Please, release me……from a dependence on hotspots
There are myriad options when it comes to connecting to the internet while away from home or office. You can get an account with any of the dozens of services out there where we can connect in some airports, some coffee shops, some hotels, etc. Of course, if you are in a ‘hotspot’ that isn’t part of your service plan, you get a second service plan or just pay the one-day (or two-hour) access fees. That can start to add up, I assure you.
Once you get to a hotel, you can use either the wired or wireless services they offer. Some of the services are free–some are not. At an increasing number of hotels (ok, expensive hotels–see below) the wired service is free, but if you want to roam around your tiny room, you pay.
Fun fact: why do some hotels have free internet access and others do not? Oddly enough, the expensive hotels that cater to business travelers still mostly charge for internet. Business travelers will not hesitate to pay an extra $12.95/day so the hotels charge for it. And biz travelers choices are not based on cost. Budget hotels are all competing with each other for services and cost so most give it away for free. It may not make sense, but that is how it works.
Alright, so you don’t want to be at the mercy of random hotspots so you can either tether your phone to your laptop and use your phone’s built-in modem or get a mobile modem (available from most carrriers). There are limitless forums about tethering on the nets so make sure to check them before you pick a phone/plan. The iPhone, for example, doesn’t allow tethering (oh, and it isn’t HSDPA, so would be slow even if you could tether it). A mobile or cellular modem is available from most mobile phone retailers and you can get them for anywhere from free to a couple of hundred dollars. Here is the page on VerizonWireless that shows several mobile modems.
Service, though, is what costs a lot. You are looking at about $60/month to either tether or have a mobile modem. That is for ‘unlimited’ usage (again–you can check the nets, but unlimited actually only means ‘reasonable,’ according to Verizon, AT&T, etc).
I carry the VerizonWireless UM150 and am very happy with it. Of course, there is always the newest and best out there and now I see that Sprint is offering a wireless modem with integrated GPS. That would be very nice, but, alas, not for me right now.
