Mobile internet for 3 Months [USA]

[dikketienes]

Hi,

I'm going to W-America in September for 3 months.
And I need the have internet access. So I'm planning to take my iPhone with me. I still have a 3G but hopefully I get a simlock free iPhone 4 this month, to take with me.
So my question is are there any solutions for this? Of course there are allot of WIFI hotspots but not always. So is there a possibility to get a Prepaid sim the get internet on my iPhone for these 3 months? or other affordable possibilities?

Thanks

 

[Kenal0]

Virgin Mobile has a prepaid MIFI mobile hotspot. It does cost $149 for the device but I am sure you could sell it at the end of the 3 months. The nice part is you can connect up to 5 devices at once so if you need it for a laptop, ipad etc it will work with those devices as well, plus if you connect your phone to the mobile hotspot via wifi, apps such as skype will not use cell time.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband


Kenal0

 

[fibrizo]

Hi,

I'm going to W-America in September for 3 months.
And I need the have internet access. So I'm planning to take my iPhone with me. I still have a 3G but hopefully I get a simlock free iPhone 4 this month, to take with me.
So my question is are there any solutions for this? Of course there are allot of WIFI hotspots but not always. So is there a possibility to get a Prepaid sim the get internet on my iPhone for these 3 months? or other affordable possibilities?

Thanks

This might be tougher in the US. I know you can get an ATT Gophone sim and hack the 3g to use it, (not sure about the 4g yet), but you'd pay 19.99 for 100mb of data.

One option might be to get an ipad sim, and hack your phone settings to use data only and get the 2gb for 25$

Worst case scenario you can get the virgin mobile mifi.

 

[dikketienes]

@Kenal0:
Ow great idea. This way I also can use my MBP.

Thanks going to look into it.

 

[dikketienes]

@fibrizo: Why worst case?

 

[fibrizo]

@fibrizo: Why worst case?

Because of the cost of data. The Mifi is 149, which is an up front cost.

Then the data breakdown is as follows for the mifi

10$ for 100mb
20$ for 300mb
40$ for 1gb
60$ for 5Gb

Whereas the ipad sim is 25$ for 2gb... while not mbp compatible obviously.

 

[dikketienes]

And if it's possible to enable Tethering? Then I would be able to connect my MBP to my iPhone.

I don't know if it's possible but just thinking out loud.

 

[nebo1ss]

Hi,

I'm going to W-America in September for 3 months.
And I need the have internet access. So I'm planning to take my iPhone with me. I still have a 3G but hopefully I get a simlock free iPhone 4 this month, to take with me.
So my question is are there any solutions for this? Of course there are allot of WIFI hotspots but not always. So is there a possibility to get a Prepaid sim the get internet on my iPhone for these 3 months? or other affordable possibilities?

Thanks

Learn to love Starbucks coffee. They just converted all their stores to free WiFi from 1st July. In any major City there is going to be a Starbucks nearby.

 

[nebo1ss]

And if it's possible to enable Tethering? Then I would be able to connect my MBP to my iPhone.

I don't know if it's possible but just thinking out loud.

You can enable Tethering by jailbreaking your 3G and installing an application from Cydia called MiFI. The problem is lack of reasonably priced data on the iphone pay and go. Unless you using your existing plan with roaming but the data cost is likely to be even more expensive. It might be worth checking with your carrier to see if they offer a fixed price per month roaming data plan before you leave.

 

[Syk]

Are you going to be in the same location during your stay or traveling?

Locally we have a prepaid service called ClearTalk and they started doing wireless internet not too long ago here. You have to buy the USB device and I think it's $30 unlimited data, no contract.

Check out Cricket Wireless also, they are similar to ClearTalk
Just looked it up for Cricket and its $40 a month
http://www.mycricket.com/broadband/plans/40bb_rpr

If you're going to be traveling then VirginMobile would probably be do able

 

[dikketienes]

My carrier doesn't have a fixed price for roaming.

I'm going to travel between Seattle and Sedona, AZ and a few city's in between. So I don't think Cricket is going to be the solution.
The coverage seems pretty good, though.

There are a lot of pros and cons on the MIFI hotspot. I like the part where I can connect my devices (going to buy a iPad 3G in the US so 3 devices).
The battery and the price is definitely a con. How about the coverage of 3G with the MIFI hotspot of Virgin Mobile?

Thanks for your input so far everybody.

 

[nebo1ss]

My carrier doesn't have a fixed price for roaming.

I'm going to travel between Seattle and Sedona, AZ and a few city's in between. So I don't think Cricket is going to be the solution.
The coverage seems pretty good, though.

There are a lot of pros and cons on the MIFI hotspot. I like the part where I can connect my devices (going to buy a iPad 3G in the US so 3 devices).
The battery and the price is definitely a con. How about the coverage of 3G with the MIFI hotspot of Virgin Mobile?

Thanks for your input so far everybody.

Not sure if you are aware of this, but if one of your devices is a MacbookPro and you find a suitable 3G usb dongle you can enable sharing on the MacbooPro and that creates a WIFI hotspot for multiple devices to share the dongle. This works out of the box no modding necessary.

 

[Syk]

Not sure what Cricket broadband coverage is but as long as the area you're any has the coverage. You'll be able to use it. If you know were you're going get the zip codes and put them in on their coverage map. If you're wanting to share you connection you could probably set your laptop up as a proxy and an ad hoc network. I'm not sure if the iPad can connect to an adhoc network. Others will know..

Also do the same with VirginMobile, put in the zip codes.

I guess the big question is where will you be staying? Most hotels offer free wifi, McDonalds, StarBucks, Sonics(food change) and tons of others have free wifi.

Unless it's business and you need to pull over to the side of the road or if you're staying with people that don't have internet. I would probably just look for a wifi solution and save a few hundred dollars(card and services)

ETA: You may want to check. I'm not sure what country you're coming from but the pay per use services may not let you setup an account without a valid US address. Just thinking out loud. I have no clue..