Tethering on the cheap?

[mikeford]

We are about to add our first data plan smart phone to a household of 3 very low minute talkers giving us a total of 4 cell lines. The voice phones are tmobile prepaid so we can keep them for almost nothing a year, as little as $10/yr/line.

100% of the time this new data phone is away from home and wifi we will have some kind of preferred computing device with us, nook or laptop. We are not looking, hopefully, at much data usage, just easy fill when no wifi is available and we want to check something on the web, get email, surf amazon, etc.

Any tips on phones, plans, software for doing this cheap?

Any warnings on carriers/phones/plans that are cheap tether unfriendly?

 

[paperwastage]

if you just want free hotspot/tether, then do the below

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:slickdeals.net+freedompop+hotspot

look at the fine print and stuff that you sign up for, to avoid some of the fees



depends on what service you sign up for. I'd recommend you getting the T-mobile $30 5GB 100-min prepaid plan, and adding $15/month if you want to tether more than 100MB

Verizon/AT&T's "data bucket" version (eg 2GB for $30, add 1 smartphone for $40 = $70), they don't care how you use it (on smartphone/tethering)

T-mobile's services have tethering options
(Postpaid, 1GB plan = 1GB tethering, 3GB plan = 3GB tethering, unlimited plan = 5GB tethering).
(Prepaid, $30 100min 5GB plan = 100MB tethering. Add $15 to get a full 5GB tethering)

Sprint/Ting is a good option (pay what you use, with a Nexus 5). They allow tether, since they charge per byte

 

[chubbyfatazn]

I just use Tmo's $30 prepaid plan and Foxfi.

Foxfi isn't bulletproof from Tmo, but it's worked reliably for me whenever I needed tethering. It usually only failed when I was doing large downloads over an extended period of time, and then changing a few of the settings temporarily fixed it.

 

[ImDonly1]

Freedompop hotspot for free 1GB / month if the coverage is OK for you. I a few of the WiMax hotspots and USB adapters for free when they had sales on slickdeals. They work fine in my area.

Either get the WiMax hotspot for free (Wimax network is shutting down sometime next year) or get their LTE hotspot.
Cancel all of the premium add-ons and it is 100% free.

 

[mikeford]

Freedompop seems like love or hate, works fine for some, nightmare for others.

Serious Caveat Emptor issues, you need to "carefully" setup acct to avoid nasty surprises. Amazon customer claims he was billed $370 during a time when the device was turned off, something about his MAC being spoofed, but could be user error. Users of a free service that mess up and get charged will be those who scream loudest about it, so taking complaints with boxes of bath salts.

Dunno, I am pretty cheap, but very wary about both trouble and poor connections when needed. Not sure I want a non phone hot spot to carry around either.

Thanks for info, it is still in the hopper.

Tmo and Foxfi seem most promising, but I didn't know they had that cheap of a data plan on prepaid, looking into it now.

Avoiding if at all possible paying a carrier for tether.

Thanks and I will report back as I move forward.

 

[you2]

I thought verizon was prohibited from blocking third party tethering non-unlimited plans. Is this not stil the case ? If so they have some reasonable plans - @ 1GB and 2GB.

 

[mikeford]

Tmobile appears to have a good plan via Walmart or Tmobile activated devices, its $30/mo for 100 min/ unlimited text/ 5GB (may require auto renewal, but in this case I am ok with that). Does require running something that strips the tether flag from data packets, like tetherouter for $2. I may do this with a Nexus5.

Freedompop looks like a pain, but I may buy a compatible device cheap and use the minimum $6/mo settings for a secondary hotspot option. Mifi is the new search keyword I learned, waiting now on a good deal on a device, ie better than Freedompop $57 shipped refurb overdrive pro.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Tmobile appears to have a good plan via Walmart or Tmobile activated devices, its $30/mo for 100 min/ unlimited text/ 5GB (may require auto renewal, but in this case I am ok with that). Does require running something that strips the tether flag from data packets, like tetherouter for $2. I may do this with a Nexus5.

It doesn't even have to be a Tmo-branded device. I've been running unlocked phones on their network for the past 5 years and have switched plans several times during that period.

If you're gonna be using tethering in a low-use scenario then I wouldn't necessarily bother paying for that kind of thing. It's only after I've been continuously tethered for several hours and downloading multiple files that I get kicked off, but I just reset Foxfi and I'm back up and running again.

 

[paperwastage]

I thought verizon was prohibited from blocking third party tethering non-unlimited plans. Is this not stil the case ? If so they have some reasonable plans - @ 1GB and 2GB.

yeah, Verizon data-bucket type (non-unlimited) plans, you can tether

they're still relatively more expensive if you focus solely on cost.... (for single lines, they have a $50 1GB version, $60 2GB version, then data bucket-type... though those two lines offer subsidized devices)

 

[mikeford]

Tethering charges seem like they are slowly going away, but carriers are trying to cling to as many charges as they can as the market shifts.

Free public wifi is growing fast, plus things like TimeWarner "seems" to have free access to all cable internet users from all of the wifi routers that come from TWC, ie any business using TWC wifi may automatically grant access if you are a TWC registered internet user.

As the wifi grows, and connections become automatic, cell usage is going to drop. If you are sitting in McD your phone might automatically switch from cell to wifi for calls and data.

This is going to change the cell market.

 

[mikeford]

$30 tmobile plan looks like works with phones from Walmart OR any phone if you use the Tmobile web site to activate (get a sim etc.).

If I can decide on devices I will do both Tmobile and freedompop as a backup alt use. I'm thinking if I rarely use the freedompop and pay the $4/mo data roll over I should have a big cushion of data to cover any use.

 

[mikeford]

Did both as planned, Sprint Overdrive Pro from Freedompop for like $22 shipped and decided on $0/month to start out, which is 400mb effectively, and a Samsung T399 Galaxy light off ebay for $55 shipped, with Walmart $30/ data plan.

Finally have tracking on the sprint device, due Thursday.

Samsung was shipped immediately, same for Tmobile sim. No real issues with activation on Tmobile, going carefully one step at a time.

HotSpot initially looked like it would need something like Foxfi or a paid service plan, but after an update of tmobile software on phone it appears to be working fine as is with no special charge for hotspot data. This needs verifying with more tests, but heads up it may work.