Cheapest way to get hotspot Data?

[yddeyma]

I've recently purchased rental #3 and I am finding between the minor rehabs I need to do before new tenants move in, plus the application process, I have an increasing need for a laptop or tablet with internet access.  It seems like the best way to coordinate all prospective tenants is to camp out at the rental on a Saturday, let everyone come look and collect applications at that time (got this idea from a thread here, you guys are so much smarter than me!).  The thing is, I'd really like to be able to lug along my laptop and allow tenants to fill out the MySmartMove stuff right then.  Add this into the fact that several times I've been doing my own maintenance and had to go home to get to YouTube for help or an OEM website for instructions and the lack of connectivity is costing me a bunch of time.  I really hate searching for that type of stuff on my phone, because I am so fat fingered.

My issues are that I live in a rural area, so I am only comfortable with the Verizon network.  I have had Sprint and AT&T/Cingular in the past and there are too many black holes of coverage in this area for me to want to waste time trying out their products (although it has been several years since I've tried).

Right now I'm with Page Plus Cellular with an iPhone 4 and I pay $32/month for 500M of data which I have never run out of.  The phone will not act as a hotspot, research has led me to believe that this is due to the software in the phone and the Page Plus software and how it interacts.  So, while the phone may have the capability to act as a hotspot, PagePlus will not allow it on their network.

My phone was free, and I don't want to spend a bunch either on a new plan or a new phone, but thought I'd check and see what hacks you guys have come up with for free or cheap hotspot data. I'll be honest, if it isn't cheap enough I'll just keep going without...its just something that would be handy to have, you know?

Any tips or suggestions?

[Daley]

A few things of note:

1) As a general rule, there's no way to override carrier settings on data tethering with an iPhone without jailbreaking. Your MVNO also doesn't have any control over enabling or disabling that feature on your iPhone. You can thank Apple's walled garden for that.

2) Although it is not expressly forbidden in direct language, there are enough weasel words that have been put in place now that it is technically against Page Plus terms of service to data tether even though their plans offer fixed data allotments and their past leniency with tethering. Page Plus used to not care so much about the practice, but a lot of things used to be said about PP before Carlos Slim bought them. Some people can get away with it and still do... YMMV. Just remember to read your contract.

3) The FCC technically mandated that carriers can no longer restrict data tethering on plans that have hard data caps, but there have been ways found to avoid that point through legal terms and conditions BS and/or "unlimited" data plans. Fortunately, there's no Verizon MVNO that's doing the "unlimited" data stunt, but the MVNO you're with? See point two.

4) Mobile data is expensive, and the Verizon restriction makes it worse. Expect the best price per GB to not drop below $10, and that's only with bulk discounts on larger usage plans either with or without phone service.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'll just casually mention Selectel. They're the same level of lenient on tethering that PP truly used to be, but that does nothing for the limitations in place with your non-jailbroken iPhone that would also need the $5 TetherMe app installed from the Cydia store after that point. They also have MiFi data only plans starting at $20/month for 1GB of data, but there's a $25 activation fee and $60 device that rides shotgun with it, though the device purchase price gets waved if you sign up for their $50/month 5GB plan.

Contrary to the popular opinion, mobile data is not cheap.

[APowers]

FreedomPop? I know it's gimmicky and let-me-datamine-you, but it doesn't seem like A.Engineer needs much, and maybe he wouldn't mind the hassle/etc?

[yddeyma]

The Selectel site intrigues me, but does not give enough info.  Its CDMA, so that's the Verizon network, right?  I feel like if I switched to them, I'd probably be in the same boat in terms of using the hotspot feature on my iPhone.  And I can't see paying for a phone plan AND a hotspot, although they do have a pretty cheap hotspot plan.  This may be one of those times where I don't need the convenience often enough to justify the cost.  Oh, but wait, its a pay by the month thing with no contracts...so maybe I could by the MiFi and only activate during months where I'm rehabbing/turning over property...I wonder if I can find the device used somewhere.

How much data would it use if I ditched my PP plan, bought the $30 MiFi plan from Selectel, and then used the wi-fi function on my iPhone to call people when I needed (Google Voice, or whatever, though I'm not sure how that would work with folks trying to call me).  Are you "using" data as long as the MiFi thing is on?  Or only when I'm actively connecting to the internet and downloading stuff?

I need to point out that I have an EXTREMELY limited understanding of how all this stuff works.  The only way I could make my iPhone work with PP to begin with is that when PP said they couldn't port it, I googled it and an extremely simple how-to video popped up on Youtube that described how to use kittyhawk to transfer it.  I don't understand what was going on, but it worked.

[FarmerPete]

Verizon prepaid Jetpack.  $15 for a week of access and 250mb.  Should be enough for what you want.  Just make sure you only pay for it when you need it.  If you have to do showings multiple weekends, try doing Sunday on week 1 and Saturday on week 2 to keep in the same 7 day window.  I really don't recommend doing this though.  If your laptop decides that it's going to check for Windows updates, you could blow through your entire 250mb in about 5 minutes with a solid 4G signal, and you wouldn't even realize it.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/prepaid-jetpack/

[Daley]

The Selectel site intrigues me, but does not give enough info.  Its CDMA, so that's the Verizon network, right?

Yes, Selectel is a Verizon MVNO. You put the Verizon restriction in place, as such, I wouldn't suggest otherwise. That said, CDMA is not exclusively a Verizon network technology. Both Sprint and US Cellular use CDMA as well.

No, switching to Selectel wouldn't solve your iPhone tethering issue specifically, just the terms of service issue with your current Verizon MVNO. You'd still need to jailbreak to make the tethering happen. Also, I missed the announcement yesterday that Page Plus has started doing the whole "unlimited" throttled data thing with some of their plans, no wonder they changed the terms of service to technically make tethering a violation.

Page Plus officially supports activating iPhone 4 and 4S handsets now (as of about 6-9 months ago, IIRC), and I think the 5 is officially permitted now as well since the LTE support rollout in October, but I always recommend taking the Verizon iPhone 5 to a GSM MVNO instead of sticking with Verizon unless you just absolutely need Big Red's network coverage.

The only used device that you could currently activate for a data only account with Selectel is a MiFi 2200, as they don't do 4G LTE devices as of yet. Contact support to see if you can activate a used Verizon Novatel MiFi 2200 with a clean ESN. If they say yes, you might be able to pick one up off Ebay for around $35-40. Not a great savings over theirs, but it is a technical savings that could potentially be shot if you have to replace the battery. Just be sure to ensure you buy a unit with a clean ESN, and it HAS to be a Novatel MiFi 2200 and Verizon branded. Clean ESN, Verizon branded, Novatel MiFi 2200. Got it?

I highly recommend against trying to do VoIP over a mobile data connection for a multitude of reasons, but for the technically curious, most usable codecs on mobile data use about 7-10KB/second, or around 500KB/minute.

[arebelspy]

I can only recommend the two options I use: FreedomPop and tethering with my iPhone.

FP has limited coverage, but check your coverage on their website, and consider jailbreaking your phone to allow tethering.

[Returnoftheyeti]

Ting gets good reviews.

https://ting.com

[MoneyCat]

You may want to consider switching to an Android smartphone because then you can buy PDANet+ for $6 and use your phone as a hotspot without extra charges.  Apple banned PDANet+ from the App Store, so it isn't available on iPhone anymore.