5 ms·

note that this is clearwire wimax only - a network that is actively shrinking as they transition to lte and their partner (sprint) decommissions iDen cells. Yo

by trotsky 14y ago

note that this is clearwire wimax only - a network that is actively shrinking as they transition to lte and their partner (sprint) decommissions iDen cells. You can get a similar price item with better connectivity but without the gimmicks from sprint's budget brand: $79 for a wimax+3g hotspot, $35/mo for 2 gigs of 3g data on sprint (evdo rev a) and "unlimited" wimax. or $5/day for 200mb/"unlimited"(activated for just the days you use it) sprint's evdo rev a network performs pretty poorly, but it is way better than not having a signal, something that will be true more often than not with wimax only service.

Samuel_Michon 14y ago
"sprint's budget brand: $79 for a wimax+3g hotspot" I had to look for it, but here it is, apparently Sprint uses the Virgin brand name in the US: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadband-2-go/ http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadba... I'll be in the US for the rest of the year, so I'm buying one of these - way cheaper than international roaming. Thanks for the tip!
- trotsky 14y ago
  Had intended to include a link - my bad & thanks for providing it.
- stephengillie 14y ago
  @parent comment: Virgin is an MNVO that buys airtime from Sprint and resells it. @GP comment: AND you can just buy a CLEAR hotspot for $50 and pay $50/mo for their unlimited service. edit: tried to make it more clear...
  - STRML 14y ago
    Right - but that's WiMAX only. TBH the extra $30/mo is great to connectivity almost everywhere, even if it is awful EVDO Rev A. You can also do the same with a rooted android Sprint phone... and get phone service to boot. IMO a better deal.
  - trotsky 14y ago
    It's perhaps of questionable importance, but while virgin usa used to be a sprint partnership mvno, sprint bought them outright in 2009. Sprint also owns 54% of Clear.
driverdan 14y ago
While the Virgin Mobile hotspot is a good deal its service can be worse than Clear, despite piggybacking on it. I have a Clear Apollo hotspot ($50/m, unlimited WiMax). Recently I used mine side-by-side with a friend's VM hotspot. I got 4/5 bars with 8Mbit/1Mbit. He got 2/5 bars and couldn't maintain a connection. It's possible my device has a better antenna than his but that doesn't seem like the issue since my signal was so strong.
rektide 14y ago
Oh, wimax, that's unfortunate: I was hoping it was piggybacking some LTE or HSDPA network. This is no longer nearly as interesting. That said, this being a pay-per-use device is awesome, and it being useful to anyone nearby is doubly awesome. $15/GB is a way better pay-per-use price than anyone else out there. Walmart TruConnect, for example, is a 3G only device that is $45/GB. Real pay per use encourages us to be thrifty with out bandwidth, to connect to wifi, and to not worry about a silly over-utilization feees (going over) or silly under-utilization (per month plans far in excess of actual usage). I highly look forward to this less stressful pay-per-use data economy taking root.

by trotsky 14y ago

Samuel_Michon 14y ago

"sprint's budget brand: $79 for a wimax+3g hotspot" I had to look for it, but here it is, apparently Sprint uses the Virgin brand name in the US: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadband-2-go/ http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadba... I'll be in the US for the rest of the year, so I'm buying one of these - way cheaper than international roaming. Thanks for the tip!

trotsky 14y ago
Had intended to include a link - my bad & thanks for providing it.
stephengillie 14y ago
@parent comment: Virgin is an MNVO that buys airtime from Sprint and resells it. @GP comment: AND you can just buy a CLEAR hotspot for $50 and pay $50/mo for their unlimited service. edit: tried to make it more clear...
- STRML 14y ago
  Right - but that's WiMAX only. TBH the extra $30/mo is great to connectivity almost everywhere, even if it is awful EVDO Rev A. You can also do the same with a rooted android Sprint phone... and get phone service to boot. IMO a better deal.
- trotsky 14y ago
  It's perhaps of questionable importance, but while virgin usa used to be a sprint partnership mvno, sprint bought them outright in 2009. Sprint also owns 54% of Clear.

driverdan 14y ago

While the Virgin Mobile hotspot is a good deal its service can be worse than Clear, despite piggybacking on it. I have a Clear Apollo hotspot ($50/m, unlimited WiMax). Recently I used mine side-by-side with a friend's VM hotspot. I got 4/5 bars with 8Mbit/1Mbit. He got 2/5 bars and couldn't maintain a connection. It's possible my device has a better antenna than his but that doesn't seem like the issue since my signal was so strong.

rektide 14y ago

Oh, wimax, that's unfortunate: I was hoping it was piggybacking some LTE or HSDPA network. This is no longer nearly as interesting. That said, this being a pay-per-use device is awesome, and it being useful to anyone nearby is doubly awesome. $15/GB is a way better pay-per-use price than anyone else out there. Walmart TruConnect, for example, is a 3G only device that is $45/GB. Real pay per use encourages us to be thrifty with out bandwidth, to connect to wifi, and to not worry about a silly over-utilization feees (going over) or silly under-utilization (per month plans far in excess of actual usage). I highly look forward to this less stressful pay-per-use data economy taking root.