T-Mobile Hot Spot $35mo /6G/Unlimited Streaming..Review

[Rbertalotto]

So to beat the clock of a January 22 sunset on this $35 a month T Mobile plan with 6G and unlimited bing streaming of HuLu, Netflix, DirecTV now, etc...On Friday I waltzed into the local T-Mobile store.

At first they knew nothing about such a plan. On my phone I opened the Technomadia website and showed them the article. A few minutes later they "found" it....Fifteen minutes later I walked out the door with a Alcatel Hot Spot ($70) at $3 a month and a few $$ for taxes etc. Total monthly is under $40. (BTW...These folks at the T Mobile store claim this option is not going away. They showed me a bunch of voice plans that would be terminated on Jan 22 and this plan was not among them)

If you are a paying member of Technomadia, there is a bunch of this info on their web site. Not sure how much is available on the free site (BTW, if you are not a paying member of Technomadia, and you have any interest in WiFi/Cellular/Data/Solar/etc....You should be! I can't tell you how many times I saved the yearly subscription fee by not going down the wrong road with all this technical stuff!)

Anyways...I continue...All weekend I ran my entire office, my Apple TV, my Amazon Fire Stick and three devices off the Alcatel T-Mobile Hot Spot. It worked amazingly well. I could not tell the difference from my cable (Comcast) hard wire connection. Both wife and I were streaming content with fantastic results. My wife had no idea her I-Pad and I-Phone were operating from a hot spot.

I also have a Verizon hotspot and a Sprint hotspot. The Sprint is totally useless....3G for $30 a month but it is able to connect about 50% of the time...Last week I was in Herndon VA and the Sprint had zero service. In fact, on the drive down from Massachusetts to Herndon, VA, I tested both Sprint and Verizon about every hour (Didn't have T-Mobile yet) and the Sprint rarely had good enough service to run my business from.....Terrible product and terrible service!

As we all know, Verizon is fantastic for connections. I've NEVER been in a situation where Verizon didn't work great. But if you want to stream video, better have a big wallet! My Verizon HS is supplied by my company with a huge data plan that we never reach.

Hope this helps other with the decision....

[gemert]

chuckbear wrote:
Technomadia has reported that T-Mobile shelved this plan. Chuck

They no longer write new Simple Choice Plans but they do support the ones that were active and will continue to. The new unlimited plans from T will slow you down after 28gb (I think). The old plans gave you unlimited streaming that does not impact your data allowance.

[chuckbear]

Technomadia has reported that T-Mobile shelved this plan. Chuck

[Rbertalotto]

I was out the door for $23. They charged me $20 for a set up fee and a fee $$ for some kind of other fees. Monthly bill will come via internet. You can cancel anytime but would need to pay off the remainder of the charge for the Hot Spot.?
You can cancel the whole deal within 16 days but lose the $20.
Hard to beat in my book....

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Not only USA, but Canada and Mexico as well.

Pirate wrote:
Can you travel anywhere in US with that hot spot?

[Pirate1]

Can you travel anywhere in US with that hot spot?

[RoyB]

I'm at a point here I don't know which way to go... I do need to upgrade my VERIZON MIFI 2200 unit ($30 a month for 3GB plan) for something faster for sure...

I'm paying way too much for our Verizon package that has three cell phones and my mifi box. Two lines unlimited and grandfathered for several years... The third line is just for phone calls no data or text...

Bill is almost $300 a month now haha... And I am hearing another 'fine' for being grandfathered is coming down on me soon. Already paying $49.99 each for two lines that are unlimited everything. Then is says under that charge 'unlimited monthly kilobyte' Time to do something I reckon...

We have already switched the one line just for phone calls to a track phone from WALMART. I can drop that one now that the wife has gotten use to her new phone with no contract. That only saves some $16 from the bill however...

We seem to only be able to use the Verizon Cell tower here where we live so if I go with no contract phones I will need for them to work through the Verizon towers...

Roy Ken

[pianotuna]

In Canada, I expect T-Mobile to work any where the "big 3" of Bell, Telus and Rogers. That was my experience last summer with an offshoot of T-Mobile called Metro PCS.

I find it ironic that T-Mobile, in a sense, has better coverage in Canada.

[MrWizard]

T-Mobile is their own carrier, with their own towers and eQuipment
They do use the same technology GSM as AT&T

[Dutch_12078]

RoyB wrote:
RoyB,

What carrier is T-Mobile... I think it is AT&T. One of them is gaining ground on the VERIZON coverage area... They claim only 2% difference now but don't tell in what area...
...

T-Mobile is, well, T-Mobile... They're the third largest carrier in the US and have been expanding their coverage significantly. They're still a ways behind AT&T and especially Verizon though. We dropped an unlimited 4G/LTE plan with them due to the lack of service in too many areas where we travel. Verizon and AT&T are serving us quite nicely though.

Be wary of those "percentage" claims made by competing carriers against Verizon. Sprint likes to claim their network is only 1% less reliable than Verizon for instance, but consider if we assume Verizon is 100% reliable (They're not, of course), then Sprint would have about 88 hours of downtime per year. That's a little over 3.5 days in total with no service! "Can you hear me now?" Nope, your network is down... 😉

[pianotuna]

T-mobile likes to change their plans rather quickly. I bought in the first week of December 2016, and since then there have been two major shifts in plans and price.

As it is no contract one can move to the newer plans at any time with no penalties. However, one needs to read the fine print.

My current plan is 4 G on the device, and 3 G for hot spot. Hotspot is full speed until 28 gigs of data have been used then it reverts to 2 G. I think (but am not sure) that the device still remains at 4 G and is unlimited.

It will be interesting to see if 3 G meets my needs when I return to Canada. I'm certainly hoping so.

[RoyB]

RoyB,

What carrier is T-Mobile... I think it is AT&T. One of them is gaining ground on the VERIZON coverage area... They claim only 2% difference now but don't tell in what area...

I really like this idea of using the Internet to watch SAT TV haha...

I am assuming the Alcatel Hot Spot is like the VERIZON MIFI program...

I have the older MIFI 2200 which is only good for 3GB data plan each month... It costs $30 a month for the 3GB plan...

Guess I should be looking at what you just got... You are getting 6GB data plan for $70 to purchase the box and then $35 a month for the plan? So to get it you was only out $70 at the store???

I dropped SAT TV sometime back and just got a brochure describing where DirecTV and AT&T are teaming up to put SAT Tv on the internet - no dish required...

Explain all of that again haha...

This looks good for 3g and 4g coverage at my home address where normally only Verizon works here...


Google image

The overlap didnt show.... It shows 4G and 3G all around my neighborhood here in King george....

RoyB from King George