Mobile hot spots

Barney,

As long as I keep buying service time I keep everything. Been doing that for a decade, just not with the smart phone.

Steve,
That Tracfone I linked to above would be a good one and it is only around $20. I agree with just getting the $20 card and then only use it when you need it BUT I believe if you do not renew it you will loose your phone number and have to re-enroll again. I may be wrong on that though but would check it out before letting a card expire.
Barney

Barney,

I have a tracfone now for making calls when I travel. It is not a smart phone. I am thinking of buying one of those reconditioned smart phones from tracfone, but not getting the plan as I would only use it when on the road. I would buy service time, minutes & data as needed like I do now for the phone, for less than $20/month.

I would get one of these phones for $20 and then connect it with a one gig smartphone plan for $20/month.
If you already have a smartphone you can probably bring your own phone and number to their network. This is what I did.

We presently have our Galaxy S8+ phone on their 3 gig plan and are very satisfied. I don't stream much at all (never without wifi) and this plan is much cheaper than the previous Verizon plan I was on. I used it every day this summer for my duties here on RV.net plus web surfing and was never above 1 gig/month.
Always have had coverage wherever we go and now up in the Michigan woods.
Barney

I will not use a smart phone as a tv. Probably no more than an hour a week looking at radar & checking email.

I do have Dish sat tv and a sat radio as well.

There is little data difference between streaming the news for one hour or watching a one hour of TV movie
Its still data
30 hours of news is about 15 gigs . Of data
The networks are ALL HiDef all the time

A hotspot Is Wi-Fi on your end
Your own personal Wi-Fi
You said the RV b park has no Wi-Fi, no cable, there is NO other internet access to use
You want the news, it's either OTA Broadcast or cellular Hotspot
You do have a PC of some kind, you are here on this forum, you want to use your PC this winter for internet, you need a hotspot, or a phone that can give you the same service, because you said they is no cable at the park, No internet
Or did I miss interstand your question

I do not stream anything. Have no smart phone now. If I went with comcast I would only use it to check some news and weather now & then. And then the unlimited free phone calls if on wifi or by a hotspot.

1 gigabyte equal
1 internet streamed movie
$12 per movie
Use Redbox it costs less

Check out Ting.com
They have hotspot plan promotion 30gigs per month $25 per month,
It is 30gigs total period, Not 31gig or 35, IF you hit 30 it stops, until the start of the next billing cycle
But if you can live with 30 gigs it is a good deal
The current offering uses the Sprint network,
All of these Value Added virtual carriers use one or more of the "real" Telcos systems

My neighbor said with his comcast internet he can use a smart phone he bought from them for free if using wifi or any of the thousands of comcast hotspots country wide. If he is out of range then it costs only $12/mo for 1 gb data.

I'm still trying to learn the details of this.

We are currently using Verizon Wireless hotspot on the FMCA "unlimited" plan for $50 a month. The unlimited is in quotes because they throttle above 25 gig.

If you can get AT&T at your winter place, I'd consider Winegard's ToGo. WiFi and cell antennas and booster, built in wireless router and actual unlimited data for $360 a year. The ToGo itself is around $400.