Should I Use My Mobile Phone for Home Internet Service?
“Should I use my mobile phone for home internet service?” is a question that has occurred to a lot of people – especially those hoping to save a little money.
Is it really possible to use your cell phone as a mobile internet hotspot? Yes, it is, and it’s surprisingly simple too! Does that mean you can use your mobile phone for home internet service? Not so fast. As a company that offers both internet and mobile phone plans, ICC has heard all about it… and trust us, it just won’t work unless you hardly use it at all. Read on to find out why.
How to Use Your Phone as a Hotspot
First, here’s how to use your cell phone as a mobile internet hotspot.
The process will look a little different from one phone to another, but the basic idea is simple enough that you should be able to figure it out on any phone. Just go into Settings, then find Mobile Hotspot or Personal Hotspot, often found under the Wi-Fi heading.
Set up a strong password for your new hotspot. Next, go to the device you want to use to connect to the internet, such as your laptop. Look at the list of available wi-fi options and you should see your hotspot. Enter your password, and you should be able to access the internet.
Does This Mean You Can Use Your Mobile Phone for Home Internet Service?
Unfortunately, no, this doesn’t mean that you don’t need internet service at home – unless you only use it minimally. If you’re a remote worker, this isn’t going to work for your home office. Why? Because that mobile hotspot will drain your data. Most people have only about 10-20 GB of data available for hotspot usage every month, but the average house (without a home office in it!) uses 344 GB every month.
This is true even if your mobile phone plan offers “unlimited data,” because the “unlimited” part doesn’t apply when it comes to mobile internet hotspots. Those will have separate data limits even on an unlimited plan.
Once you go over your data limit, your mobile carrier will slow your data connection, charge you extra for the extra data, or apply some other penalty depending on the carrier.
In effect, this means that there’s no realistic way to use your mobile phone for home internet service unless you use it so rarely that you won’t risk using more than 10-20 GB of data in an entire month – which is almost certainly not realistic for a remote worker.