mifi vs. iphone

[maflynn]

After coming back from vacation in the White Mountains of NH (where ATT has zero coverage) it became quite evident that my current mobile plan is insufficient.

I'm kicking around the idea of a verizon's mifi but they lock you into a 2 year contract and charge you about $50 a month for 4gb of data.

Now with the iPhone 5 coming out, and presumably LTE enabled, what advantage would a mifi be over tethering the iPhone?

Anyone have a mifi; Verizon's jetpack or what ever ATT calls it and the iPhone. why use it when the iPhone can kind of do that?

 

[Menel]

You're not going to have LTE coverage out in the boondocks, and if you're on ATT, your still not going to have coverage.

If your talking about switching to Verizon, and getting the new iPhone 6 on Verizon... just verify that you'll have coverage where you want. While Verizon does tend to have a better chance of coverage out in the boonies... they still have dead regions.

If you have Tethering, there is no benefit to the mifi.

 

[jkeekij]

I'm on Verizon and have all my devices on the Share Everything plan now and the Mi-Fi just sits in my bag. The iPhone and iPad being a hotspot is just too simple not to use when needed. They all can have multiple users sharing and is just as good as the Mi-Fi, and no extra power cord to lug around all the time. I wanted to drop the Mi-Fi, but of course I would have an ETF to pay. As soon as I can that thing is gone.

IMO, for my needs, the MiFi is not a necessary device any longer.

 

[ixodes]

I have been using MiFi for some time now. A bit pricey, but most definitely worth it. I don't mind having to carry an extra item and it's so much nicer than tethering.

Being able to supply a signal to multiple devices is a huge advantage. In my laptop bag I carry two phones, either my MBP or MBA, an iPad or Nexus 7, therefore it's ever so handy to have MiFi just sitting there to serve me.

Reliable, fast, great battery life, and it pulls in a signal when both of my phones won't in remote areas. Not all areas of course, but the weak ones always come in strong on it.

I hesitated before buying one, and now I'm so glad I did. After a month or so my friends bought theirs after hearing my success. To the person everyone is very happy.

 

[theanimala]

Using tethering is a test option for the mOney, but it does have 2 downfalls in my opinion. First is power. Your phone battery does go down quicker when tethering vs using your mifi's battery. Second, he connection will drop when voice calls are made (Verizon doesn't support simultaneous voice/data) where if you use a mifi you can talk and browse at the same time. That being said I feel the cost savings are worth it.

 

[maflynn]

You're not going to have LTE coverage out in the boondocks, and if you're on ATT, your still not going to have coverage.
...
If you have Tethering, there is no benefit to the mifi.

That's what I'm talking about, with the new iPhone being LTE what advantage is there for the mifi. Verizon has excellent coverage in the white mountains of NH (I used to be on VZW) but ATT has not improved their coverage in that state it seems. There's other reasons to switch to VZW but that's a topic for a different thread. I'm more interested in seeing the value of the mifi vs using the iPhone 5 on LTE.

The odds are high that I'll be wanting to use the device (mifi or iPhone) to allow my MBP access to the internet - does that alter the equation at all?

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Using tethering is a test option for the mOney, but it does have 2 downfalls in my opinion. First is power. Your phone battery does go down quicker when tethering vs using your mifi's battery. Second, he connection will drop when voice calls are made (Verizon doesn't support simultaneous voice/data) where if you use a mifi you can talk and browse at the same time. That being said I feel the cost savings are worth it.

Good point but I think with LTE we can have simultaneous voice and data - though I don't have a LTE equipped phone to confirm this

 

[Menel]

That's what I'm talking about, with the new iPhone being LTE what advantage is there for the mifi. Verizon has excellent coverage in the white mountains of NH (I used to be on VZW) but ATT has not improved their coverage in that state it seems. There's other reasons to switch to VZW but that's a topic for a different thread. I'm more interested in seeing the value of the mifi vs using the iPhone 5 on LTE.

The odds are high that I'll be wanting to use the device (mifi or iPhone) to allow my MBP access to the internet - does that alter the equation at all?

If you have a tethering plan. iPhone can create a hotspot, and you can connect multiple devices.

You might want an additional battery pack for the iPhone to keep you going all day. Also, bluetooth tethering is slower, but uses far less battery.

 

[takeshi74]

I'm more interested in seeing the value of the mifi vs using the iPhone 5 on LTE.

Value is always subjective. Functionally the two are equivalent. It comes down to whether you want to deal with another device/contract, if you'd rather not use up your phone's battery and so on. These aren't one-size-fits-all matters -- take a look at posts 3 & 4 in this very thread. Both posters are MiFi owners with very different opinions. You need to sort out where your preferences lie.

If you're going to get the iPhone 5 anyway then try it out first and see if tethering works for you.