Is there any speed advantage to buying a Jetpack vs just using your smart phone as a hotspot? Here's the background to the question. Years ago we had a MiFi that we used to access the internet back when we had flip phones. Fast forward a few years, we buy smart phones and when the hotspot died, we just used the smart phones as hot spots. Now it is time to replace the aging smart phones (Samsung S-4 Minis) and I am wondering if we should also get a jetpack too or just keep using the smart phones hot spot feature. Do the jetpacks provide better coverage or speed, etc.? Your thoughts? Thank you.

I'm not a tech guy, but I notice no difference between the Jet-pack we had in the past (last year) and the Hotspot we use now. Hotspot seems better, but of course, newer smart phone too.

Disadvantage 1 is having to add and pay for an additional line. If you are going to get one, ensure it is a current model, quite a few out there that are only 3G, hence they will be slower.

We use a Verizon MiFi for our computers. It gets better reception then our old style phones. 4G through our phone plan and battery lasts longer then phone hot shot.We are currently upgrading phones to a smart type Android phones. Taking a while for this old fart to get his act together.I get phones through Ebay or Amazon. Much cheaper then retail stores. No charge at my Verizon stores to activate them.

I've been doing a lot of research on this issue for when we snowbird this coming winter. It really boils down to how you will be using the internet. If you will be just using email, daily web surfing, reading the news or coming here and reading/replying to a few posts, using your phone as your hotspot with an "unlimited" plan would be fine. All of the major carriers cap your phone use as a hotspot at around 10GB per month. Some will allow more use but it's more expensive than a dedicated hotspot plan. If you plan on doing any kind of streaming of netflix or Youtube or Hulu or facetime, skype etc., you're much better off getting a hotspot. Even then, you get capped at 50GB or 100GB per month with most carriers. There are businesses like OTR Mobile and others that rent tower space and offer attractive plans with a lot of data allowance but you get literally no support when something goes wrong. Besides those things, a dedicated hotspot allows for several devices to be connected at the same time and you get longer battery life than a phone provides.Just to give you a better idea of things...At my home, it's just my wife and me. We each have a desktop computer, we each have a laptop and we both have smart phones that are connected to wifi while we're here. We also have 2 Roku sticks connected to 2 televisions. We subscribe to Youtube TV for television. I spend about 4 hours a day online, reading, coming to forums, watching youtube videos and occasionally I'll have a ball game on in the background while I'm doing work. One of the televisions will be on about 5 hours a day. We use about 500GB of data per month. Yes, that's right 500GB! So it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume we will use 50GB-100GB per month while in the RV.

We have IPhone 8’s and use them as hotspots for our laptop and iPads on Verizon. We ran into problems with getting throttled at peak times which was so slow you couldn’t surf the web. .5 MBs. Supposed unlimited plan. I bought the OTR.COM plan with an ATT puck. The advantage of a separate puck is you have the advantage of two networks. BTW, the iPhones on LTE are twice as fast as ATT but ATT is adequate for streaming. I also added a Weboost RV amp which I am very happy with. Works with all cell systems.

Jetpack vs MiFi vs Hotspot | Good Sam Community

valhalla360
Navigator
Aug 26, 2019
We stopped with a dedicated internet device a couple iterations ago.

We stream all the time and it's our primary internet source.

Yeah, you need to keep it plugged in if using for long but that applies to phone or dedicated internet device.

In real world use, we couldn't tell the difference so no need to buy a separate device and more importantly separate monthly plan.
2chiefsRus
Explorer
Aug 26, 2019
thank you everyone for taking the time to reply. appreciate the information.
Ductape
Explorer
Aug 26, 2019
It is very rarely the hardware that determines the throughput or bandwidth you’ll receive today. With any reasonably modern modem, be it phone or a dedicated hotspot, the limitation will be how much speed you are allocated by the carrier tower. Which is a function of what plan you have (priority), and how many other users are competing for the resource (congestion).

And then there’s throttling, which is a hard speed limit built into the fine print on many plans.
jcpainter
Explorer
Aug 26, 2019
Ductape wrote:
It is very rarely the hardware that determines the throughput or bandwidth you’ll receive today. With any reasonably modern modem, be it phone or a dedicated hotspot, the limitation will be how much speed you are allocated by the carrier tower. Which is a function of what plan you have (priority), and how many other users are competing for the resource (congestion).

And then there’s throttling, which is a hard speed limit built into the fine print on many plans.

I respectfully, but strongly, disagree. With plans and tower congestion being equal, hardware makes a HUGE difference. Watch the video HERE for live comparison testing results on hotspots at the same location, same plan, same time of day. Phones are the same.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Aug 26, 2019
We typically get better speeds on our dedicated AT&T and Verizon hotspots than we do using the WiFi hotspot feature on our LG Stylo 3 phones on Tracfone/Verizon. We also like having the separate AT&T hotspot so we can make VOIP calls from our phones in weak Verizon areas. Both of our hotspots are on grandfathered unlimited data plans subject only to network management on heavily congested towers, something we've rarely noticed.
AsheGuy
Explorer
Aug 26, 2019
jcpainter wrote:
I respectfully, but strongly, disagree. With plans and tower congestion being equal, hardware makes a HUGE difference. Watch the video HERE for live comparison testing results on hotspots at the same location, same plan, same time of day. Phones are the same.

Interesting information in the link. My Pixel 3 phone has the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X20 LTE modem that is a Cat 18 LTE modem so it should have the equivalent capability of the Verizon Jetpack® MiFi® 8800L in the video. Good to know.
JohnBorgen
Explorer
Sep 08, 2019
We just got our first RV(Coleman 2515RL) and we're actually in our first RV park for the weekend. I got here on Friday around noon expecting to work for the rest of the day. The internet at the part was reasonable ($5 for three days) but the speed is horrific (1 to 2 Mbps). Nothing that I can work on. I want to travel and work from the RV during the week. I am thinking of the Verizon 8800 Jetpack, but the reviews online are abysmal. Is anyone on these forums using one? How are they working for you? I few people in this thread have referenced them...they seem to like them. I'm just wondering if there are other opinions about them on this forum.
RetiredBeanCoun
Explorer
Sep 08, 2019
JohnBorgen wrote:
We just got our first RV(Coleman 2515RL) and we're actually in our first RV park for the weekend. I got here on Friday around noon expecting to work for the rest of the day. The internet at the part was reasonable ($5 for three days) but the speed is horrific (1 to 2 Mbps). Nothing that I can work on. I want to travel and work from the RV during the week. I am thinking of the Verizon 8800 Jetpack, but the reviews online are abysmal. Is anyone on these forums using one? How are they working for you? I few people in this thread have referenced them...they seem to like them. I'm just wondering if there are other opinions about them on this forum.

If you are planning on working from your RV, look at a MOFI 4500 with an external Yagi directional antenna. You insert your phone's SIM card regardless as to whether Verizon, AT&T, or whatever, and the increase is pretty crazy. It seems to be able to pull a signal no matter how weak and turn it into a speed as if you are in the center of a city. I have tried jetpacks, MiFi, signal enhancers; this is the way to go, by far.
jcpainter
Explorer
Sep 08, 2019
RetiredBeanCounter wrote:
JohnBorgen wrote:
We just got our first RV(Coleman 2515RL) and we're actually in our first RV park for the weekend. I got here on Friday around noon expecting to work for the rest of the day. The internet at the part was reasonable ($5 for three days) but the speed is horrific (1 to 2 Mbps). Nothing that I can work on. I want to travel and work from the RV during the week. I am thinking of the Verizon 8800 Jetpack, but the reviews online are abysmal. Is anyone on these forums using one? How are they working for you? I few people in this thread have referenced them...they seem to like them. I'm just wondering if there are other opinions about them on this forum.

If you are planning on working from your RV, look at a MOFI 4500 with an external Yagi directional antenna. You insert your phone's SIM card regardless as to whether Verizon, AT&T, or whatever, and the increase is pretty crazy. It seems to be able to pull a signal no matter how weak and turn it into a speed as if you are in the center of a city. I have tried jetpacks, MiFi, signal enhancers; this is the way to go, by far.
jcpainter
Explorer
Sep 08, 2019
JohnBorgen wrote:
I am thinking of the Verizon 8800 Jetpack, but the reviews online are abysmal. Is anyone on these forums using one? How are they working for you? I few people in this thread have referenced them...they seem to like them. I'm just wondering if there are other opinions about them on this forum.

When the 8800L first came out, and for many months after that, some units had a big problem with random reboots. The manufacturer has now provided Verizon with a system update that most people report totally fixed the problem.

Just do a "check for updates" on the hotspot and the new software/firmware update will load. Easy peasy.

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