Can you regularly use the Internet on a MB or MBP with your iPhone's hotspots?

[Super Real]

Hi,

There must be people whose economic situation is still vulnerable after covid-19, I'm one of them. So I'm always thinking how to save money.

Now I'm thinking of cancelling the contract with a cable TV company to reduce my monthly payment. I don't have time to watch TV since I spend so much time to use my laptop (to google, to watch YouTube, etc). Still, I can't give up my old MBP since my weak eyesight can't work well on the tiny display of an iPhone or an iPad...

Today I heard someone say that you can use your smartphone's personal hotspot (or mobile data?), which allows you to use the Internet on your laptop.

Could you let me know how to do that... oh okay, I'll google it. However could you guys answer my following question?

- As long as you have an iPhone's personal hotspot, you really don't need the conventional Wi-Fi signal from a cable TV company or a telephone company at all?

Thank you very much for your valuable time to help me in advance.
I'm sorry if my awkward English skills or lack of IT-related knowledge confuse you.

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

No, you don't need Wi-Fi to access the internet. If you have a hotspot, you can use it to browse Google and watch YouTube videos, unless you're playing online games that require low latency. I think 5G these days can provide low enough latency for those games.

However, it's important to check your phone carrier plan and understand if there are limits on hotspots.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi,

There must be people whose economic situation is still vulnerable after covid-19, I'm one of them. So I'm always thinking how to save money.

Now I'm thinking of cancelling the contract with a cable TV company to reduce my monthly payment. I don't have time to watch TV since I spend so much time to use my laptop (to google, to watch YouTube, etc). Still, I can't give up my old MBP since my weak eyesight can't work well on the tiny display of an iPhone or an iPad...

Today I heard someone say that you can use your smartphone's personal hotspot (or mobile data?), which allows you to use the Internet on your laptop.

Could you let me know how to do that... oh okay, I'll google it. However could you guys answer my following question?

- As long as you have an iPhone's personal hotspot, you really don't need the conventional Wi-Fi signal from a cable TV company or a telephone company at all?

Thank you very much for your valuable time to help me in advance.
I'm sorry if my awkward English skills or lack of IT-related knowledge confuse you.

As @DarkPremiumCho mentioned, you can do that.

For how long is the real question. Does your cable company offer just internet? Mine does and I save ~$200 a month by dropping TV. We (my wife and I) still watch TV, but we use Amazon Firesticks to stream free services. For me, the most important thing is my local news and I get that. All I'm paying my ISP for is internet.

Most cellular carriers have hotspot limits because they don't want you to turn hotspot into a dedicated internet line. Some people have routers that you can plug your phone in to and the router uses your phone hotspot/date for internet. The carriers don't want that.

My cell carrier offers Home Internet (I don't use it), where they give you 100GB a month for a low fee. But your data does not have any priority - everyone else gets served first.

I work from home so a dedicated home ISP is necessary. Last months data use for my household was 1.4TB. There's no way a cell carrier is going to allow me that much hotspot and I'd use up an entire month of data in one and a half days on my cell carrier's internet plan. So, I stick with my cable company for internet.

 

[Super Real]

However, it's important to check your phone carrier plan and understand if there are limits on hotspots.

Yes, I am going to change my current cellular data plan from minimum to unlimited before cancel my Internet service with a cable TV company. Thank you for the reply and the advice.

 

[Super Real]

As @DarkPremiumCho mentioned, you can do that.

For how long is Does your cable company offer just internet? Mine does and I save ~$200 a month by dropping TV. We (my wife and I) still watch TV, but we use Amazon Firesticks to stream free services. For me, the most important thing is my local news and I get that. All I'm paying my ISP for is internet.

Most cellular carriers have hotspot limits because they don't want you to turn hotspot into a dedicated internet line. Some people have routers that you can plug your phone in to and the router uses your phone hotspot/date for internet. The carriers don't want that.

My cell carrier offers Home Internet (I don't use it), where they give you 100GB a month for a low fee. But your data does not have any priority - everyone else gets served first.

I work from home so a dedicated home ISP is necessary. Last months data use for my household was 1.4TB. There's no way a cell carrier is going to allow me that much hotspot and I'd use up an entire month of data in one and a half days on my cell carrier's internet plan. So, I stick with my cable company for internet.

Thank you very much for the reply. But unfortunately with my poor English skills and IT knowledge, I can hardly understand the meaning of what you're saying... I'm sorry.

I can only say this; my cable TV company also has offered just Internet service along with optional TV channel package plans (with additional fee) and I currently use just Internet without any TV option to minimize the monthly fee. I'm sorry if I confused you with what I wrote in the OP, I just wanted to say that I don't need the TV option.

By the way, here is the hotspot options that my phone company (Verizon) offers:

Unlimited Plus 5G and Unlimited Plan for Hotspots ❘ Verizon

Get Unlimited Plus 5G or an Unlimited data plan for your hotspot or jetpack. Ditch Wi-Fi and get connected with a low monthly plan for connected devices from Verizon.

www.verizon.com

My cable company's monthly unlimited Internet fee is about $91 including tax, etc., so if I need to choose the Premium plan ($80 + taxes and fees, for 150GB of mobile hotspot data with an existing smartphone on an Unlimited plan) to match the current condition with my cable TV company, then I would not do anything and stay the current situation.