| Tether Sprint Phone or Mobile Hotspot both have NO throttle? I saw a Sprint ad saying something to the effect you can use the phone as a mobile hotspot and there are NO data limits and NO throttling?
But you have to by an extra $29.99 Mobile Hotspot data plan to do this?
I have VM BB2G which uses Sprint 3G and am throttled after 5GB from 1-2Mbps to 256KB if I'm lucky and pay $40/month for unlimited data.
Was hoping to get a Sprint 4G phone that I could tether.
Does Sprint throttle you on 4G on phone? on Mobile Hotspot?
Fine Print on Sprint 4G webpage says
2-With the Premium Data add-on. 3G plans have a limit of 300Mb roaming usage. Monthly download limit applies to 3G/4G phones, not 3G/4G Mobile Broadband devices.
Confusing, a Sprint 3G/ 4G phone is data limited but if you add the Mobile Hotspot does it becomes an unlimited Mobile Broadband Device???
Hoping some of you can explain the Sprint way... and if there's a way to come close to $40/5GB unlimited data and not throttle after 5GB. |
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| and you have to buy the $10/month Premium Data Plan? |
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 dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO
kudos:2 | reply to NYCuser
the 29.99 mobile hot spot is an add-on plan to a phone plan... so phone plan (100,90,70) + smartphone charge (10) + mobile hotspot plan (30) and then this bit of fine print attached to the mobile hotspot plan:
"Sprint reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of 3G data transferred. Your data usage is subject to the limits in your plan."
they also sell mobile hotspot units (Sierra Wireless overdrive 3g/4g and the mifi 3g/4g) that have no phone features... the plans for those have unlimited 4g but limited 3g... 3 gig 3g plan (45), 5 gig 3g plan (60), 10 gig 3g plan (90).. and a 4g unlimited gig plan (50).
So technically yes they are representing that it would be unlimited 3g/4g on the phone add on plan called "mobile hotspot plan". My guess is they would throttle the 3g at 5 gigs and never throttle the 4g side. |
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1 edit | reply to NYCuser
Hello, Ive had the Epic 4g from sprint since September with the hotspot option. It it more unlimited than Verizon's "unlimited" This phone is my main n only ISP for my house and on the road n i play MMO's n stream movies almost all day n night when not at work. Id say I use prob 20 gig a month at least with just 3g and Sprint hasn't said a word to me, nor throttle me. N yes 10 dollars for the unlimited data plan for the phone plus 30 bucks a month for the hotspot. With 750 minute plan it comes out to like 100 bucks a month for me with my discount. Tell them you work for FedEx or UPS, they wont check your employment. At least they didn't bother with me even tho I do work for one of those two. That gives you a 26% monthly discount. So basically the hotspot is free.They did make me jump through hoops to get the discount. They claim they will send you an email later about it, but they wont. You have to tell them when you start the plan so they can "note" it on your account, then after a month or two call them over n over about the discount. They will activate it, but it resets your contract the day the discount kicks in. So basically your contract ends up being 2 months longer than usual. Worth it in my opinion.
As for the 4G. No one really had 4g phones when I firs had my Epic 4g phone n was testing speeds with speedtest.net app for android everytime I went to another city with work. But it was very fast. 3g i normally get 500k to 1M. 4g i was getting anywhere from 4M to 11M. Usually over 8M on average. Denver, Colorado definitely was the fastest. Downloaded torrents at about 300KB to 500KB a second. Movies streamed flawless with 4g. IT WILL EAT YOUR BATTERY ALIVE tho. 4g AND hotpot activated at same time would kill your battery in 10 to 15 minutes.In fact, it uses so many watts, most aftermarket phone chargers don't have the amperage capacity to charge the phone while all that is activated. The phone says its charging, but it actually just dies really really slowly until you turn off the 4g n hotspot. That was with a car charger i bought at walmart. Plugging the USB into the PC was much worse. Works great with the stock charger with no problems.
My biggest beef is since this is CDMA technology, a text message will give you a 2 second lag spike, a phone call will terminate your internet connection until the phone call is over.
I hope that helps you on your decision. |
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 jsinaikoPremium
join:2001-04-25
Chicago, IL
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Midwest
| said by andyd00: IT WILL EAT YOUR BATTERY ALIVE tho. 4g AND hotpot activated at same time would kill your battery in 10 to 15 minutes.In fact, it uses so many watts, most aftermarket phone chargers don't have the amperage capacity to charge the phone while all that is activated. The phone says its charging, but it actually just dies really really slowly until you turn off the 4g n hotspot. That was with a car charger i bought at walmart. Plugging the USB into the PC was much worse. Works great with the stock charger with no problems.
I have found this to be the case.
But you are saying that a regular AC charger will at least hold a steady charge, if not actually giving juice to the battery? Bette than nuttin.
I use the hotspot feature (Nexus S) at my cabin in the woods. Lots of tree cover and it's hilly. The hotspot feature works great (3G - no 4G coverage because it's fairly remote). I couldn't get satellite because there was no line of sight because of the trees. No DSL or cable either. Just very slow dial-up but this allowed us to dump the land line. Decent phone coverage too.
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Illegitimati non carborundum
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dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO
kudos:2 | reply to NYCuser
Just saw this:
»www.engadget.com/2011/09/21/spri···ber-2nd/
So it appears that it was indeed unlimited... but shortly wont be. |
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 chong67
join:2001-11-18
Jonesboro, GA | What about tether thru phone? It is still unlimited right according to the report. |
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 AVDRespice, Adspice, ProspicePremium
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ | legal tethering or unofficial? |
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chong67
join:2001-11-18
Jonesboro, GA | Both. |
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dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO
kudos:2 | If the tethering is 3G it has already been 5GB (or the level you pay for) usage for some time (unless you still have an unlimited like many business accounts).... basically what they are changing here is they are removing the unlimited from the 4G side.
So if your tethering used to be x-GB of 3G (evdo) and unlimited 4G it would now be x-GB of 3G and 4G combined usage.
If your business plan was unlimited 3G (evdo)/4G unless you get a notice that it's changing I would guess it is still unlimited.
Unofficial tethering of course wouldn't change, as they don't even realize you are using the phone as a modem... I suspect that eventually an audit will find it and you'll get the "you need a phone as modem plan blah blah blah" email or letter  |
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WHT
join:2010-03-26
kudos:3 | said by dib22:I suspect that eventually an audit will find it and you'll get the "you need a phone as modem plan blah blah blah" email or letter
And who would say that I couldn't have been watching HD video for 18 hours per day on my phone for seven days of the week? |
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dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO
kudos:2 | said by WHT:said by dib22:I suspect that eventually an audit will find it and you'll get the "you need a phone as modem plan blah blah blah" email or letter
And who would say that I couldn't have been watching HD video for 18 hours per day on my phone for seven days of the week? Packet inspection? I only know a couple of people who ever got the letter back in the day, Sprint didn't provide their method of detection (this was pre-PAM plan days). Sprint goes though these phases where they "fire" customers... at least they did at one point. Perhaps this new better customer service sprint doesn't do that any more  |
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| reply to NYCuser
Listen.... i have the epic 4g and i use at least 200 gb of data a month. i have never been throttled! so yes the epic does have a tether option unlike evo 4g |
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