[Hidden-tech] Personal mobile Wifi hotspot

[R. David Murray]

On Sun, 25 Oct 2015 21:19:11 -0400, Deborah Chandler <debchandler411 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Do any of you have a suggestion on getting my own mobile Wifi hotspot? (I'm
> going to research this, but I have faith that folks here already know
> plenty more than me about my options...)
> 
> I started doing work which requires that I be out and about a lot, working
> out of my vehicle, and I would like the flexibility of being able to use my
> laptop wherever I am, and not be tethered to a Wifi signal that is
> location-specific.

When I'm out and about I just use my android phone as my hotspot.  I'm with
Verizon, but my understanding was that it was a ruling that applied to
all carriers that if the phone supports being a hot-spot and the plan
does not include unlimited data, then the provider must allow the phone
to be used as a hot spot.

The disadvantage of course it that you are using phone battery to run the
hot-spot instead of a separate battery in a dedicated hot spot device.
That hasn't proven to be a problem for my limited usage, but if it was
I'd just buy one of those external extender batteries.  Note that running
the phone as a hot spot does drain the battery a fair bit faster, so
from the sound of things if you went this route you'd probably want
the battery extender.

I don't know if the wifi range is more limited or not, but again that
hasn't been a problem for me since I always have my phone in my pocket
anyway :)

Another thing I don't know that may affect this is the price comparison
between data for the phone and data for the hot spot.  I wouldn't be
surprised if phone data was cheaper, though.

> A related question: is it possible to make sense of having just that type
> of mobile hotspot and do away with my stationary Wifi at home altogether?
> My current Wifi is with Comcast and I would love any excuse to not put any
> more money in their coffers.

As others have pointed out, the problem here is the data charges, so it
will very much depend on how you use your data.  If you have a $100+ bill
from Comcast and you drop Comcast entirely and give the money to the phone
company instead, it might "work", but if you want to keep your cable TV,
you will find that your bill does not drop much if you just drop wifi.
In fact it might cost you more, depending on what special deal you are
currently getting ;)  And in my experience the cellular data is not going
to be as fast or responsive (time between click and full page load) as
Comcast data, unless your area is getting really poor Comcast service
and really good cellular service for some reason.

--David

PS: the audience may find it interesting that in general I use the hot
spot capability so I can use my wifi-only tablet when out and about,
and that I often use it *instead* of the free wifi offered by places like
Whole Foods, since I then don't have to go through their acknowledgement
screens and the performance is often better.