Use Verizon IPhone hotspot with Dish Hopper for On Demand?

There are still "grandfathered" plans out there. Most are 3G but they are out there. There are plans available that have unlimited data that allow streaming for the entire month. You may not get 100MB speeds, but most of us can get along just fine with 1-5 MB down for most of our needs.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
There are still plans out there (not all at 4G) with unlimited data without the 25G wall. I still have a full 4G plan with the Mobley.

So do I, but the Mobley plan is no longer available.

The “unlimited” plans that are left are capped, throttled, and/or networked managed.

No, nor in name only. There are still plans out there (not all at 4G) with unlimited data without the 25G wall. I still have a full 4G plan with the Mobley. This is about right for my average month and you can see there's still 5 days left in the month. No slowdowns. It's not super fast but I have never been too slow to stream.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
There are still unlimited plans out there.

In name only, Bill.

There are still unlimited plans out there. A few of us a lucky to have gotten into the AT&T Mobley plan. 4G UNLIMITED. $23/month. There are some other grandfathered plans that cost big bucks and some 3G unlimited plans that are fairly reasonable but of questionable legality? There are unlimited plans that will work for you. You just need to find what works for you and go with an appropriate plan.

Most people don't understand what "Unlimited" means in today's market. Years ago it meant that you bought a plan, you were locked in for two years, you had unlimited everything, No throttling, no caps, just 3G data speed period! Now it means you aren't locked in anymore unless paying monthly for the phone (a whole other discussion), you have unlimited full throttle high speed data ability up to a certain point and then you reach a cap and your connection is throttled down to a speed that makes it difficult to stream or do much of anything other than make calls and text or you're throttled during peak times and can't do much. Cell phone companies use the word "unlimited" deceptively and most people hear that word and think they are good to go. Use as much data as they want, for as long as they want, at any time that they want. Just pay this minimal monthly fee. There are 3rd party companies out there that will sell you an unlimited, unthrottled, uncapped monthly plan and they're legal, but as soon as the big carriers see what's happening, they shut things off so those plans come with some risk. The entire RV world wants really good internet at a fair price that's easy to obtain, works everywhere and is easy to get set up. I'm hoping once Starlink is available there won't be a need for all the nonsense we have to go through now in order to have decent internet on the road.

Even 2g speeds are faster than "the old dialup", but that doesn't make much difference when trying to use them with streaming video services.

Yeah, we tried that. Having Verizon 4G LTE with unlimited everything, we thought the hotspot was going to be our answer. What Verizon doesn’t tell you is that when you connect anything to the hotspot the speed drops from the fast 4G to 600mpbs which is slower than the old dial up used to be! Their answer was to sell me another line with a dedicated hotspot just for the TV. Hope this helps.

Short answer.....YES!

Your Hopper has several internet access apps (Netflix, YouTube, OnDemand, PrimeTime, etc) already installed. When you power-up the Hopper it will automatically attempt to connect to the internet and will give you an error message when it fails to connect. Yes, you should be able to connect the Hopper to your iPhone hotspot. Turn on the hotspot and then go to the Internet setting on the Hopper to make the connection.