Ask HN: Is it possible to use unlimited LTE as your full-time Internet?

#1

Post by Zingles » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

I try to be as frugal as possible. With T-Mobile in the news, the thought came to me if I could cancel my $100/month Comcast, get the $70/month unlimited data T-Mobile plan, and use that as full-time Internet.

Except the unlimited is only the phone and not hot-spot compatible. Or is there a way around that? (routing traffic or something)

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to use unlimited LTE as your full-time Internet?

#2

Post by loumf » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:05 PM UTC

If the unlimited is for the phone, then it may be illegal to circumvent[1]. Even if not, it's against the terms of service and certainly unethical.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to use unlimited LTE as your full-time Internet?

#3

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:05 PM UTC

Does the limitation include USB tethering as well as wifi? I know my Sprint contract allows USB but not wifi.

Edit: Is $100/mo. really the cheapest Comcast option?

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to use unlimited LTE as your full-time Internet?

#4

Post by Zingles » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:22 PM UTC

loumf wrote: post #2

If the unlimited is for the phone, then it may be illegal to circumvent[1]. Even if not, it's against the terms of service and certainly unethical. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking

I figured as much. I wish there was a unlimited tethering with the unlimited LTE plan, but with rate limiting. Like limit me to .5-1Mbps on my non-phone devices. I'm not downloading music or videos, or streaming, I just want to browse text websites and code on my MacBook, nothing bandwidth intensive.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to use unlimited LTE as your full-time Internet?

#5

Post by loumf » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 5:25 PM UTC

Zingles wrote: post #4

loumf wrote: post #2

If the unlimited is for the phone, then it may be illegal to circumvent[1]. Even if not, it's against the terms of service and certainly unethical. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking

I figured as much. I wish there was a unlimited tethering with the unlimited LTE plan, but with rate limiting. Like limit me to .5-1Mbps on my non-phone devices. I'm not downloading music or videos, or streaming, I just want to browse text websites and code on my MacBook, nothing bandwidth intensive.

Unfortunately even modern webpages are very bandwidth intensive (by LTE standards) compared to what is usually served up to phones.