I bought a Freedompop mingle hotspot for $44 shipped. It is a refurbished Virgin mobile hotspot that does 4G/LTE and 3G. I got it to toss in the trailer for when we are out and about and either needed more data than the two Cricket phones offer or if they could not connect on the AT&T network. Freedompop uses the Sprint network, I'd also like something on Verizon too.
Freedompops basic plan is 500 mbs of 4g/LTE data a month for free. Having it be free month to month means it can be a back up, turned on when needed and extra data is $10 a Gig. They give you a 2 gig plan for the first month, so I have been giving it a good test.
The Mingle took a week to get here. They start your account the day it ships so that it is ready to go when you get it. It started right up and caught a 3G signal that while not as fast as the high speed, wasn't bad either. The 4G started connecting after joining their forum and listing it as the reason. In seconds I had a email and 100 mbs free for the inconvenience. Minutes later I turn the Mingle back on and it connected to 4G even though I am a half a block from the coverage area. 4G is faster to load than 3G most of the time.
The connection was 1 bar at best as I live 20 miles from downtown Denver. Even so most web pages loaded fine like on the high speed. You tube and videos took longer to load but ran fine after that. Even Pogo games loaded up and ran, the only website I have issue with was photobucket and it happens on my Cricket phone too. Switching the Mingle to the much stronger in my area 3G signal seems to allow photobucket to load.
The ability to use 3G on the free account cost $4 a month. Worth it if you don't get 4G or you travel a lot and need the expanded coverage of 3G
I was worried about Sprints coverage as I know it isn't the same as AT&T or Verizon. Sprints 4G map shows strong in major cities which I can attest to here in Denver. I have also had it out to the sticks in Michigan and got 4G out there too. Places like Quartzsite don't have 4G but do have 3G.
Freedompop has monthly plans including 3G that work out to the same $10 a gig in 2,3,4,5 and 10 gig sizes. You can roll over 500 mb's a month for $4 up to 20g. They have all the same plans for smart phones but I don't use them.
In testing out the Mingle and the Cricket phone hotspot I have been able to closely watch just how much data I use doing various things online. I was surprized to find out that checking email, cruising the forum and playing pogo hardly uses any data at all. I can Pogo bowl all day everyday and not use up the 500 mb's I get for free on the Mingle, not to mention the 20 gigs the phones give us.
Streaming, now that takes up some data. I have streamed hockey and football games and three games took up 5 gigs of data. Just listening to them isn't nothing but it eats up data much slower. Looking at pictures can eat it up too, I still need to attempt to upload a picture on photobucket to see what happens.
So what started out with me trying to find alternative connections for while on the road has turned into the realization that we don't need to pay $130 for high speed internet and cable TV or the land line that anymore is only used to keep the security connected. The hotspots will provide the internet. We get 30 usable channels OTA and the alarm will be switched to wireless for a small fee. That's $200 a month not going down the drain for nothing. That kind of money would allow me to upgrade the trailer for free and still be saving $200 a month after it's paid off.
Now up in the mountains there is no OTA signals and so far the internet has been only early in the day. We do use a Tailgater satellite system them but occasionally paying for that or some extra data here and there is still a lot less than paying for it all here all the time.
You can go to Freedompop.com to see their offers on phones and hotspots. I think it is a good service so far if you are in their coverage area and do not use huge amounts of data. I looked last night to get a Mingle for my mother in law that rarely uses internet but the only offer for her was a more expensive MiFi 500 that is going for $69.
I wanted to add a few things.
Freedompop friends is a program where you add list of emails of other freedopmpop users and get a free half a gig of data a month. You can also share you data back and forth between these friends up to 100 mb per friend and 500 mb shared or received.
Like ringplus, you have to watch the deals. They have run free plans for phones with unlimited talk and text and nearly 2 gigs of data.
