I got my MiFi less than 24 months ago, and I wrote about it six months later, with this bit about the costs:
I liked the idea of a prepaid account because I just wanted to buy the device and the “pay as you go” model fit my usage. Of course you can’t predict the future, and those Virgin Mobile folks have changed the pricing more than once. When I was planning to buy one, the 3 options were $10, $20, and $40, and by the time I bought one weeks later, it was $20, $40, and $50. And who know? They may change again…. Urgh.
Just dropping this in as a point of reference… the current prices are $35 for 2GB per month, and $55 for 5GB per month, and there’s an “unlimited” for $50 per month which gives you “3G speeds up to 2.5GB” which I assume means any data over 2.5GB will be delivered at the speed of a 14.4 modem. I’m not sure if the $50 is available to me because I’m grandfathered in, or not, but this is the kind of shit that drives me crazy. I mean, I knew the price would increase, just like I’m sure the price of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription will increase, which is why no matter how “cheap” it is right now, I can’t be convinced it’ll be some amazing deal in the long run…
I’m not sure that Virgin Mobile is still the best solution for my MiFi needs (which end up being maybe 3 to 5 times per year) but I don’t know what the other (cheaper?) options might be… I did find TruConnect, which might be an option, but I’m open to suggestions.
2 replies on “MiFi Money”
I have a portable wifi hotspot from Ting. Coverage looks about the same as TruConnect and pricing isn’t much different for small amounts of usage but could be a lot cheaper if you use a lot of data. Ting not only offers data devices but also offers easy to manage phone service if you happen to have a need for a cheap low usage extra phone (for kids/parents/grandparents). Ting is owned by Tucows a name that many geeks remember from years past. Overall I like how Ting gives an overall transparent feeling about what is happening at the company.
The are powered by the Sprint network just like Virgin Mobile and TruConnect. On another note the are working on being able to activate most Sprint based devices on their service. If all goes as planned you could take your existing MiFi and switch it to Ting and not have to pay for new hardware.
If you happen happen to want to switch to Ting, I have a referral code that will save you $25 of your first device.
Quick update for January 2013:
There is now a $5.00 option that is good for one day and 200 MB.