Which 3G/4G phone as mifi device?

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Adenoid Hynkel

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I am looking for a mobile phone that is capable of 3G preferable 4G speeds.
I am going to use this phone as a backup router at my house for the rainy ADSL days.

Why I want a phone over a mifi or 3G router? I have a second contract with a 5GB Data bundle which also includes 200 minutes per month. If I use the sim in a phone I will be able to make calls if need be. I don't want the hassle of changing the sim around all the time.

I am looking for something cheap, most prob some Android plastic fantastic toy that could do 3/4G and be able to create a wifi hotspot.

What can you folks recommend?
 
A number of smart phones have the Wifi Hotspot capability.
Look for this feature under WLAN.
 
What about the new Vodacom special. Smart Kicka.

Just make sure about hotspot.
 
Last edited:
Maybe Samsung Galaxy Pocket? It has wifi hotspot capabilities.
 
So, you want a fast backup data link with the possibility to use the talk time without too much hassle. And you want it cheap! :)

My 2c's:
- Mobile hotspots can be power hungry and drain a phone's battery pretty quickly. You would need to leave it on charge most of the time, which isn't necessarily good for the battery (depends a bit on the phone, charger and type of battery).
- Mobile hotspots are usually limited to only a few WIFI connections (~10 on my samsung s3 lte)
- Mobile hotspots can be sometimes be finicky, requiring the phone to be restarted or the option to be disabled and enabled again. That said, I use my SGT 10" as the primary hotspot for the house and it works fine most of the time. I just have to reset it every other day or so.
- 4G phones aren't gonna be cheap... even the usb modems are quite expensive. Perhaps look at second hand 4G phones (S3 LTE, Huawei Ascend P???, Sony Xperia ??? phone). For new phones, look here as a guide line http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/mobile-phone/3443896/8-cheapest-4g-smartphones-in-uk-2014/
- Depending on your mobile network, it may be cheaper to just activate a dual/data sim option (two sims on the same contract). Use one sim in an old phone for the talk time and the other in a usb modem. If your adsl/wifi modem has a 3G/4G USB failover port, this can be very convenient and seemless. Keep in mind, 4G USB modems works best directly in the pc. When connected to a wifi router, it may result in slower speeds (some limit in the way a generic PPP connection is made, because the router can't easily install the actual device driver).
- HSPA+ speeds may be sufficiently fast. My SGT does 10mbps max, which in reality is faster than the average throughput on Cell C in my area anyway. The Huawei Ascend Y220 may be the cheap and dirty option here. See http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/596889-Android-phone-as-a-cheap-MiFi-router
-Be careful of some old phones, like nokia symbian, which could make a wifi hotspot (using the "joikuspot" app) in adhoc (not infrastructure) network mode. Some versions of Windows and Android can not connect to adhoc networks.
 
Thanks @Mobus for the informative post.

@sajunky, that Y220 looks like it will do the job just fine, thanks.
 
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