Mobile Hotspot/Mobile Broadband when travelling OS - Mainly USA

[JMFK]

I'm wondering if anyone had any advice/past experiences on picking up pre-paid mobile broadband/hotspot devices while in the US.

I was looking at the AT&T option but it seems expensive as one would have to buy the device ($200 USD) then a pre-paid sim ($50 USD for 5GB seems the cheapest).

I have a spare Telstra 3G mobile hotspot here and I was wondering if anyone could confirm whether it would work with an AT&T sim? It's a ZTE MF60.

Or should I just try to pick up an unlocked Netgear AirCard?

Any help appreciated!

 

[marki]

I'm wondering if anyone had any advice/past experiences on picking up pre-paid mobile broadband/hotspot devices while in the US.

I was looking at the AT&T option but it seems expensive as one would have to buy the device ($200 USD) then a pre-paid sim ($50 USD for 5GB seems the cheapest).

I have a spare Telstra 3G mobile hotspot here and I was wondering if anyone could confirm whether it would work with an AT&T sim? It's a ZTE MF60.

Or should I just try to pick up an unlocked Netgear AirCard?

Any help appreciated!

I have often been down this path myself. It can expensive to unlock a device locked into Telstra. There is also no guarantee that the radio inside is suited 100% to use in the USA, as you have bought the device in Australia I assume. Therefore Oz has slightly different frequency needs especially in the 4G and dual channel 3G area.

My other thought here is to use your phone as a tether after activating this function with AT&T. You buy just the sim then.

I had been happy with the above option just recently




Sent from my iPad using AustFreqFly mobile app

 

[JMFK]

I have often been down this path myself. It can expensive to unlock a device locked into Telstra. There is also no guarantee that the radio inside is suited 100% to use in the USA, as you have bought the device in Australia I assume. Therefore Oz has slightly different frequency needs especially in the 4G and dual channel 3G area.

My other thought here is to use your phone as a tether after activating this function with AT&T. You buy just the sim then.

I had been happy with the above option just recently




Sent from my iPad using AustFreqFly mobile app

Turns out I could of used the Telstra hotspot, but I would of needed to unlock it - there is software online that can do it.

I could of also bought an unlocked Sierra Wireless hotspot off ebay for about 70 bucks. It's the same hardware as the new Telstra 4G hotspot and AT&T hotspot - it's by Netgear. They are all 'global roaming' devices, across all GSM network things, quad band or whatever they call it.

In the end I just bought a prepaid AT&T 4G hot spot for $100 bucks, and 5G of data for $50 bucks. Absolutely invauable both for email and imessage on the go, and for using maps, researching what to do etc.

I should be able to unlock it and use it in Australia too.

 

[markis10]

I could of also bought an unlocked Sierra Wireless hotspot off ebay for about 70 bucks. It's the same hardware as the new Telstra 4G hotspot and AT&T hotspot - it's by Netgear. They are all 'global roaming' devices, across all GSM network things, quad band or whatever they call it......I should be able to unlock it and use it in Australia too.

It may look the same but that does not mean its frequencies in the software radio are the same, AT&T do not share any 4G frequencies with Telstra as such at present, if they rollout equipment using their newly acquired 700Mhz spectrum different story.

 

[pgsdiver]

This might be a little late for JMFK, but I've used, for the past 3 years, a really good 4G hotspot from T-Mobile. It's not all roses, though, as they have recently introduced a new mobile internet management website that makes it nearly impossible to reload the device with a data pass ($30 for 3GB for a month) online. Just spent 45 minutes on the phone to them to get it sorted, as one of my staff flies to the US for a month tomorrow.
In general, though, T-Mobile have always had the best service IN-STORE, and the coverage has been great, from Hawaii to Florida to Boston to New Orleans and Las Vegas.
However, if the difficulty in reloading continues then I'll switch next time I'm over there.
Out of interest, are you able to reload your AT&Tdevice from here in Aus? With Aussie credit card?
Cheers,
Peter

 

[JMFK]

Haven't yet needed to recharge, but the online system for checking your balance seems good, so I would assume I could recharge no problem.