13.3 – Mobile telephony and Internet with a WiFi Hotspot-2013-05-21

Cost effective mobile telephony approach

Since we are not heavy mobile phone users and use WiFi whenever possible, we have adopted the following approach:

1. We only buy UNLOCKED mobile phones. Therefore, we only incur the cost of ONE phone for use throughout the world.
2. We only buy ”Pay as you go/Prepaid” mobile phone services for the period we need it. No monthly, annual or multi-year contracts.
3. We buy a local SIM card in each country we go, for low cost local phone calls.
4. We use WiFi calling as much as practical. When free WiFi is not available, we use a 4G LTE WiFi hotspot to connect you mobile phone to the internet. Once connected, we use the Magic Jack mobile app for local, long distance and oversea calls.

With such an approach, our mobile telephony costs can be minimal since we try to use the most cost effective approach at all time. 

Mobile internet approach

To address our internet requirements while traveling and after investigating several approaches including “tethering and portable hotspot” using our mobile phone, we have settled for the following approach: the purchase of a 4G LTE WiFi Hotspot (from T-Mobile in the USA).

This approach allows, for a small fee (initial cost of less than U$100):

1. To support up to 5 WiFi devices (Laptop, Tablet, Mobile phone,…) at a 4G LTE speed, which is the fastest speed available from Cellular phone service providers.
2. You save on the purchase cost of each tablet since you only buy a WiFi tablet.
3. You can save on mobile phone calls, as you can see in previous articles, by using the mobile Magic Jack app on the mobile to phone free. The only costs you have are the internet or WiFi costs. This is a very cost effective approach for costly long distance calls.