What is the BEST no contract hotspot?

[mikeleblanc413]

I've used Millenicom and Straight Talk that each worked from the Verizon Towers and have been pleased. Wondering if there is something more excit8ing (as if very dependable) out there. Travelling is limited for now. Will mostly be used in the Galveston, Texas area and south Louisiana. Definitely appreciate all input!

[lbrjet]

I took my out of contract Verizon Mifi to a store and they set it up for their no contract pay as you go plan for free. $90 monthly for 10 gig or $60 for 3 gig. We only use it 3-4 months a year so this works for us.

[JiminDenver]

The Karma hotspots are suppose to separate your data stream from those that are sharing it, the same as the xfinity guest hotspots or so they claim.

With Karma pay as you go plan any data you put on the hotspot does not expire. So like my Freedompop and ringplus hotspots, you can toss them in a drawer until needed without a monthly cost.

[rwbradley]

One word of advice for karma... the name is the big hint about the service... you get Karma for sharing your hotspot with others and you cannot turn this off. It cannot be secured with encryption to protect your data from prying eyes which is a big security issue. From a security perspective you might as well be using Starbucks free WIFI. Also the whole Karma thing is that you are sharing your OPEN hotspot with anyone who can see it, so better hope your neighbor does not connect and decide to stream YouTube in 4K on your hotspot or it will be really slow or worse download Torrents, or surf the kind of porn that gets you put in jail. From a security perspective I would not touch this one with a 10 foot pole way too many risks. However if you use it primarily while boondocking where neighbors are miles away it may not be as high a risk.

[JiminDenver]

We use a Cricket phone (AT&T) with hotspot for $65 a month including TnT and 10 gig of data.

I also use a Freedompop (Sprint) hopspot with a gig of data free a month. I also have a RingPlus phone (Sprint) with a hotspot with a free gig of data a month.

Karma (Sprint) had a unlimited use hotspot throttled to 5 mbps for $50 but recently have dropped speeds to between 2 and 3 mbps.

These are just a start but if you really want more info, go to howardforums.com and they have info on any plan, phone, network, etc.