My technology ignorance abounds. Do I understand this right?

[DDD]

I may be flat our wrong (won't be the first time) but this is what I understood from a converation the other day. I understood that if you bought a "smart phone" that the phone itself eliminates the need for an internet provider because it has some "spot" that brings access to wherever your phone is placed.

If that true? husband and I could get rid of our internet server (saving bucks, yeah!) and our land line (saving bucks, yeah) and buy a smart phone which would provide phone service etc. etc. but also allow our home computer to function???

I'm guessing there is a misconception on my part but it sounds like a winner. And the truth is ???? DDD

 

[AnnieO]

Umm. Half and half and depends on your service provider.

husband has Sprint, and for an extra $30 per month, he can turn his into a wireless hotspot, so he can use his laptop to access the internet through his phone. It's not nearly as fast as broadband, but anywhere he has a cell phone signal he's good to go.

The problem is, he pays for unlimited everything else already because he uses the phone for his business. So, if you do NOT have unlimited data, and you turn your phone into a wireless hotspot, and you go over your limit - you either get slower speeds (I am on T-Mobile and they have "unlimited" but after 2GB it slows, I've never used that much), or you pay through the nose for more data.

 

[donna723]

I know next to nothing about this stuff either but my son has one of those whoop-dee-doo phones that do everything but bring you a sandwich. At my house I have a modem that works off of the line for my landline phone. My son is on the cell phone plan with a friends family and they all share the online time. Again, I understand nothing about how this works but I know that when my son is home, he can hook up to MY internet on his phone so he isn't using the "minutes" from his friends family plan. I have the modem that works off of the phone line but he says it should work if you have the other kind of internet connection too. I guess you can tell ... I have no earthly idea what I'm talking about!

 

[DDD]

Donna, you and I are probably on the same level. Whatever it's labeled...it ain't that good, lol. DDD

PS: I've been looking for an update on the divorce adjustment etc. Keep hoping they both "man up" and your grandson comes out a winner.

 

[susiestar]

It is generally VERY expensive to do what you are thinking of. The home that we rented from friends was too far out of town to get any of the standard cable or DSL internet. We looked at satellite internet but it is NOT reliable in our area due to the extreme wind we have on a normal basis. Connecting through a cell phone would easily have cost us over $150 per month with even very limited, only for husband's work and for me to reach all of you, access. there are options to get equipment and create your own hotspot with special equipment, but that can also be extremely expensive (more than $100 per month just for the internet for just one computer).

I would suggest you contact the area internet providers and ask what their rates are and what the start-up and equipment costs are. You can also try www.lowermybills.com to see if they have any knowledge of providers in your area that might be less expensive. Be aware that www.lowermybills.com will sell your info and will result in many companies that provide services for internet and for many other things (mortgages, electric, gas, phone, cell phone, yada yada yada) all contacting you repeatedly to try to sell their services to you. I tried the site once and got good information but was deluged with spam/ads and with phone calls for a very long time after that.

One other thing: if you run your internet through your smartphone, you will be limited by the capabilities of your phone to handle the data flow coming through. People that I have talked to about this have had problems not only with the internet service but also with calls being dropped, memory being filled, and other functions getting messed up. I don't know how much of that was due to the type of phone or the service provider they have, but they had major problems.

 

[AnnieO]

Susiestar is right... And I have my phone set so when I am at home or my parents' it connected to our/their wireless so I don't use my data. This is most likely why I never go over...

 

[donna723]

DDD, I'll bet I'm more technologically ignorant than you are! All I have is a little TracFone that I never use - I wouldn't be able to make a call on my sons fancy phone if my life depended on it! When I first got the TracFone, I was going through classes to become a foster parent for the State - I changed my mind and and I never ended up doing it. But in this class was a Mennonite couple who were going to be respite parents. During one class someone's cell phone rang and we all checked our phones and looked around to see whose it was. Finally the Mennonite man reached in the bib of his overalls and pulled out a little black cell phone and stared at it, totally mystified, as it rang. And his wife said, "The green button, John! Push the green button"! I didn't know that either! My phone had never rang before and I had no idea how to answer it if it did! And I thought to myself, "OMG! That Mennonite lady is more technologically advanced than I am!" And she was! I was more down there on a level with her husband, John!

I'll PM you about the other stuff ...

 

[DammitJanet]

I used Sprint as my modem for almost a year and they never noticed but it isnt supposed to be done unless you pay for it unless you have a blackberry and then that is in the fine print of the contract if you read it closely. I did...lol.

I have Sprint and most likely wont leave it. Yes it sounds expensive but I have no clue how other folks pay the other carriers either. Their contracts would be higher than what I pay for what I get. Or what I have access to. I doubt I actually use what I have. I have a plan that has 3 phones on it and we share 1500 daytime anytime minutes, unlimited mobile to any other mobile, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited data. That is real unlimited data no get to 1 gig or 2 gig and we slow you down to a crawl but real unlimited and I know that is true because I ran my desktop off my cell for a year.

Including insurance on my phones, I pay $200 a month for my plan. If you wanted to just put you and your husband on the plan it would be less. Say about 150 with insurance but I also have Cory on mine. I am guessing you would be putting difficult child 1 on the plan with you though unless he is getting one through Assurance Wireless.

 

[AnnieO]

I pay $60 a month (after tax) for unlimited everything. Yeah, they slow me down after 2GB but another $15 a month would solve that. Yeah, it's only one phone, but I've not had any problems with cell service or customer service...

 

[DammitJanet]

Step, you also live in a fairly large area so coverage is good and not spotty. You also get a nice discount off your bill because of where you work. The discounts will range from 10% to a whopping 25% for some professions.

As far as my issues recently with my coverage outages. Well it turns out a person riding a ATV took out the tower covering my area and they had to get the parts in for the entire tower. When they thought they got it back online, one part wasnt the right one and they had to send it back. I got a huge credit on my bill, even more than I thought I was going to get to be honest, I got $70 off this current bill. I think that is decent because my phone is the one that was the most compromised. Cory's wasnt unless he was here at my house, Tony could use his except here at home and then mine was completely unusable unless I went out. Sprint was able to see the drop off in call usage and when I was able to start using it again on mine. I was able to start making calls out on Sunday and I called them on Tuesday which showed them I wasnt trying to milk it I think.

 

[AnnieO]

Oh, Janet, wherefore art this discount of which you speak? LOL nah, actually I don't...

I do have to say, Sprint taking the initiative there was very cool - that just doesn't usually happen!