Benefits of Mobile Hotspot over Tethering with a Smartphone
Any seasoned road warrior knows that when it comes to packing for a trip, nine out of ten times less means more. No one likes to pay excess baggage fees so making your luggage weigh less means carrying fewer gadgets. Nowadays, one item can serve many purposes. Your smartphone, for instance, can serve as a watch or a camera. It can even be set to act as a “local hotspot”. This can come in handy when you are traveling in a group or need to share your mobile WIFI with your business associates.
While smartphones are getting better at handling some of the tasks that were meant for several devices in the past, the truth is, there are a few things to consider, especially if choosing to use your mobile phone instead of carrying around a separate mobile hotspot.
- A lot of phones come “locked” to a particular network, and when you are traveling abroad, roaming outside of your carrier’s network can cost you a pretty penny. Therefore, if you want to avoid hefty phone charges, it is highly recommended to purchase an additional data SIM card and use it with mobile hotspot.
- Using your smartphone as a hotspot will also drain your battery a lot faster, which can be very inconvenient especially when you have a long day of business meetings or sightseeing ahead of you.
- You may not be able to receive phone calls while tethering on your phone. Imagine a scenario when you are trying to write an important email to update your boss about a successful meeting you just had or tell your husband to feed your cat while you are away and your phone rings but you can’t answer it because if you do, your network will disappear. Remember, not all mobile phones support voice and data at the same time!
- You may not be able to successfully tether multiple devices on your phone’s hotspot. Usually adding more than one or two devices to the network created by your smartphone will impair the performance of the network, whereas most of the mobile hotspots can support as many as ten devices simultaneously.
If money is your main concern, a mobile hotspot does not have to come with contract or rental fees. At Keepgo, you can buy a great pay-as-you-go MiFi hotspot that will provide you with seamless data roaming experience and save you some money and trouble along the way. And the best part is that you will be able to use this nifty little gadget anytime anywhere.
If you spend a lot of time on the go, having a reliable Internet connection is essential. You may not be able to get WiFi during your next trip, and even if you do, there is always a chance that it will be slower than what you are used to, and a simple task like uploading your photos to your favorite social network or sending an email can become a nuisance. Therefore instead of experiencing a series of inadvertent network disruptions, you should opt for a portable mobile hotspot.
You will not have to spend hours trying to hone your packing skills in order to fit another gizmo in your carry-on as most of the hotspot devices can easily fit in your wallet. That’s why they call them “pocket WiFi”.