Ask Slashdot: LTE Hotspot As Sole Cellular Connection?

New submitter iamacat writes I am thinking of canceling my regular voice plan and using an LTE hotspot for all my voice and data needs. One big draw is ability to easily use multiple devices without expensive additional lines or constantly swapping SIMs. So I can have an ultra compact Android phone and an iPod touch and operate whichever has the apps I feel like using. Or, if I anticipate needing more screen real estate, I can bring only a Nexus 7 or a laptop and still be able to make and receive VoIP calls. When I am home or at work, I would be within range of regular WiFi and not need to eat into the data plan or battery life of the hotspot.

Has anyone done something similar? Did the setup work well? Which devices and VoIP services did you end up using? How about software for automatic WiFi handoffs between the hotspot and regular home/work networks?

"Always on" may be a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

I considered doing what you're suggesting a little while ago. I'm the iOS ecosystem though, so this may not apply to Android, but the biggest problem I found with this is if you're using a hotspot for your data, that not all your devices will remain connected all the time - they will likely connect periodically to download email or receive push notifications, but they're not 24x7 connected via Wi-Fi. As such, if you're relying on a VoIP app to handle incoming calls, you may miss some.

Again, this was my expe

Prediction

[ArcadeMan]

Not only that but my seagate hard drive...

Uh-oh, Seagate is trouble.

... died in my NAS last night.

Told ya.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd highly recommend NOT doing this unless you have some magical "unmetered" LTE plan.

1) Operating system updates tend to come in at around half a gig, twice a month, regardless of the device.
2) Software updates on top of OS updates tend to needlessly update to add features (not just fix bugs) and you have to take all the updates or none of them. (As an example, the "Simpsons Tapped out" game is over 1GB, and you can't continue to play it without updating it every week.

Assuming there is free WiFi in your im

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps next time you can read the question. He isn't trying to ditch the landline internet connection. He has and will continue to have internet access at home and at work. His aim is to replace the voice mobile phone contract with a data only LTE contract that he would then use in a mobile hotspot to fill all his mobile voice+data needs (with VoIP for voice). Uncoupling the voice functionality from the mobile contract would allow him to use multiple devices for voice at will, or so he hopes.

Re: I Have a magical unmetered LTE / 4g plan

[Anonymous Coward]

Three.co.uk Unlimited 4g rules!! 50GB download on my phone last month.

25 - 50 MBit download, and 10 - 25Mbit upload.

- Happy 4G user in the the UK.

Re:

[mattack2]

If you're on iOS, you do realize you can turn OFF automatic app updates, right? (I don't remember for sure if the default is on or off.. Settings->General->Background App Refresh. There's a global on/off, plus you can turn on/off each app.)

Re:

[jfdavis668]

Missed it by THAT much.

Sounds great

[Anonymous Coward]

Try it, write an article about it and submit it here. Maybe someone would like to read it.

not reliable enough

[silfen]

I haven't found portable hotspots to be reliable enough for voice in the past, but YMMV.

Why not just get a voice+data plan and use the phone as the hotspot for all your other devices?

Re:

[gl4ss]

yeah, it's not like you have to take 100000 minute plan.
actually, to get the data only hotspot, maybe you need.

the logical thing would be to use the phone as the hotspot. it's not like the hotspot is that much smaller than the phone in the first place.

the only reason I can think of is some trickery with the 'plan' pricing on behalf of the operator.

and I find it highly unlikely to be able to keep a voip call once you hit throttling..

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much this.

Nokia Lumina 521: $50->Comes with T-Mobile SIM.

$30 prepaid minutes card later and you have a cheap mobile phone which has GPS navigation, voice calls, incredible battery life, and the ability to do Wifi Tethering for you Chromebook/Laptop/Android/iPad/whatever. It's windows phone so you won't be tempted to kill your battery with stupid apps and you can use your Android/Apple devices for non-essential playtime.

Windows Phone has a good enough web browser: you'll probably find yourself leav

Depends on if you want to get calls...

[aaarrrgggh]

If you don't need to receive calls, you can control use pretty well and maybe make it work for slightly less money.

Speaking from personal experience while traveling though, it is really a pain, especially for a prolonged period of time. If you have a specific need to use multiple devices for non overlapping functions (laptop, phone, tablet) where the functions really can't be done on a single device then the MiFi is cheaper than getting three SIMs. The only time I broke down and went this route in the last 10 years was in Sydney, where the hotel charged around $25 for wifi, and I only had one Australian SIM card that would work.

Convenience or cost...

Re:

[gl4ss]

but why wouldn't you just share the internet connection from the phone device?

even if you had a data only sim - why wouldn't you use it in the "smartphone" and share it with wifi/bluetooth/usb/whatever ? it's still more versatile on it's own than just a puck that you can't even see the time of day on.

that way you still only need just one sim. multiple sims are a hassle, but that has never made me feel like I would get yet another thing to carry around. if I need 3g/mobile internet and need to use tablet,

Battery life

[Anonymous Coward]

Make sure that your LTE hotspot has enough battery life to survive few hours between the hotspots. Also... it will reduce battery life of your android/iOS devices, as wifi needs more power than GSM. And you'll probably not be able to do useful voice calls in areas where there's only GSM available.

Re:Battery life

[Mr D from 63]

Good points on battery life. Having the hotspot and the device constantly connected to each other, and monitoring the internet for incoming calls probably will run the batteries down quickly on both devices. Mobile hotspots (I've used a Huawei 3G with great results) will often 'sleep' when not used for a certain period as well, so that should be considered.

As for VOIP service, Vonage ($$) has a nice feature that allows you to share your number between your home phone and mobile devices, and voicemail email alerts, which might be handy in such a setup.

You can stop auto updates on Android devices for the most part, but switching back and forth to auto/manual or manually implementing updates is a bit inconvenient.

cell BB and wifi

[ihtoit]

been doing this for years with several laptops and desktops (sometimes all at once) on unlimited data plan, works great for skype etc.

Not for everyone, at least not yet

[Anonymous Coward]

It will work if you have consistent high-speed data wherever you need to use VOIP.

In reality, from my experience, coverage is very spotty for LTE or even 3G, and frustrating. I always had a backup basic bar phone not too far away. Services to take the place of standard voice are easy to come by, it's the affordable, stable, durable, and reliable mobile data plan that aren't just there yet. Mobile data in the ways you describe is not yet for the masses.

I did the same thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Heya. I actually did this with Verizon, back in 2012. I was seventeen shades of paranoid back then about the whole NSA scandal (with reason), so I bought my sisters old Galaxy S2, removed the SIM, and piggy-backed off my VZ hotspot. I was using Callcentric as my VoIP provider.

I would say that the idea was nice, but that it could have worked out better. Maybe it was that I was using Verizon, but the call quality was like a rollercoaster. I had bounceback issues, echoes, and some automated phone systems wouldn't recognize my DTMF tones. It's an idea I'd like to visit again, in the future, but I think the LTE nets aren't the best bet for VoIP. At least, not yet. I also ran into issues where my hotspot would hibernate, or just drain in no time. You should also take into account how fast your WiFi drains your phone, and how often the interface suspends.

If you can get past all that, give it a whirl. I'd like to try this again one day, myself. My suggestion is to avoid using Verizon as a test bed.

Hope this helps. :)

- Asura

Re:

[Overzeetop]

Maybe it was that I was using Verizon, but the call quality was like a rollercoaster. I had bounceback issues, echoes, and some automated phone systems wouldn't recognize my DTMF tones. It's an idea I'd like to visit again, in the future, but I think the LTE nets aren't the best bet for VoIP.

That's true of VoIP riding on both DSL and Cable internet connections (both wired and wireless) as well. I've had VoIP for my home and office line for almost 3 years, and in the beginning we definitely had issues with both quality and DTMF. I still have issues with DTMF occasionally, and echos and call quality (esp. outgoing) less frequently.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Aside: Relish.net

[Wootery]

Having misread the title this seemed relevant, but it may still be of tangential interest: Relish.net [relish.net] are offering 4G as a replacement for ADSL, in London.

Might make sense if you're ok with the data caps, which aren't that bad.

Do they make high-quality LTE bridges?

[swb]

By LTE bridge, I mean some device that can take a SIM and that has an Ethernet port for connecting your own wireless router? Something designed to be used in a "production" setting where reliability of the LAN side of connectivity needs to be high.

I've not used a MiFi(TM) or other portable hotspot, but on every iPhone with tethering I've used (up to 5S) the wireless portion of it leaves something to be desired. No wireless signal showing up without toggling tethering on/off a second time, loss of wireless with inactivity and of course the signal range leaves something to be desired due to the limited antenna of a cell phone.

And then there's the general lack of configurability relative to even the dumbest wireless router.

I figure somebody must make something like this for industrial/commercial use.

I won't comment on the inherent limits of relative to data caps, since that will get beat to death here but that's the other side of the coin.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You haven't really looked, have you? Take your pick. [openwrt.org] Some commercial routers have 3G modem support built-in.

Re:

[swb]

I can't say I find a USB dongle to be really what I would call "production quality" since it uses the same low-end equipment they would sell you at the cell phone store for use with your laptop.

I was thinking more along the lines of a device either purpose-built for this with a LTE modem built-in or some kind of a WIC card like you'd use in a Cisco router. Something you might use in an ATM, security system or in a networking environment like a construction site where wired internet wasn't an option but rel

Re:

[Nethead]

Here's what we used at Clearwire for OOB management of radio sites.

http://www.digi.com/products/w... [digi.com]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Its called a cradlepoint!!!

http://business.verizonwireless.com/content/b2b/en/solutions/cradlepoint.html

Re:

[Phiro69]

Digi International Inc. makes a line of routers called the Digi Transport that have 2g/3g/4g/lte options. They aren't really positioned for home users, they are a bit high end/commercial/industrial. You can find them via google or here's a link to the Digi store. http://store.digi.com/index.cf... [digi.com]

Re:

[Electrawn]

We have a Cradlepoint MBR1200B with Verizon LTE service as tertiary fail over for our headquarters. The router is about $800 for router + modem + replacement 4G antennas. $500 for a static IP from Verizon. $50 a month for a sim and basic service. (If we ever need it, we expect to pay overage.)

http://3gstore.com/product/524... [3gstore.com]

Re:

[lowtek77]

I use Cradle Point [http://cradlepoint.com/] gear for a lot of applications that are fixed. Most models have some sort of built-in ethernet switch, so you can add in whatever gear or use the robust built-in features. I deal with a lot of locations where wired bandwidth is either wholly unavailable or prohibitively expensive, so we take what we can get from WISPs and cell providers and often use a fail-over setup to mitigate down time. I know they make in-vehicle systems and my colleagues have used them f

I don't know where you live (I assume the U.S.).

[Sique]

But here around (Austria in Europe), we have providers that actually offer such services: An hotspot device hooked on LTE and a quite generous data plan. The device itself is not supposed to be mobile (needs a wall socket for power), but all the other components are there: see this [www.drei.at] or that [a1.net].

Nice idea

[DaMattster]

But this could end up costing you more money as you will consume data like a person buying supplies for an impending disaster. Since data is capped and overages are horribly expensive, the OP would do well to rethink his strategy.

I do this - but with multiple 4G contracts

[rapiddescent]

Your Mileage Will Vary depending on where you are located; but I use 4G and 3G connections here in Scotland and in other parts of Europe and I never use WiFi hotspots.

1. Everything Everywhere Kite (a Huawei mifi device that looks like an iphone 4s)

2: unlocked Huawei E3276 with an external antenna

3: backup USB Huawei E353 devices (also with a CRC9 antenna connector)

All work with my Linux distro (Fedora) natively. So my EE contract allows VOIP (in plain) but the O2 contract does not. So I also have a bunch of SIM cards that also helps if I am in a zone with poor coverage for a particular operator. Maxes out at about 50 Mbs in good 4G areas but bear in mind that the latency is often a lot higher (10x) than copper connections and will make VOIP a bit laggier than you'd expect, even with a high bandwidth connection.

Re:

[rapiddescent]

I forgot to mention that using an antenna (usually via a CRC9 connector port) doubles the bandwidth in most cases. I have a mag mount antenna for vehicles, a square directorional and a simple little plastic antenna that I use most of the time. A yagi directional would be even better. Antenna's make all the difference with 3G/4G connections (aka "Mobile Internet" in the UK)

Why not multi-SIM single-plan contract?

[Moskit]

"One big draw is ability to easily use multiple devices without expensive additional lines or constantly swapping SIMs."

Why not simply get a multi-SIM contract? You pay for just one common data contract, but can use multiple (up to 3..5) SIMs that seamlessly share this contract. Easier to manage, easier to use, perfect when you want to rely on data transmission for multiple devices, as in your case.

Just use the keyboard...!

[allquixotic]

The keyboard?! How quaint!

In all seriousness: if you don't have an unlimited data plan, you're probably going to blow your data allowance, unless by some miracle you've found a provider that values 1 GB of LTE at an order of magnitude (or more) less than $10 per GB.

If you had an unlimited data plan, you would ideally be able to use the Hotspot feature that's built into nearly every smartphone these days, and forego the hotspot. On Verizon it's an extra $30/mo for hotspot tethering on a stock firmware for phones that aren't rooted, but totally worth it for the benefit you get. This is my primary (only) Internet connection. You could make yours the same if you had unlimited data. It's not new or far-fetched at all.

In fact, if the carriers *did* reduce the amortized cost of 1 GB of data transfer on LTE by a factor of 10 or more, I'd be willing to bet that we would see many millions of people signing up for *limited* data plans on the order of 100 - 150 GB and tethering through their phones or using a hotspot as their primary internet connection. Right now it's simply too much money to get "limited" data plans -- on Verizon XLTE with the MORE plan, you can get like 100 GB for $700/month. It's still way too much money for too little data. Until and unless the prices become somewhat reasonable, so it "only" costs you $2 to watch that Netflix video instead of $20, we will mostly see unlimited data plans as the only users of LTE as their primary connection.

Re:

[MBC1977]

Actually 30 GB is $130 and 80 GB under Verizon is $225 right now; granted this is a promo but... for some purposes that will be fine.

The phone is your hotspot

[terminal.dk]

Both on Android and iOS, the phone can be your hotspot, sharing the Internet using BT or WiFi.
Why would you want an extra LTE box ? To carry more cr*p around ?

If you put in a data-only SIM, if that is your plan, you can do that.

Here in Denmark, plans with 5 hours talk + 8 GB monthly data is around $15/mo, $3 extra for LTE, which brings the speed up to 65/25 Mbit/s typical. Unlimited talk + 100GB/mo data is $43/mo, or $35 for data only SIM. So not really worth it to drop the voice and SMS texting part yet. R

Don't

[bmajik]

I've had a Verizon 4G LTE hotspot as my sole home internet for the last year. It is the only type of service available where I currently live.

It is expensive and unreliable.

I live in a rural area. I am using an external LTE antenna on the device. I can see that the LTE signal is moderate to good where I am; the problems I am having do not seem to be LTE signal related.

The device itself is about as reliable as other consumer level networking gear -- meaning you need to power cycle it now and then to make it start working again. It has a remote web admin interface, with no way to remotely reboot it. You have to physically touch the thing to power cycle it.

I don't know what's available where you are, but here, Verizon charges me for every byte that goes through that LTE connection, in both directions. I think they're overcharging me, but I have no realistic power to do anything about that, because they are Verizon and I am not. Overages are excessively expensive. My bill for last month was $250. We watch no streaming videos at my house -- not even youtube.

The device stops responding to pings from certain nodes on my internal network, causing all kinds of networking fun. DNS queries randomly fail during logical browsing sessions. I've investigated all of this thoroughly with tcpdump and other tools. This happens on clients of multiple types - OSX, WinRT, Windows, OpenBSD.

So near as I can tell, the box itself is just shit. There have been 2 or 3 firmware updates for it in the year that I've depended on it for my internet. None of them have improved the symptoms I describe.

It's a Pantech MHS291LVW

The entire time I've had it, I've been researching how to replace it with something that isn't Verizon. I'm nearly done with that plan; I'll be backhauling a nearby DSL service back to my site using a 3.5 mile p2p wireless link. I'm paying to upgrade the site infrastructure and wiring at both ends of the link. I am spending thousands of dollars to do this.

My neighbors also have Verizon LTE service. They have the VZN Home Broadband service, where Verizon will mount an antenna at your site and do the install themselves, and the CPE has 4 switched Ethernet ports in addition to WiFi. They haven't complained about the reliability as much, but the price is still too high.

You can only get that hardware from Verizon in my area if you agree to a 3 year contract. I didn't and won't ever agree to any contract with any US mobile operator, so, I couldn't get the VZN home broadband hardware, which may be more reliable than the Hotspot hardware.

They are not power users; they are a young family with ipads for their kids. They recently shared with me that they just had an $800 monthly bill.

If you have any wired broadband choice available to you, take it.

Re:Don't

[pla]

It is expensive and unreliable.

The combined 4G/802.11 hotspots you get from the cell carriers pretty much suck across the board.

Get a Cradlepoint router and a compatible USB 4G modem (under $100 total). It takes the USB in from the modem, and gives you 4 ethernet ports plus WiFi, and knows enough to reset the stupid 4G modem when it has its hourly crash. Net result, near perfect uptime, weather aside. Oh, and and use a 6ft USB cable to move the modem a bit away from the router if you plan to use the WiFi feature of it - People have reported the two interfere with each other and greatly reduce the performance of each unless you separate them by a few feet.

That said, yes, still expensive. But like you, I have no alternatives, so if I need to pay for it, it may as well work.

Re:

[bmajik]

Thanks. I've looked into the cradlepoint stuff a bit and if I thought I was permanently stuck with VZN, I would make additional hardware investments along those lines.

That said, even if it was perfectly reliable, my "plan" gives me 20GB of data a month for a family of 5, and I blow through that limit many months, and that involves no online gaming and no video streaming -- both things I used to enjoy doing.

So, I need to get an unmetered connection again, even if I could make the LTE connection perfectly re

hardware matters

[CoderFool]

Some hardware makers do a better job with mobile hotspots than others.
I formerly had a droid 4 that I used with foxfi as a wi-fi hotspot and now I use an lg g3 that has a built in mobile hotspot. both of these would provide a reliable wi-fi connection all day to my laptop and tablet and neither was an extra charge from verizon.
I have had 2 samsung tablets and the mobile hot spot function on both have consistently crapped out after about a half hour and I would have to restart the tablet to get it back.

Re: Don't

[mrycar]

I live in a rural area, but with access to lte. My config consists of Cradlepoint router, with 2 lte modem's connected , one from Verizon, the other from AT&T, used to also have sprint as well, but canned it due to them never upgrading speed of their networks. Connection speed varies from 22mbps to 44mbps via speedtest.net. I have two external antennas attached to the modem, which gives me solid 5 bar signals,

Latency varies constantly, 15-60ms variance.

Good news am have access, quick, semi reliable
B

Re:

[antdude]

What about dial-up, WISP, satellite, etc. for Internet over there?

Re:

[bmajik]

Dial-up is functionally unusable in 2014. Hitting facebook.com pulls down several MB of data just to draw the page, load the JS, etc.

That said, my home phone line is so noisy even the phone company asks me if it always sounds so bad. They're not sure why the line is noisy. It just is. I don't think I'd be able to sustain a 56k connection.

Satellite also has monthly xfer limits -- that are much lower than Verizon. Most people that have had Satellite switch to LTE and don't switch back.

There is a WISP in

Re:

[antdude]

I used dial-up when my cable Internet went out. It was my backup Internet connection. I basically had the same symptoms you had where I lived in (not that rural though, but on small mountains/giant hills). Noisy copper phone lines (no DSL due to 20+K ft. to CO) causing my modems (even good brands) to struggle with error corrections (could see the external modem's EC(?) light blinking) and sometimes end up with disconnections. I could never get 53k (not 56k due to FCC rules) connections. My good average down

Re:

[Jhon]

"The device itself is about as reliable as other consumer level networking gear -- meaning you need to power cycle it now and then to make it start working again. It has a remote web admin interface, with no way to remotely reboot it. You have to physically touch the thing to power cycle it."

Way-back-when, I had an old x-10 serial controller and a power outlet adapter. I wrote a script that would check for gateway connectivity and if it failed it would power cycle the DSL modem and router. We were having

Re:

[bmajik]

Good approach.

The difficulty with the Verizon hotspot is that it has an internal battery. It is designed to be used when not plugged in.

To power cycle it you have to unplug the wall-wart, then use the power button to power cycle it, then plug it back in.

Simply cutting power doesn't help :(

Re:

[Jhon]

Heh... break out the soldering iron and put a relay between the battery contacts. We'll teach that pesky router!

you will get disabled for high data useage

[Anonymous Coward]

Been there, tried that. I had an "unlimited data plan" and was terminated due to high data use. I told them I was using it for work and transmitting embeeded linux kernel source code.. that didn't help.

No wireless carrier allows unlimited, even if they claim they do.

This service already exists.

[zigfreed]

WiFi calling is Republic Wireless's business model. There cut would be $5/mo. which would be the VoIP portion, and using an AT&T hotspot like the Straight Talk one you'd be targeting 1G @ $15/mo. Disclaimer: none, but I am biased because I use this setup.

Packet data is low priority.

[petermgreen]

Traditionally mobile phone networks worked as follows

SMS (at least with GSM) goes on the control channel, so if the phone can associate with the network it can almost certainly get a SMS through.
Voice calls need data channels but those data channels are circuit switched and have priority over packet data. So provided you are outdoors (indoors multipath can screw stuff up) you can usually get an intelligable voice call through..
Packet data gets the capacity left over after circuit switched stuff (mostly voic

Most LTE Hotspots Block SIP

[wizzy403]

Keep in mind, most of the US carriers block SIP over their LTE hotspots. So if you're depending on this for voice, you're going to have problems.

Meh for t-mobile

[funkymonkjay]

T-mobile has a $30 unlimited data, unlimited text and 100min voice. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tmob... [walmart.com] I don't think even those tablet/data only plans can beat that. at least not for unlimited data.

Only 5GB of LTE

[Slashdot Parent]

If memory serves, the $30/mo Walmart plan includes only 5GB of LTE data per month, after which you are throttled. Just in case that is important to anyone.

Have a backup service

[Anonymous Coward]

You can keep an active account with PagePlus for $30/year. Since you won't be using it most of the time, you won't have any trouble running out of minutes. But when you find yourself in a place where LTE isn't available or is overloaded or whatever, you can still use Verizon's network for voice (and even some 3G data). Use Google Voice to send all of your calls to that number as well as your VOIP accounts. FWIW, this is what I've done for about four years.

Google Hangouts

[webminer]

Your best bet would be to use Google Hangouts. Once you sign up with Google Voice, you will receive a Google Voice number. Hangouts app on both iOS and Android allows both incoming and outgoing calls. Its quite reliable. Voice quality is good compared to several VOIP providers I used. I had to rely on this when I was in Vermont this summer where reception for AT&T was pretty much non-existent for much of the countryside.

Ive been doing that for years

[bobjr94]

We still have no cable/dsl service near our house. My current setup is a Pantech uml295 4G usb modem, plugged into a cradelpoint mbr95 router, using a 20gb monthly plan from millenicom. They use Verizon's network, its the strongest where we live. They do throttle the speeds though, I get about 250-300k per second max, if I swap in a real verizon sim, I get around 750-1000k downloads. No problem with voip, we use vonage for our home phone and wifi calling on our tmobile phones.

I'm doing that right now

[Solandri]

I just moved into a new house and haven't yet started Internet service because I have lots of construction going on and am not sure where the cable modem will eventually go (part of the construction is networking the house, and I haven't decided where the network cabinet will go). So in the meantime I'm using the hotspot feature on my Nexus 5 for LTE internet. I get about 5-10 Mbps down, 3-5 Mbps up at this location (500 feet further uphill at the sandwich shop it's 30/9 Mbps, sigh).

My service is with Sprint which typically has spotty LTE service, but fortunately my new home is well covered. Sprint also teamed up with Google so my Sprint number is also my Google Voice number. This means I can make Google Voice calls over LTE via the Hangouts app (Google moved Voice to Hangouts a couple months ago). The app still needs a lot of work (e.g. doesn't integrate with the contacts directory yet) but call quality has been stellar - nearly indistinguishable from when I'm on wifi. I'm actually surprised how well it works considering it's going over a cellular data connection. I mention all this because Sprint is the network most MVNOs use by a huge margin. Since their LTE network is certainly capable of VoIP, any problems you encounter with it are likely to be due to the MVNO blocking VoIP.

Latency has been pretty good too. Speedtest.net reports my ping times between 40-45 ms. I occasionally play GW2 over this connection, and generally I haven't noticed any more lag than on a wired connection. Occasionally there's a hiccup like you'll sometimes get over wifi, but its infrequent enough that it hasn't degraded the gaming experience. Overall it's been pretty indistinguishable from FIOS (what I had before the move), and better than the cable internet (I had Time Warner before FIOS, with 150-250 ms ping times).

I'm on an unlimited data plan, so conceivably I could go on doing this forever. The main issue I'm running into (one you shouldn't encounter with a dedicated hotspot) is that my LTE disconnects when there's an incoming call. There's some obscure reason I don't recall at the moment for Sprint and Verizon's phones not being able to do voice calls and LTE simultaneously, even though they could do it in theory. Voice calls go over the CDMA radio while LTE goes over the LTE radio. Unfortunately since my phone is designed to be, well, a phone, I haven't figured out a way to disable CDMA so I can receive the incoming calls over Google Voice. The regular phone dialier and Hangouts both ring when I get an incoming call, but the regular phone dialer locks out the phone preventing me from switching to answer the call via Hangouts (I'm not even sure that would work since it seems to disconnect LTE the moment the phone rings).

If you plan to do this with a hotspot, make sure you can cancel the contract if there's poor service at your house. A tenant at the building I manage opted for LTE Internet (because Verizon DSL there sucks). The building is within their LTE coverage area, and I get a good LTE signal from the roof. But at ground level his hotspot defaults back to 3G and he gets terrible Internet speeds. Unfortunately he got excited and ordered this a month before he moved in, so was outside the cancellation period by the time he moved in and discovered this problem. But I would check first to see if you can use your phone as a hotspot and just beef up the data on your plan.

Re:

[Solandri]

There's some obscure reason I don't recall at the moment for Sprint and Verizon's phones not being able to do voice calls and LTE simultaneously, even though they could do it in theory.

Found it. The reason I can't do voice + LTE simultaneously is a limitation of the Nexus 5 (and a handful of other phones) [pocketables.com].

Live in a van, do exactly this.

[Anonymous Coward]

I *DO* this, I live in a van, and travel the country. Verizon is the best service provider for such a thing, we used to recommend Millenicom (a reseller of Verizon), but Verizon just bought them. The problem is data caps. it gets expensive to buy that much data! You will also find, some towers are super slow even if you have 4 BAR LTE signal, tho it's fairly rare, it does happen. If you are a big text/SMS person on data only plans you generally can't SMS, so you have to use 3rd party services to text, l

It works great, but needs a little setup.

[Anonymous Coward]

I use google voice and the "voice dialer app" along with multiple burner $25 LGMS770 phones to make AND receive calls. Before that we went through google's voice XMPP and "talkatone". The problem you will run into is "echoing" due to port restrictions. But in concept using google voice (app for SMS and desktop for initial setup) and the new "voice dialer" works amazingly for VOIP and FREE as-long as you open ports, or the app is natively on the burner phone, or google does something about it. When we used "

Get a CradlePoint & Two Carriers for "always-o

[lagunastarman]

Get two plans from two providers, plug their modems/MiFi units into a CradlePoint. You now have reliability, redundancy and capacity. You can do load-balancing, fail-over, whatever you like. Its what I use for disaster preparedness. It is commonly used in Emergency Operations Centers. (Note, I have no affiliation with CradlePoint.) Sprint also offers a Netgear almost equivalent. Works very well and handles routing properly. (oops, was not logged in when I posted the first time)

Can even be free service

[technosaurus]

Freedompop + ipkall + zoiper + Google voice

I sort of do this already.

[neatville]

I pay for a virgin mobile hotspot (no contract) and I only buy regular cell phone service on occasion... MagicJack "works" but I hear so many complaints from the people I call that "you're breaking up", poor sound quality etc.