Short-term hotspot plans?

[MarshieZ]

Here ya go: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/mobile-broadband/broadband-2-go/netgear-mingle/features/

 

The Netgear Mingle is Tri-Band and they offer 3 plans:

 

$5 per day for 250 MB

$25 a month for 1.5 GB

$55 a month for 6 GB

[thewezgrays]

Ben brings up a good point. You can add the hotspot plan ($20 for 2GB) to your phone pretty easily. If you only leave it on there for a week, it is prorated down to that week charge ($5).

So do they prorate the charges but not the data?  One could activate it, use the 2GB and deactivate and only pay the proration?

[mrknowitall526]

So do they prorate the charges but not the data? One could activate it, use the 2GB and deactivate and only pay the proration?

Yeah, even for data plans, they only prorate it by days. So you can theoretically use all the data in a 12 GB plan, switch to another one and use more.

[Yuhfhrh]

So do they prorate the charges but not the data?  One could activate it, use the 2GB and deactivate and only pay the proration?

 

Yes, it still works this way as of last week. You can get a fresh 2GB every day if you wait a couple hours in-between adding and removing the service, or alternatively flip between the 1GB/2GB/6GB option daily.

[MacinJosh]

I hope they continue to do it that way, but hopefully data abusers don't take advantage of this.

 

 

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

[Destroyallcubes]

I hope they continue to do it that way, but hopefully data abusers don't take advantage of this.

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

Probably should be addressed if possible. I could see this work around being abused and probably already is being abused.

[MacinJosh]

Probably should be addressed if possible. I could see this work around being abused and probably already is being abused.

Based on that, I would be billed overage on 70MB of data from hotspot on my iPad from yesterday.

 

 

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

[Destroyallcubes]

Based on that, I would be billed overage on 70MB of data from hotspot on my iPad from yesterday.

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

But isn't removing a hotspot plan and adding it back a few hours later to restore your GB usage considered a violation of sprint TOS and considered abuse in a sense?

[MacinJosh]

But isn't removing a hotspot plan and adding it back a few hours later to restore your GB usage considered a violation of sprint TOS and considered abuse in a sense?

That part, yes. Unfortunately, legitimate customers get punished too.

 

 

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

[Destroyallcubes]

That part, yes. Unfortunately, legitimate customers get punished too.

Sent from my Josh's iPad using Tapatalk 2

I may not be seeing how legitimate customers are getting hurt. They can still get a prorated amount of hotapot . But if they use 1gb out of a 2gb limit, if they re add the hotspot plan they should only gave 1GB remaining. Sounds fair. Otherwise you'd have people with unlimited Hotspot for the price of a 2GB plan or such.

[MacinJosh]

I may not be seeing how legitimate customers are getting hurt. They can still get a prorated amount of hotapot . But if they use 1gb out of a 2gb limit, if they re add the hotspot plan they should only gave 1GB remaining. Sounds fair. Otherwise you'd have people with unlimited Hotspot for the price of a 2GB plan or such.

Actually, there should be a certain number of days in between removing old plan and adding new one. But only allowing access to the part you didn't use could work.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 5S using Tapatalk 2

[Yuhfhrh]

Probably should be addressed if possible. I could see this work around being abused and probably already is being abused.

 

I doubt many people would be abusing this, seeing it has an additional cost compared to using a free hotspot through a rooted phone.

[Destroyallcubes]

I doubt many people would be abusing this, seeing it has an additional cost compared to using a free hotspot through a rooted phone.

One is illegal the other not so much. Hotspot usage without the plan is a violation of TOS, and not everyone wants to root their phone. This work around can be for people who root their phone just for hotspot. Now they don't have to void warranty and TOS. BU I think this work around should be fixed. As should the Hotspot function should get a work over to not allow unpaid Mobile hotspot.

[Yuhfhrh]

and not everyone wants to root their phone.

 

I would argue the vast majority of people who would even consider this, would rather root their phone than visit the Sprint website every day, add and remove the hotspot service, and pay ~$20/month.

 

Regardless, this should be fixed. When changing services, total hotspot usage should carry over. If you use 1GB and change to 2GB, it should show 1GB/2GB already used.

[Destroyallcubes]

I would argue the vast majority of people who would even consider this, would rather root their phone than visit the Sprint website every day, add and remove the hotspot service, and pay ~$20/month.

 

Regardless, this should be fixed. When changing services, total hotspot usage should carry over. If you use 1GB and change to 2GB, it should show 1GB/2GB already used.

Exactly. I'm saying this work around is for those who don't have the know how to root or don't want to. Tedious but good for those who don't like voiding warranty. But anyhow both the system and hotspots on phones need to be redone. It is so easy to get hotspot on rooted phones for people to abuse unlimited. I'd be fine with it on metered data (most include hotspot anyways) but unlimited not so much(unless the customer pays for X amount of GB's

[dnwk]

I wish someone can transfer one line to me so that I don't need to sign up a two year contract for service on my old phone

[AcctDeleted_GirlFriday]

I didn't run any e-penis tests but, it was just as good as the 25/5 my cable ISP ended up installing. And to think, this was in a market not yet launched by Sprint.  I couldn't have been more happy.

 

Er...e-penis tests???

[sbolen]

Er...e-penis tests???

Speed tests. It's our way of making fun of people who scream about fastest downloads, etc.