I need to get a mobile hot spot. One guy working all day, lots of emails, streaming music a lot.

How much data do I need in the package?

8hrs of Pandora/Spotify/etc at 320kbit is a little over 1.1GB.

At 4hrs/day, 5days per week, 20 work days per month, it would be ~10GB/mo.

Streaming content aside, you don't need much at all for email and basic browsing.

If you stream video, that will have a major impact on your data plan.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
8hrs of Pandora/Spotify/etc at 320kbit is a little over 1.1GB.

At 4hrs/day, 5days per week, 20 work days per month, it would be ~10GB/mo.

And that's just four hours per day. Over 20GB/mo. at eight.

Then there's...

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Streaming content aside, you don't need much at all for email and basic browsing.

Depends upon the email content (attachments? rich content?) and how much of that browsing has BIG photos or embedded Youtube! videos.

Very little video. I send and receive a shit ton of emails. I use excel a lot so I'll stream some music while I work.

I'll occasionally watch something on you tube, and spend some time on the forum, I have internet meetings, but really not much watching videos.

I'll relate my experience going from an unlimited WiFi ISP to a Verizon home internet device.
We live in very rural America and our options for high speed internet are very limited. We were having trouble with our former provider and decided to try Verizon home with an exterior antenna can. They promise if they can't provide at least 8 Mb down, they won't leave the device and won't charge you for coming out.

So signal was good, we had 12 Mb download speeds. Much better than the .8 we had with our WiFi set up. We had no idea how much data we used as we had an unlimited (unmetered) connection via wifi. So I choose a 10 GB plan. We don't watch TV, stream little music. We mostly web browse and view social media. Burned through 10 gigs in 6 days. though OK, this is an anomoly so we stuck with the plan and payed for the data overage. After 3 monthes of paying extra for going over on our plan, we settled on a 30 gig plan. Then Verizon went to unlimited but they throttle after 15 GB. We are consistently useing 25-28 GB a month. For 2 adults, one of whom is only home using the net for a few hours every day. We don't watch TV. We don't stream Pandora or Spotify, shut off auto updates on everything.

10 gigs is probably not enough.

As a poor schlub who has had to use a phone hot spot for the past year inside a building in downtown Atlanta, I suggest finding any other method.

I know you stated dedicated hotspot, but I don't see that as much of an improvement.

In my experience coverage is spotty at best. It just gets lumped in will all other cellular traffic. Also, initially, I used AT&T with terribe results. Verizon is better but still not ISP equal.

Another thing to consider is some desicated hot spots actually turn off their wifi capability if they are plugged in.

It has been a less than professional and greatly aggravating experience.

If you are old enough, think back to 14.4k, 'cause that's what it seems like.

Ymmv.



edited to correct typos

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ffips,

Your current provider might already indicate how much data you use, on your bill.

My current internet is through a guest connection in a customers facility. Its so spotty it's like third world internet. I dont really have another option than hot spot

How about using your phone as a hotspot or tethered (physically connected via cable), as ffips has done? Even if you didn't want to do that long term, you could use it for a month to see how much data you use.