What is a Mobile Hotspot and Why is it Better than a Cellular Hotspot?

Straight Talk on How Your Internet Works – #AskOasisInternet

Internet Access needs to grow and evolve to match new consumer demands. Covid has accelerated this process. Wifi hotspots, also known as Mifi, Jetpacks, or mobile Internet devices offer advantages that meet these demands in several ways: The big one is location flexibility. The office is where you are now! Internet Consumers want the ability to work from home, play on-the-go and to extend the reach of secure, reliable Internet to homes and locations that are hard to reach or use it as a backup or to augment wired providers who have become less reliable as DSL dies and cable becomes overloaded. There are few more advantages but first let’s define what a hotspot is.

Hotspots are made up two components:

1. the service (and service provider)
2. the hardware

The service can be provided by any of the usual carriers including the major national providers ATT, Verizon or T-Mobile. A hotspot can have the following characteristics. 

1. It’s provided using the hotspot function on your cell phone.
2. It usually uses “data” on your cell plan which is expensive and usually in limited supply.
3. The plans are usually not very upgradeable and truly unlimited, unthrottled data plans are very hard to find

There are providers who offer plans that make more sense than the carriers’ plans.  Providers like Oasis Broadband offer true unlimited data plans and we don’t limit you to one company’s towers because we have made deals with several of the carriers. We also offer several device options, which open up the use of purpose-built hardware that can provide additional benefits. We will dive deeper into these advantages later on. 

It is also important to note that hotspots can be used for two purposes – mobile or travel access or “fixed access” in an area where the only other internet option is satellite, which is slow, unreliable and expensive. In either case, we have optimized devices that provide you with features not available on a cell phone. 

Let’s take a look at more of the specific advantages of an external hotspot like Oasis Broadband provides compared to a cellular hotspot. 

Why Oasis Broadband’s Hotspot makes more sense than carriers mobile hotspots: 

While cellular hotspots, provided by the major carriers may seem to be convenient, as they are accessed on your cell phone, there are several drawbacks to cellular hotspots. This is why Internet service providers have developed modems that are easily transportable and provide many advantages over cellular hotspots. These modems take the cellular signal in the area that you are in, from the cellular towers and amplify it to provide you with fast and reliable coverage. 

But why would you want to use a modem hotspot instead of a smartphone or tablet hotspot? There are many reasons. First of all dedicated 4G Modems can be designed with larger, better antennas than a smartphone, which gives them greater reception and Wifi broadcast capabilities than a cell phone hotspot. One can also connect up to 20 Wi-Fi devices to a mobile modem where a cellular hotspot only allows for a few devices at a time. This means that a user don’t have to drain the battery life on their phone to use the Internet. Mobile modems are much more convenient if you want to share your hotspot with other people, because you have a lot more privacy if you choose to leave your modem with other people, rather than your personal cell phone.

So who is using mobile hotspots? 

The best part about mobile hotspots is that everyone can use them, but here are a few specific examples of when their flexibility and reliability can really come in handy. 

1. Travelers

Perhaps most importantly, these 4G hotspots were designed for busy people who need reliable connections while they are traveling. A 4G modem will work anywhere in America that has 4G signal. A user can set it up in their cabin, then take it out on their boat, and then bring it on their vacation to Hawaii and as long as those areas have 4G service with their carrier of choice, their internet will be available in all those locations. 

2. Small Businesses 

Small businesses that don’t use a lot of data can often use 4G hotspots as a great alternative to a fixed broadband connection. 

3. Remote Areas 

These 4G hotspots offer the perfect internet solution for homes that are secluded in beautiful remote areas that lack other internet options. They offer high quality connectivity that only needs one bar of cell service to offer usable speed. 

Factors to consider when choosing a 4G Hotspot:

Oasis Broadband, we developed a 4G mobile hotspot called Oasis Roam Unlimited in order to give our internet consumers what they deserve. If you start researching 4G hotspot options, you’ll find an overwhelming number of products, however, we want to point out some of the most important factors to consider: 

1. First of all, we recommend buying from local internet service providers like Oasis Broadband. This is because big companies rely on name recognition to sell customers products that are overpriced and not as flexible. Furthermore, large cell service providers only offer their hotspot services on their own cellular network, but at Oasis Broadband we can provide a customer with service on more than one of the major national carriers, depending on a customer’s signal strength for different carriers. 
    
2. Another element to be aware of, is that while many companies advertise “unlimited data”, this is frequently not actually the case. In fact, if you purchase a hotspot with an “unlimited” cellular data plan, you often get around 15 to 25GB of high-speed data, but once you hit this limit, your data is deprioritized and slowed down. However, at Oasis Broadband, when we offer unlimited data, we honestly offer technology that allows you to experience stellar speed, service and reliability no matter how much data you use.
   
   
3. Finally, it’s important to consider the hardware that you invest in. We can offer hotspots with external ports for device connection, or devices with battery backup or modem-only devices for customers that already have a home network setup and just need access to an external data source.

Once you are able to recognize these differences, you will be able to invest in an external 4G hotspot that meets your needs, whatever they may be. If you want to learn more about our Oasis Roam Unlimited Mobile Hotspot or figure out the best broadband service to meet your needs, enter your zip code here to find the Oasis Internet Services available for your location.