Any hexbears do this? I need to get rid of shitcastinfinitynbcuniversalmeglocorp asap and I narrowed it down to two choices:
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Minternet mint mobile home internet & mint mobile phone plan. I can get Minternet router for 6/12 months prepaid and mint mobile unlimited plan for my iphone for $45 to $50 month for a year. I am planning on moving next year hopefully by June and I’m not sure where yet and I don’t know if it will roam or if I have coverage after the move. It’s the cheapest home internet and phone plan but prepaid and might not work where I’m moving.
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Google Fi. I can get a Pixel 9A and two years of unlimited internet which is actually 50 Gb phone data and 50 Gb hot spot data for the same upfront cash outlay as Mint mobile and then $55 month for two years. I need to keep it for two years for the $55/month because google cyber monday deal is cost of the phone($400) and $240 off google fi for two years. The $640 deal is spread out over 24 months with $27 off a month. The $55 month google fi plan over two years includes the cost of the pixel 9A but have to keep google fi for two years to get that price.
No matter what scheme I come up with internet access and phone will come out to $50 +/- $10 so this isn’t a financial question. What I am wondering is if I can use a pixel 9A to stream 50Gb month and use it as my primary phone. I see a lot of people saying the battery will go bad since I am using a pixel as a home router. Mint mobile solves home internet and phone for a year and no 50Gb home internet cap and google fi solves home internet and phone for two years with 50Gb home internet cap. The reason I’m posting this in Technology is I need to determine if pixel will last two years as a router and main phone. Also muh eyes are bad and I can only use phone for bank/bills/email/sms but cannot surf internet without using laptop or desktop so hotspot/tethering is a must and because I live in a capitalist society I have to make a decision TODAY (cyber monday).
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Instead of using a mobile phone why not get something like a Cudy 5G Router. They are a little expensive, but they are built for the task. You get it its own Sim card and it’ll provide WiFi and hard wire connections. Might be out of scope for what you’re looking for but maybe not.
I’ll check that router out and see what kind of deals I can get on sim cards. Long term solution will either be a 5 G router like you mentioned or starlink.
1 would probably be the safer bet assuming you’re staying in the same country (all bets off if not). I’ve used tethering a phone as a back-up in emergency situations and if you’re frugal with data and just need to get email, visit some social media without too many media embeds (Hexbear/Lemmy probably okay, tiktok not as much), etc you’ll be fine but 50GB can run out remarkably quickly while regularly streaming video on desktop at 1080p or 720p quality. Youtube is fairly optimized in terms of limited bitrates for their video so regular hours a day watching YT each month might be doable (not sure, could come close or go over) but I would say if you want to do Netflix, HBOMax, Hulu, or other streaming services that they tend to use more bitrate than youtube so you could pretty easily exhaust that 50GB in under a month, Prime video even worse as because Amazon runs their own infrastructure their video bitrates are 25-50% higher than most other streamers.
I would see if you can figure out how much data you used last month, many routers have a section where this is available and some ISPs can answer that as well (if you do call instead of checking online just don’t tell them you’re asking to price out a competitor plan, make up some nonsense about worrying about activity on your network or something and wanting to know just to check if it seems okay). If you can establish you normally use around 50GB a month then you know 2 is in theory viable even if not what I would choose, if you know for example your usage is 100GB a month of data then you know you’d have to really cut back on some things.
I had 2 mint mobile plans with 15 Gb/month for total 30Gb/mo and I tethered and hotspotted it for 6 months until I bricked an old pixel 1 because of battery issues. Pixels are a lot better now but 6+ hrs of surfing a day is still probably an extreme use case. Routers have better thermal design and much cheaper to replace. I can also download occasional vids, movies and new linux distros onto a usb stick at the library which is only a few miles away. I just don’t have a lot of confidence that a mobile phone can handle it every day many hours for two years. Starting to lean towards mint internet and mint mobile for phone.
The mint is most likely better choice.
I used a phone as an uplink for a warehouse and it was pretty bad. The device itself constantly had problems with overheating and wasn’t getting the kind of plush treatment that phones do in comparison with a piece of industrial or commercial electronics.
Since both use the same t-mobile network its six of one and a half dozen of the other no matter where you end up going.
I’m sure you’ve already looked into it, but can you get starlink or fiber optic cable pulled out to your location? It sounds crazy but sometimes they’ll pull a wire for cheaper than you might think and from places closer than you know…
I bricked an OG pixel 1 due to battery swelling 8 years ago so that weighs heavy on my mind. Somebody is laying fiber nearby but the advertising suggests locking into 2 year contract to get speed and cost comparable to xinfinity. I’m almost certainly moving to another state in 2026 and they require payback if you cancel early. I have looked into starlink maybe $60 home (no mobile) or $100 ish for mobile setup. If I’m on the road that might be an option in 2026 but then I would have to make melon even richer than he already is. A lot of commenters online suggest that google fi’s deal with tmobile provides better coverage than mint but I’m not certain of that.
If the best option is starlink then the best option is starlink. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism so you don’t need to beat yourself up if you end up going that route.
If it uses the same networks it has the same coverage.
If you’re moving you get to break contract. Source: me, I’ve moved under contract into areas without a particular service multiple times and you just say you moved and you gotta cancel service. They’re gonna initially say you need to pay everything back or some dumb bullshit but that’s fake and unlawful and if you just stick to your guns they can’t do anything to you. Don’t tell them you think you might be moving when you set it under because they won’t set you up. They’re not looking too hard at anything because Uncle Sam is most likely covering the fiber rollout on the backend.
E: if you see yourself continuing to rely on internet access like you describe yourself doing, don’t worry about the deal aspect of things right now and just prioritize getting normal person internet access for a price you can afford per month. Relying on using a phone as hotspot isn’t a good choice and will cause you problems.
I used my phone as a router for about a year at uni, using a 5G unlimited SIM as a hotspot for my PC which was too far away from our house wifi to stay connected consistently.
It was OK. Ive had better WIFI and much, much worse too.
My pixel on google-fi works fine for this. I’ve used it in a pinch when my home fiber goes down and it works well.
What I am wondering is if I can use a pixel 9A to stream 50Gb month and use it as my primary phone.
are you talking about watching yt vids or do you mean that you are a streamer of sorts?
honestly this will most likely work if you have good coverage where you live (mint sounds risky on coverage), you should consider strategies to keep your phone charged and cool, for example watch some yt vids in lower quality.
I’ve had good experiences WiFi tethering on every android phone I’ve used (LG, Pixel, Samsung) over the last decade, noting that HD video streaming is not what I used them for.
No games and no streaming so just web surfing and occasionally youtube vids. I am extremely online tho so it adds up. I’m not really worried about using more than 50Gb hotspot a month. You’re right about the minternet being an unknown but I did have a mint mobile phone plan a few years ago and the speed was comparable to xinfinity.
I’ve used google fi and mint mobile in the past. They both use t-mobile. google fi works everywhere and mint will work fine at current location but could be hard to switch and will need a new plan in a year regardless so I’m inclined to go with Fi.
Already replied to my own post twice. Three times a charm. I’m trying to find a mobile failure curve but can’t find any with the time axis labeled other than a ‘time’:
My vibes based analysis suggest 2 year average %10 duty cycle (2 hrs day) but using a phone as a router for 6+ hrs a day is an extreme use case.
Found out I can get a Pixel 10 for $100 more upfront. Also get pixel 4 watch for additional $150 upfront which then gets amortized 24 months on a watch data plan for $7 off plus $30 25Gb watch data plan. Have to keep the watch data plan for 4 months to keep the $300 watch discount. If I cancel the watch data plan after 4 months I only get $7 off for 4 months on the $150 rebate. Summarizing: Google pixel 10 & google pixel 4 watch Google Fi unlimited phone plan 50 Gb phone only and 50 Gb hotspot data /month and pixel 4 lte watch with 25Gb data for 4 months. Cost of everything amortized over 24 months (canceling watch data after 4 months) would cost me $67 month or Pixel 9A google fi no watch $55 monthly over 2 years.
Currently have shitcast home internet $67/mo and $13/mo Tello plan so I would get all that and still save $13/mo or more for pixel 9A. Alternately I could pay $400 to mint mobile and have home internet and unlimited phone plan for a year amortized 12months thats $40/month. By the time I make a decision the pixels will be sold out. God I hate making these kind of decisions I’m getting level 5 anxiety rn.
Problem with pixel Fi is if it fails I go dark. I would have to use library internet to get things worked out. I currently have iphone 14 but I am NOT going to risk using it for home internet. In these scenarios the iphone goes dormant or wifi for a year or two. This is why I’m considering the pixel or minternet router. I don’t have time now but for future proofing I’m going to investigate a $25 mobile router and $100 25GB 1year data card from eiotclub
