Made some changes today
Our Scenario
So time for a change and to try something different. Here's what we did:
Our Scenario
- We travel 200+ days annually
- We use a lot of Internet - mostly for work
- We use these devices to access the Internet: 2 smartphones, 1 tablet, 1 hotspot and 2 laptops
- We use the Verizon Everything plan that includes unlimited talk and text for both phones and a shared data pool across all Verizon devices (both phones, the tablet and the hotspot)
- We usually buy the 20 GB data plan ($150)
- At times, we bump up against that 20 GB and exceed it by 1 to 2 GB
- The bump up from 20 GB in our plan is 30 GB. That's too much a bump and cost increase
- Overages cost $15 / GB and we had $30 in overages for January usage
So time for a change and to try something different. Here's what we did:
- Today, I took our Verizon data plan from 20 GB to 6 GB ($70 reduction)
- Then I signed up for Hotspot service from Millenicom ($70 / 20 GB)
- The net of these changes: Increased available "in-plan" data by 6 GB to 26 GB and kept monthly cost the same
- I did pay $209.47 for the device (Pantech MHS291L), setup fee, shipping and first month's service fee. I'll consider $140 of that as "peace of mind" that the 6 GB of incremental data I get monthly will give me Then, when my Verizon hotspot device is no longer under contract, I'll drop that from my Everything plan and save $10 / month
- In the RV, I actually tether our hotspot device (via USB) to a WiFi Ranger Go router. Then we connect our phones, tablet and laptops via WiFi, to the WiFi Ranger.
- When we're at a campground with included WiFi, we connect the WiFi Ranger to that. This allows us to offload some of our Internet usage from our cellular data plan(s) and onto the included campground WiFi.