Mobile hotspot with evo idea...

[passivesf]

So the evo is basically a walking wifi router connected to 4g, correct? what i was thinking about doing was... I have 2 laptops, my PC, and my printer all of which are wifi capable. What if I cancel my internet with Verizon (costs me $50 a month) and use me and my wife's evos as my internet connection for all household devices?

 

[mi_canuck]

you know reading the title of your post brought to light something... Sprint is pretty smart in doing this... and while i don't know if they even have data traffic issues on 3G like AT&T does... having people use an EVO 4G as a hotspot would offload some traffic from their 3G data network... if enough people did this, it would offset some load off the 3G network...

now if only AT&T had such an amazing device and 4G network to rely upon... but nope...

 

[billsmed]

So the evo is basically a walking wifi router connected to 4g, correct? what i was thinking about doing was... I have 2 laptops, my PC, and my printer all of which are wifi capable. What if I cancel my internet with Verizon (costs me $50 a month) and use me and my wife's evos as my internet connection for all household devices?

Dan Hesse said today, that you could tether up to 8 devices to the EVO, so what you're saying makes sense to me. I know Verizon is against tethering, because it clogs the pipes under 3G, but according to Hesse, they have the spectrum to do this under 4G.

 

[jmxp69]

Dan Hesse said today, that you could tether up to 8 devices to the EVO, so what you're saying makes sense to me. I know Verizon is against tethering, because it clogs the pipes under 3G, but according to Hesse, they have the spectrum to do this under 4G.

Verizon is against tethering because they like to control every aspect of the consumer's experience including charging for it.

Say what you will, Sprint is changing the way they empower their consumers and it will ultimately win them business.

Ready for a shell shocker? I WORK for VZ (not wireless) and I use Sprint cellular because VZ is too proud of their pricing and they try to squeeze every last dollar out of their consumers.

Sprint:
Any to any mobile
8 device hotspot
EASY unlimited plans (and they mean unlimited, not 5GB)
GPS: Free
VVM: Free
SFL: Free
STV: Free
Hands down, now the best Android OS lineup known


Dan is changing the culture of Sprint every day. The man has it figured out.

 

[jmxp69]

One more point, the concept that the spectrum will suffer, or the pipes are clogged is an absolute bunch of crap propaganda. This is about $$$. All of them conduct ROIs against buildout. Lack of bandwidth = lack of belief they can turn a profit. Simple. I'm not against making money, but their short sighted views on capacity drive me nuts. Gimme gobs of consistent high speed bandwidth, and you get my money.

I can see a time when your laptop simply becomes a cradle for your phone to give you a screen and keyboard. Your home Internet connection will go the same way as your home telephone line...a relic of technological history.

Google, Android OS, Gmail, Docs, Netbooks/Laptops running Android, N1.....put the pieces together and you see where this is going. Sprint and VZ should start thinking about how they're going to provide a user configurable firewall, content filter, and cloud offerings like Web mail and docs for their end users or before you know it, you'll be making your Internet everywhere check out to Google every month.

 

[Caloy]

I'm not sure if this is applicable with 4G, but with 3G, you do have like a 5GB bandwidth limit. If 8 devices were used at the same time, those 5GB might be very easy to use up.

I'm also concerned that there might not be a 4G connection available on most parts, thus leading you to use 3G connection with the 5GB limit, if the 4G doesn't have a limit.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I do not think this is practical just yet. I am interested to see how close you have to be to the EVo to pick it up as a hotspot.

 

[Shiboboo]

I do not think this is practical just yet. I am interested to see how close you have to be to the EVo to pick it up as a hotspot.

Been following this forum for a while, but I finally made an account just to quote this. Yes, the idea of using the Evo as a hotspot is intriguing, but it won't replace home internet unless the Evo competes with routers in terms of network signal range.

 

[jmxp69]

I'm not sure if this is applicable with 4G, but with 3G, you do have like a 5GB bandwidth limit.

Wrong.

CNET confirms here.

"I contacted Sprint for comment last week. Most importantly, I learned that the Simply Unlimited plan is not affected by the data usage cap, which applies only to connection card and phone-as-modem plans."

And contract language corroborates. The 5GB limit is on 3G modems, and phones as modems, not native phone data.

 

[jb4kats]

Sprint's new Overdrive 3g/4g mobile broadband is one example. Most states do not even have 4g yet so you have to rely on the 3g and yes it has a 5 gig limit, but if and when your area gets the 4g you will be unlimited and you will pay no more for 4g coverage so with that said everyone waiting on the Evo 4g aka SuperSonic is hoping that pertains to the 4g phones.
Now they may try this down the road after its all said and done but I don't think Sprint is willing to take the risk at losing customers and right now they are trying to get back on top and this phone may do it if they don't get greedy and over price it

 

[jmxp69]

3g and yes it has a 5 gig limit

Edit: Sorry jb4kats: Missed the reference to Overdrive. Agreed, that does have a 5GB limit. Phones don't.

Source?

Here's another one saying phones are not subject to the 5GB limit. Only phones as modems and data cards.

"Roni Singleton, a Sprint spokeswoman:

Singleton said the plan won't affect traditional phone users with unlimited data plans who might rack up some serious bandwidth watching Sprint TV."


Nothing here about a 5GB cap:
"Everything your phone, PDA or smartphone can do nationwide - unlimited text, surf, email, listen, watch, find and of course, talk - on one simple plan.

This plan includes
Unlimited data: Web surfing, email, BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS), GPS Navigation, Music Premier, TV Premier, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
Unlimited Direct Connect: Direct Connect and Group Connect (for capable phones)
Unlimited messaging: Text, pictures and video
Unlimited talk: Unlimited anytime minutes, nationwide long distance and no roaming charges"


Nothing here about a 5GB cap:

Unlike unlimited plans from the competition, which do not include data services at a $99.99 unlimited price, Sprint's Simply Everything $99.99 plan includes:

Unlimited Web surfing (to receive access to the Internet right from the phone)
Unlimited e-mailing (to send and receive emails from multiple accounts)
Unlimited text messaging (to send and receive domestic text messages to any wireless or landline phone)
Unlimited video messaging (to record videos and send them to other phones and email addresses)
Unlimited picture sharing (to take photos and upload them to an online account or to send to other phones, email addresses or printers)


BTW: The CNET article in my previous post is a blog. The first entry on 5/21/08 asserted a 5GB cap, the second article on 5/27/08 clarified after contacting Sprint the 5GB cap does not apply to native phone data usage.

 

[slbailey1]

Sprint's new Overdrive 3g/4g mobile broadband is one example. Most states do not even have 4g yet so you have to rely on the 3g and yes it has a 5 gig limit, but if and when your area gets the 4g you will be unlimited and you will pay no more for 4g coverage so with that said everyone waiting on the Evo 4g aka SuperSonic is hoping that pertains to the 4g phones.
Now they may try this down the road after its all said and done but I don't think Sprint is willing to take the risk at losing customers and right now they are trying to get back on top and this phone may do it if they don't get greedy and over price it

The Evo 4g falls into the phone category, therefore ALL data usage is unlimited. The Overdrive falls into the stand-alone modem/router category, therefore 3g data is caped at 5g, but the 4g data is unlimited.

 

[jmxp69]

The Evo 4g falls into the phone category, therefore ALL data usage is unlimited. The Overdrive falls into the stand-alone modem/router category, therefore 3g data is caped at 5g, but the 4g data is unlimited.

Correct. Sprint would have to find a way to sniff packets and find out if their hotspot application is sourcing the data in order to measure traffic. If they do that, off goes their hotspot app and on goes wi-fi tether. Problem solved. wi-fi tether doesn't show proxied requests so we're back to unlimited.

 

[mogulust]

Just chiming in here to reply to the concerns about signal range when connecting all the wifi devices in your house with wifi-tethering:

I've been using an htc ppc-6800 (mogul) for 2.5 years, and I use wifi tethering quite often (free on windows mobile with WMWifiRouter v.91). I've even made a substantial amount of money selling network access for $10/unlimited to people staying at a hotel I was managing that didn't offer wifi and was in an area where there was no nearby internet cafe or other access. People really appreciated it and the range was good enough to cover the entire hotel. Probably about a 200ft radius.

Also when I'm at home and our broadband connection is down, or there's a power outage, the wifi tethering easily connects all the devices in my house including several laptops up to about a hundred feet apart and on different floors. Even in a dark house with no power we can all use the internet on our laptops as long as the batteries last.

I go way over 5gb a month using the wifi tethering as my main internet source when traveling, and I've never had an extra charge or an attempt to force me to sign up for a tethering plan. That's not to say that in the future sprint won't be more strict about network usage though. If you listened to Hesse's keynote this morning, he said in the future your data plan price will be based on the amount of gigabytes that you use. It sounded like this would be much further in the future when 4g is more widespread though, so I wouldn't worry about it when this phone is launched soon.

It is a REALLY cool feature, and people who don't know about it already are pretty amazed when you show them. I have a bunch of friends that have ipod touches, and when we're out and they need to use it I just pull my phone out, fire up the wifi, and let them connect through my evdo-revA like magic. And that is with an old beat up crappy sprint mogul. Sorry for the long post...

 

[mogulust]

I just re-read the first post and I have to mention that when you receive a call, it interrupts the wifi tether on my phone. But I think if you're in a 4g area with the Supersonic and tethering with wifi, I believe it should be able to handle a voice call separately from the 4g data and wifi radio, and not interrupt the laptop using the wifi. Obviously we'll have to wait and see how it will handle data and voice concurrently to know for sure.

The other point I was going to make is that it's not practical for the wifi-tether to be your main source of broadband unless you live alone, or if everyone living there has a Supersonic, so that you can leave the house and bring your phone with you and not interrupt other peoples' internet usage on their laptops.

Another important point is that the phone will get very hot and drain the battery quickly with the 4g radio and wifi radio running, and plugging it in to charge the battery while using it generates heat. And if it gets too hot, as a safety precaution the phone will stop charging until it cools down (which won't happen unless you turn off the wifi), effectively limiting the usage time to less than two hours starting with a full battery. If I have to use the wifi-tether for long periods of time I take the battery cover off and blast a fan on the battery, or put the phone on a cold window sill. That's probably the biggest drawback about using it for this purpose.

 

[Caloy]

Wrong.

CNET confirms here.

"I contacted Sprint for comment last week. Most importantly, I learned that the Simply Unlimited plan is not affected by the data usage cap, which applies only to connection card and phone-as-modem plans."

And contract language corroborates. The 5GB limit is on 3G modems, and phones as modems, not native phone data.

Yeah but that's just for "Simply Unlimited Plan" only. What about the "everything data" plans? They also advertise it as "unlimited data".

Also the new unlimited data (except for simply unlimited) will have a 5 GB cap.

also here's a comment on the cnet page you have posted: And it does seem that simply unlimited also has a limit.

http://news.cnet.com/8618-17938_105...07&blogId=1&messageId=8115297&tag=mncol;tback

 

[LearningAndroid]

I am no expert on this, but the big 3 execs where on CNBC 3/24.2010 and they all said that the pipes can handle the load now, but that may not be the case in a year.
The guests also said they need to make money for stock holders so price is still on the table.
The concept of tethering is very cool. I live/ski in Colorado 6 months a year and I use to tether my Razor with Motorola Phone tools. I worked but it was very slow.

I tried tethering with my Droid but didnt get very far. This was before the tethering apps came out so I may try again.

Honestly having the WiFi in the house is just too convieniant to dump it and tether or WiFi a EVO. Sounds nice to save money, but its just another thing to set up every time you want to be online. Ide rather just open a browser and be on.
BTW Where I live Verizon only charges us $19.99 a month and they actually dropped the price last fall for our service. Couldn't believe it. They always go up never down.

 

[neodorian]

Mogulust, I used to do the same on my Mogul and Touch Pro. I even do it on my Pre. I have used it in a pinch but you need to keep it plugged in or the battery dies fast. Also it gets hot after a while so no idea how that affects the phone. Anyway my home internet is already Wimax so no need to keep my phone at home for people to use internet I just use a dedicated Wimax modem hooked up to a regular Linksys Wifi router.

edit: my favorite thing was taking a car charger on road trips so I could sit there with my laptop and phone plugged in, surfing the web all over creation while my tolerant girlfriend did the driving

 

[jb4kats]

Correct. Sprint would have to find a way to sniff packets and find out if their hotspot application is sourcing the data in order to measure traffic. If they do that, off goes their hotspot app and on goes wi-fi tether. Problem solved. wi-fi tether doesn't show proxied requests so we're back to unlimited.

See, this is what I have been trying to clarify. I just have a hard time trying to put what I am thinking into words.
I was talking to a Level 2 tech Support last week about the Overdrive I had purchased(took it back tho) and just casually talking he mentioned it would be be very hard for Sprint to monitor bandwidth . Not only was it costly it is time consuming, so maybe Sprint figures since there are other avenues out there to tether they might as well bite the bullet and give their customers something we have been wanting. They started fazing out PAM back in January and maybe that's because of the 4g.

What I am curious about is this: Will we be charged for tethering with this phone? If you are in a 4g area, probably not and of course you are on a
SE or a ED plan. I do think these plans can be deceiving, but they do say Simply Everything and Everything Data, so why not tethering???
ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand......
Now if you are not in a 4g area, of course you are transmitting on 3g and you tether, are you limited to 5gig and if you go over they will charge you??? See this is where I get lost. How can they tell if you go over if you are on unlimited data? Sheesh, I sure wish I understood all of this.
If someone has a simpler explanation by all means please express it.
I just don't want to have to pay to tether and if I am already paying for unlimited data on my plan it should by all means include using my phone as a modem regardless of how much data is transmitted.
So, point is this: No charge for tethering or not??????

 

[SprintTerp]

See, this is what I have been trying to clarify. I just have a hard time trying to put what I am thinking into words.
I was talking to a Level 2 tech Support last week about the Overdrive I had purchased(took it back tho) and just casually talking he mentioned it would be be very hard for Sprint to monitor bandwidth . Not only was it costly it is time consuming, so maybe Sprint figures since there are other avenues out there to tether they might as well bite the bullet and give their customers something we have been wanting. They started fazing out PAM back in January and maybe that's because of the 4g.

What I am curious about is this: Will we be charged for tethering with this phone? If you are in a 4g area, probably not and of course you are on a
SE or a ED plan. I do think these plans can be deceiving, but they do say Simply Everything and Everything Data, so why not tethering???
ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand......
Now if you are not in a 4g area, of course you are transmitting on 3g and you tether, are you limited to 5gig and if you go over they will charge you??? See this is where I get lost. How can they tell if you go over if you are on unlimited data? Sheesh, I sure wish I understood all of this.
If someone has a simpler explanation by all means please express it.
I just don't want to have to pay to tether and if I am already paying for unlimited data on my plan it should by all means include using my phone as a modem regardless of how much data is transmitted.
So, point is this: No charge for tethering or not??????

I definitely don't have any inside information on the subject but I can offer my perspective. Firstly, everyone here is correct, as of now, there is absolutely no limit on data usage for any of Sprint's 'Everything Data' plans. The connection cards all require a monthly charge of $59.99, with a 5 GB usage limit while in 3G coverage. 4G capable devices will have unlimited usage in 4G areas and are subject to the 5GB limit when using 3G.

Now here's where things get complicated. Sprint has already crippled individual customer's ability to use their smartphones as modems. Unless you have the phone-as-modem add-on grandfathered onto your phone plan, you cannot add this feature unless you are on a business account (for $15/month). Obviously, they chose to do this to better monetize their mobile broadband plans.

So, how will they handle using the EVO as a wifi hotspot? All speculation, but I think it's very likely that the service will require an add-on to your plan, for which you are charged monthly, to be able to activate the phone's capability to act as the modem. Seems highly unlikely to me that Sprint would be willing to part with a lot of revenue that's coming in from the mobile broadband plans, especially this closely removed from the Overdrive launch. Lots of Sprint customers would look at the Overdrive and opt to wait for the EVO, using that as their internet solution.

Just my two cents.

 

[jb4kats]

I guess it is all speculation at this point. I am sure going to be disappointed if Sprint tags on a charge for tethering. The waiting now for the EVO is going to be tough just as it was for the Pre.
I am sure we will either be elated or disappointed when more information becomes available and we all know how rumors fly, I just hate waiting............... ugh!!!!
And the Saga Begins!!!!!!!

 

[mogulust]

I don't care if they charge to use their official tethering program, because it's so easy to root an android device and use the wifi-tether program that so many use already.

 

[mi_canuck]

yup... wifi tethering is da bomb! works so well... was tethered for like 4 hours yesterday without a drop in connection.... with PDANet, the connection would freeze or drop out every 15-30 minutes... the wifi tethering is super solid, and no need for an app installed on the computer like PDANet...

PS - can tether on T-Mobile for free... no worries...

 

[jb4kats]

Do you have to root your phone to use wifi tethering?What is the name of the one you are using? I have used pdanet, but only for short connections. I have a hero now and not sure I want to root it but didn't have to to use pdanet for android............
i would like to find a good one that I can use on the Hero and the EVO if tethering is not going to be free.

 

[dbpaddler]

If you're in a 4g area why not just get Clear? For like $50 you can get 4g internet and phone service. You're talking about home use so you're not worried overall coverage. Though you could always get their mobile card and phone service along with a cradlepoint router and use the card on the go. Would stink using your phone as a home hotspot, getting a call and having to leave the house and screwing over your family. Or what if you have phone issues? There's too much to go wrong to depend on it for home internet as well as your phone.