Mobile Hotspots

Ahmet

Hallo everybody.

So, I'm looking into getting a mobile hotspot, and thought I'd ask for any suggestions, recommendations, anecdotes or horror stories you lot had before I buy. Mostly for work and general web browsing, though I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be playing Achaea on it too.

A bit of what I'm looking for:
    - Unlimited monthly data plans if at all possible (I know they're as rare as unicorns nowadays, but there's gotta be one or two still floating around out there, no?)
    - Don't care about the up-front costs, but reasonable costs for data down the line
    - Decent coverage/consistency
    - Absolutely no contractual plans under any circumstances

I've done a bit of research and I'm thinking I'm going to go with this one, but would like other suggestions to look over as well. Have a few minor concerns that I'm waiting on a customer support response about, but otherwise seems to be what I'm looking for.

So anyone use a mobile hotspot frequently? Any frustrations with yours in particular, or just mobile hotspots in general? Suggestions as to what to look for or avoid?

Thanks in advance

Atalkez

I have a personal hotspot setup in my phone plan with Verizon. For 8 months out of the past year, my entire connection to Achaea depended on this alone.

I can't comment on an unlimited plan, since mine is tied to my phone and is limited; but overall I haven't had many issues. In fact, my new apartment has a suddenlink connection that I often can't get to work (or it will a modem reset) and end up reverting back to my hotspot. It's easier, because it's more convenient and I always have it to fall back on.

The connection is generally more stable, as I can control the bandwidth usage by background applications and things like that, it also helps because I can use the single connection while others watch Netflix or whatever else without bothering my connection.

Latency usually is right at .2, though, which isn't exactly bad but not that good either. Good luck playing LoL/Dota etc.

Overall I'd suggest having one, purely for convenience purposes. It's nice to always have the ability to connect without needing to go to a Starbucks/McDonalds etc.

Ryzeth

Atalkez said:

Latency usually is right at .2, though, which isn't exactly bad but not that good either. Good luck playing LoL/Dota etc.

Pls. Played both of those games (and WoW to a fair-above-average level) with constant 250ms), but easier to adapt to when you can't do any better than that. Was a hard adjustment going from ~220-240/250 in WoW all the way down to 35 when Oceanic servers released. Much harder for me than going from 35->200+ 

Zulah

I only play because of my hotspot. I use an at&t 20gig 4g. Im not always in good signal so my latency is a bit rough a lot of the time. But at least i get to play and my whole setup fits in my pocket.

Bann

I also play on a mobile hotspot. I have twice had to use one to connect, because I live so far out in the middle of nowhere. I have a ZTE from USCellular, though, and it has a contract. Straight Talk has one that's available and it's per-month by-GB plan I think, so check that out. www.straighttalk.com  I am unsure as to how good it is though. My bestie used to tell me, 'as long as i see you login and reconnect regularly(because mentor), I know all is well in the world' because my shit would dc once an hour every hour lol.

Jonathin

Straight talk is ok. I almost always have lte signal and 3g if I don't have lte. I can play from my phone with almost no lag problems