JETPACK oe AT&T Mobile Hotspot

[D_E_Bishop]

Currently we are relying on campground, McDonalds and other free hotspots, I wish to have my own, which of the two is best and does AT&T have pay as you go or is it monthly, finding out seems to be a hard thing to do at any sales locations.

Currently we have Boost Mobile and AT&T pay by the minute phones and I do not wish to learn and pay for linking my phones to the internet. We do not have smart phones, the DW will be getting one soon but I'm a long way off.

[BurbMan]

JetPack is Verizon's brand name for their wifi hotspot. The price is $50/mo for 5GB of data, and the overage is only $10 per additional GB, so the overage rate is the same as the base rate. They have hands down the most comprehensive coverage in the US. 5GB is more than enough for 2 people to get through email and web browsing every day. I would not advise using it for streaming movies, an HD movie is about 2GB by itself.

We have a JetPack on Verizon and our daughter in college has one. She hits the 5GB limit every month watching TV, etc., we rarely come close.

Sprint MiFi prices are the same, but their coverage is not as complete as Verizon's.

[sch911]

Jetpack = Verizon Network The Verizon network has better 4G coverage IMHO.

[GordonThree]

Cellular data is super crazy expensive... it's probably the most expensive way to buy Internet access... there's no way around the cost. And using cell data to power a WiFi hotspot means you'll be using laptops, etc, which can burn through data faster than smart phones do.

I looked into pre-pay data, and the prices are crazy. Only way to get close to a fair deal is with a contract. Lot of folks here like Millinumcon or whatever it's called, which is a reseller for Verizon's network.

I'm not sure I understand your which is better question? A jetpack is a mobile hotspot, but it's a stand alone device. Smart phones can also serve as mobile hotspots, using an app - usually this is heavily regulated and / or forbidden by the carriers.

In my opinion, budget carriers Sprint and T-Mobile offer better prices, but the trade off is poor coverage. If either carrier had as big a network as they advertise, their service would no longer be cheap. If the area you like to camp in is serviced by one of these budget carriers, you can save a lot of money. Otherwise, you'll have nothing but frustration.