using tablet sim card in hotspot for unlimited data

[philh]

Chatting with someone that claimed they had a hotspot they bought off ebay with unlimited data, they just plugged their tablet sim card into the hotspot. Is it really that easy, or did the hotspot have to be modified?

[MrWizard]

to the question .. YES on AT&T is that easy, and perhaps t mobile, not on Verizon

In this case
It is the SIM card from the tablet , that has unlimited data, it was/is a table only special plan,

He moved the SIM to a new unlocked hotspot,,so he could use the tablet data plan with any device he wants via the Wi-Fi, I think that is an AT&T plan from a while back, he probably got the hotspot and the tablet data SIM as a pkg deal from the ebay seller

Several members here have an AT&T vehicle/car plan , with unlimited data , special plan for the 'Mobley' car hotspot, intended to be used in motion while traveling , perhaps to keep children occupied,
But after activating the Mobley, they moved the SIM to an unlocked Netgear Hotspot for the AT&T network, because the Netgear is a better hotspot

[philh]

MrWizard wrote:

philh wrote:
Chatting with someone that claimed they had a hotspot they bought off ebay with unlimited data, they just plugged their tablet sim card into the hotspot. Is it really that easy, or did the hotspot have to be modified?

Did you just say that backwards, in reverse of the situation?

If someone had and unlimited data hotspot, that is a data plan attached to a particular phone number which is assigned to a particular SIM card
Devices connect via WiFi
Why put a tablet SIM card into the hotspot
If the hotspot plan is unlimited
Some one might move the hotspot SIM to the tablet, but then only the tablet would have unlimited data, unless used as the hotspot,

Poorly worded. They got the hotspot off ebay, and used a sim card from their tablet.

[MrWizard]

philh wrote:
Chatting with someone that claimed they had a hotspot they bought off ebay with unlimited data, they just plugged their tablet sim card into the hotspot. Is it really that easy, or did the hotspot have to be modified?

Did you just say that backwards, in reverse of the situation?

If someone had and unlimited data hotspot, that is a data plan attached to a particular phone number which is assigned to a particular SIM card
Devices connect via WiFi
Why put a tablet SIM card into the hotspot
If the hotspot plan is unlimited
Some one might move the hotspot SIM to the tablet, but then only the tablet would have unlimited data, unless used as the hotspot,

[philh]

Looked at AT&T plans. My cell phones are currently on the Elite plan. For a tablet, it's unlimited data, with slow down after 100G. IRC it was 45 before discount, and I don't recall my corporate discount, maybe 10/line

Contrast to the OTR, which is "unlimited", but I start receiving warnings at 22G. OTR's current rate is $90.

[RobWNY]

Last year, all over the internet, people were talking about an old AT&T tablet plan that was truly unlimited that wasn't advertised but still valid to purchase. You just needed to know where online to find it. It was all the rage. Use an older tablet that was collecting dust, sign up for the plan and input the tablet ID information they required. After the purchase was made, buy a SIM card, put it in a mobile hotspot router, activate it using the information given when they signed up and you then had a wifi hotspot with truly unlimited data. Perfectly legal to do, but because so many people were doing it, AT&T got wise to what was going on and really ended the tablet plan which made everyone's wonderful hotspot worthless.

From what I understand, when the big cell phone companies end a plan, they just make it unavailable to sign up for it. They don't actually remove the ability, it's just hidden. They do this in case they want to bring a plan back in the future. If you learned what the URL was to sign up you still could. I read where part of the deal was you had to allow recurring monthly billing and you could only cancel by doing it online but because AT&T really got rid of the plan, they removed the online sign up and cancel pages. AT&T reps didn't know how to cancel them either. it was like the accounts didn't exist but people were still getting charged every month.

So because the online cancel page was gone and AT&T reps were of no help, everyone that had signed up had to cancel their credit card to stop being charged monthly for a plan that no longer existed.

[srt20]

A sim is a sim. Nothing to be modified.

[valhalla360]

Lots of companies offer unlimited plans. A tablet is really just an oversize smartphone as far as the guts are concerned. If the tablet has hotspot capability, it's purely up to the data plan you have...and assumes it's compatible with the cell companies system.

Generally, the unlimited plans have a couple of catches:
- Check if it includes the hot spot. Sometimes it's extra to activate the hotspot and/or has a separate limit for hot spot data.
- After a certain limit, they will typically throttle the data. You can still use the data but it slows down. If you get to extreme levels of data usage, they may even drop you as a customer.