Tethering and Cellular Modems

WiFi hotspots are fast and usually cheap—but they’re spots. Beyond 150 feet away, you’re offline.

No wonder laptop luggers across America are getting into cellular Internet services. Your tablet or laptop can get onto the cellular data network in any of four ways:

  • Tethering. If you have a smartphone, like an iPhone, Android, or Windows phone, you can use it as a glorified WiFi hotspot. You have to pay, for example, $20 a month extra to your cellphone company. And tethering eats up battery power like crazy. But for quick Internet checks wherever you are, there’s nothing as convenient.

  • MiFi. The MiFi is a pocket-sized, thick-credit-card-looking thing that grabs the cellular signal and converts it into a WiFi signal for your Windows machine. Here again, you pay a monthly fee. But the nice part is that up to five people can use the WiFi hotspot simultaneously, and this arrangement doesn’t slurp down your phone’s battery power.

  • USB sticks. All the big cellphone companies offer ExpressCards or USB sticks that let your laptop get online at high speed anywhere in major cities.

  • Built-in cellular. Plenty of laptops and tablets even have cellular circuitry built right inside, so you have nothing to insert or eject.

Imagine: No hunting for coffee shops. With cellular Internet service, you can check your email while zooming down the road in a taxi. (Outside the metropolitan areas, you can still get online wirelessly, though much more slowly.)

And if your phone, MiFi, USB ...

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