Wifi 4G hotspot device or use mobile phone hotspot?

Mutton_Geoff

I'm off on holiday to the Caribbean soon and will need a network connection to pick up weather/email etc. I'll buy a local sim for the data and have a couple of old phones available. Am I better buying a Huawei (or equiv) 4G wifi hotspot device and popping the sim in there or just using my old Samsung S5 with mobile hotspot enabled on the local sim?


There will be 2-3 devices connecting to it.

Neil_Jones

For ease of use you can use the Samsung as you just set it up and cap the number of users who can connect to it - might not be lightening fast though (but this depends on the quality of your signal). This would also save money and the need to buy another device; unless of course you would have a need for a hotspot device when you come home... If you don't then it seems pointless just for a holiday. IMO.

sal_III

It really depends on what the local mobile operators can offer in terms of Data SIMs. The main difference between a phone hotspot and a dedicated device is that many mobile networks offer much cheaper deals for Data only SIMs that don't work in mobile phones, but only in 3/4/5G dongles.

EveryWhere

sal_III wrote: »

It really depends on what the local mobile operators can offer in terms of Data SIMs. The main difference between a phone hotspot and a dedicated device is that many mobile networks offer much cheaper deals for Data only SIMs that don't work in mobile phones, but only in 3/4/5G dongles.

What?! No.

Mutton_Geoff

I'm going to the BVIs and looking at Finder, it shows 3 providers:


Digicell, Flow and CCT.


All of them charge $10 per GB on their 2/3GB plans but activation and top ups require keying in numbers, so presumably the sim has to go back into a phone unless the Huawei unit has the facility to send keypad presses through the interface software?


Since I have a spare phone, and the Digicall package comes with some local calls, I could put the sim in the old S5 then enable the hotspot so then our new phones hook up to that so Whatsapp etc still works as normal on our regular numbers and the old phone can be used to make local calls.


Thanks for the tips, looks like I don't need to spend on the hub now.