Educate me on hotspot data usage...

[TurnThePage]

I've been on the same phone plan for about 20 years. It includes unlimited data, which I've never really used. Spurred by some reading around here, I looked up some of my account details. It looks like 50 Gigs/month of hotspot use is included in my plan. Generally speaking, what does that get me as far as watching TV/movies/video?

[eflyersteve]

What you'll probably find is that you get 50gig and then the possibility of being deproritized (essentially, your data will be slowed) if the tower is congested. Depending on where you are, this may never happen. I use tmobile and at&t in rural areas and almost always go over my Max, but have never been slowed yet.

[Bill_Satellite]

For Win 10, you can't turn off updates but you can change the connection setting to "Metered Connection" and that will stop the updates.

[STBRetired]

Turn off automatic updates for Windows as well.

[TurnThePage]

theoldwizard1 wrote:
When using your phone as a hot spot, one thing that can eat up data is all of the advertisements you get. Make sure you have a good ad blocker installed on you PC !

Good call! Wouldn't even have occurred to me!

[theoldwizard1]

When using your phone as a hot spot, one thing that can eat up data is all of the advertisements you get. Make sure you have a good ad blocker installed on you PC !

[DarkSkySeeker]

TurnThePage wrote:
Generally speaking, what does that get me as far as watching TV/movies/video?

A recent NBA game was ~3 Gbytes on my hotspot.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Yes hotspots have been around a long time. You did have to connect a router to the phone to have it as a wifi connection. My first cell phone use was analog to a dial up internet service provider with a toll free number. Speeds were 1/4 regular dial up data transmission--but I could listen to the BBC radio plays. The cell phone had unlimited minutes after 6 p.m.

jcpainter wrote:


Who is your plan with? Did they even have hotspot usage 20 yrs ago?

[TurnThePage]

Based on the feedback here, I think I'll dive in face first and start experimenting.

[TurnThePage]

jcpainter wrote:

TurnThePage wrote:
Yes, I confirmed that I get 50 Gigs of hotspot, and that's per line.

LTE? or just 3G?

LTE. Does anybody actually advertise 3g hotspot?

[jcpainter]

TurnThePage wrote:
Yes, I confirmed that I get 50 Gigs of hotspot, and that's per line.

LTE? or just 3G?

[2edgesword]

TurnThePage wrote:
Yes, I confirmed that I get 50 Gigs of hotspot, and that's per line.

When I stream television I use about 1.0G per hour. Of course this will depend on resolution. That said 50G would get you about 50 hours of television.

[TurnThePage]

Yes, I confirmed that I get 50 Gigs of hotspot, and that's per line.

[TurnThePage]

jcpainter wrote:

TurnThePage wrote:
I've been on the same phone plan for about 20 years. It includes unlimited data, which I've never really used. Spurred by some reading around here, I looked up some of my account details. It looks like 50 Gigs/month of hotspot use is included in my plan. Generally speaking, what does that get me as far as watching TV/movies/video?

Who is your plan with? Did they even have hotspot usage 20 yrs ago?

Unfortunately my plan is with Sprint. And I'm not sure how long ago hotspot usage was available, but I used to use PDANet to get around being charged for it. That doesn't work anymore.

I wondered about it, logged into my sprint account and found a checkbox option for 50 Gig for $0. Even though I haven't used a lot of data, that was one of the main reasons I held onto this plan.

Sprint coverage sucks in certain places, but it's generally pretty fast where ever there is good coverage in my experience. In the inland northwest, it's fast and solid.

[2manytoyz]

Make sure you call your provider before going any further to get clarification.

I have AT&T. It's an unlimited plan I've also had for years. My iPhone 7 has the ability to use it as a hotspot... but the feature is greyed out on my phone.

So I called my provider. I was informed my unlimited plan doesn't "offer" that feature. In other words, if I changed my plan to one where I had a limited amount of data, they would enable that feature, hoping I go over my allotment. Unlimited data, yes, unlimited ability to use it, no.

I really hate AT&T, but they have the best coverage in my area.