Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4G, or LTE.

Posted by chatmasta on Tuesday December 24, 2013 @08:26PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I'm wondering if anyone has a good solution to this problem:

I want a mobile hotspot so that I can browse the Internet on my MacBook while riding the train/bus/whatever. I want to prepay for data transfer with no expiration. e.g., pay $50 for 5gb of data transfer that I can use whenever I want.

From my research, it seems like the major carriers all offer hotspots, but either confine you to a monthly contract, or offer prepaid plans with expirations. So yes, you can pre-pay $50 for 5gb of data, but you need to pay it again the next month even if you did not use all 5gb of data.

It seems like the best solution is a USB modem with a SIM card slot, coupled with a prepaid data plan loaded onto a SIM card. But this raises many questions: Which USB modem? Which bands should it support? Where to buy the SIM card?

I imagine this is a problem someone on HN has already solved. But the literature online is surprisingly sparse. So... any recommendations?

( 8 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by win_ini on Wednesday December 25, 2013 @12:00AM (#6962244)

Depending on your level of risk taking, you may be interested in something like this from eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOBILE-HOTSPOT-FLASHED-TO-VERIZON-PP...

The units are flashed and use Verizon's prepaid Internet plans but are effectively unlimited - if you prepay your account for a year - you get unlimited 3G data during that time for about $100/yr.

I couldn't quite believe when I stumbled across it - but it reminds me of hacked satellite encryption back in the day. Hard to believe this would actually work - or keep working for a long time - but based on some questioning - these eBay vendors stand behind their products....

Perhaps someone has a better idea of how these actually function....I don't.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by rahimnathwani on Wednesday December 25, 2013 @10:54PM (#6965207)

They may be using a plan which was not intended for mi-fi or smartphone use. I guess they reprogram the IMEI or equivalent of Sim ID of a 'basic phone' onto the Android phone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by phamilton on Tuesday December 24, 2013 @08:36PM (#6961861)

"Internet on the go" at Walmart.

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Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by gcb0 on Tuesday December 24, 2013 @11:40PM (#6962198)

that's actually very nice to have in the wallet for when t-mobile/att has no coverage and you have to work. any idea which network it uses?

any first hand experiences?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by phamilton on Wednesday December 25, 2013 @06:17PM (#6964668)

I believe it's an MVNO for Sprint.

I haven't used Internet On the Go, but I have used TruConnect which is the same company. TruConnect worked alright. I have a personal connection to the company and did some work for them at one point in time so I'm not completely impartial, but their average customer was a 200 MB / month customer. Any more and a subscription would makes sense.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by battlesoap on Wednesday December 25, 2013 @12:22AM (#6962298)

I was looking at [this](https://yourkarma.com/) the other day. It looks like this is what you're looking for.

$14 per GB is pretty expensive though, but the data doesn't expire.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by raw_creations on Tuesday December 24, 2013 @08:53PM (#6961895)

T-Mobile $45.00 per month "unlimited" +$5.00 more for HotSpot

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Re:Ask HN: Prepaid mobile hotspots with no expiration? 3G, 4... by gcb0 on Tuesday December 24, 2013 @11:38PM (#6962190)

that is exactly what OP is not looking for

[ Parent | on HN ]