle tethering, especially as you only need about 1GB/month.
There are instructions and workaround online, but it seems like its people who are trying to turn their cellphone into their primary internet usage device.