Virgin Mobile Mifi

07Feb11

I mentioned in a previous post that I dropped t-mobile and would be using two cell phones.  One cheap prepay cell and an iphone 2g for the dataplan.  Well I found a better solution and finally it’s available after 5 months of being out of stock. Introducing the Vigin mobile prepay 3g mifi.

For the same price as the t-mobile data only plan I can get a 3g connection (my iPhone is limited to the slower EDGE network, so this is an upgrade) and then share the internet as a wifi hotspot to my iphone.  Of course, the credit card sized mifi hardware is $130 bucks up front, but then it’s only $40 bucks a month for unlimited data.

Then there’s the added bonus of sharing the internet connection for up to 5 devices.  Say hello to my little friend, the netbook.  Up until now, I’ve been using PDAnet to teather but it was kind of a pain to setup each time and the ssl limitation was a let down.  Being able to open the netbook on the fly and have it instantly connect to the mifi is a huge plus.

That leaves me with 3 other connections for sharing the Inernet with friends.. or a great way to make new friends.

The downside?  I no longer have an actual phone on my phone.  Like I mentioned, I rarely use my cell phone, so when I do need to make a call, I need to use a voip app like Skype (2.99 a month).  Also, no sms texts.  Not a big problem as there are a lot of sms apps for the iphone, not to mention Google Voice can send them for free.

This mifi device is really impressive and the first of it’s kind to offer prepay unlimited internet for a modest $40.. I think it’s worth it.  While on paper, my idea sounds like it will work, but there may be some shortcomings.  It’s in the mail on it’s way to me now, so after I get to use it for a bit I’ll update this post.

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