Question Questions about phone hotspots

MasterYoda327

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May 26, 2019
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I am doing some research for my father. He is doing a lot of business travel. He wants to use two smartphones for his travels. He wants to use one smartphone as a phone hotspot. He then wants to use the other smartphone for doing his regular tasks like phone calls, text messages, and email and route the communications through the phone hotspot. I am no expert on phone hotspots. My questions are:

1. Can my father connect his primary smartphone to the phone hotspot and do his mentioned communications?
2. If yes to the previous question, can he do it through the cellular provider, Wi-Fi, or both?
3. Would my father be better off with a phone hotspot or mobile hotspot?

Thanks.
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
I am doing some research for my father. He is doing a lot of business travel. He wants to use two smartphones for his travels. He wants to use one smartphone as a phone hotspot. He then wants to use the other smartphone for doing his regular tasks like phone calls, text messages, and email and route the communications through the phone hotspot. I am no expert on phone hotspots. My questions are:

1. Can my father connect his primary smartphone to the phone hotspot and do his mentioned communications?
2. If yes to the previous question, can he do it through the cellular provider, Wi-Fi, or both?
3. Would my father be better off with a phone hotspot or mobile hotspot?

Thanks.
I used to travel a lot (like weekly for 15 years) and I used a second cell phone with unlimited data to connect to my PC with a phone to USB cable for many years before I went to a real hotspot.

The last few years of my travel days I was on T Mobile and used one of their hotspots when in a hotel with poor wifi, not uncommon since many have not upgraded their wifi for the huge increase in use due to their lack of funds with COVID and all. It was fairly cheap and had good coverage in the places that I stayed or went through. He should check coverage maps though.
 

Math Geek

Titan
Ambassador
the mobile hotspot to me is a better idea. they both are basically the same thing as it uses the cell network to provide a wifi signal for other devices to connect to. but the mobile hotspot is only doing one thing rather than that second phone still being a phone...

our local library actually has the tmobile hotspot that can be checked out for free with unlimited data!!! it's through a federal grant, so you might have the same thing locally to you. your dad can then check it out and see if it's what he would like to use vs the phone idea.

the second phone would connect either way and access data but not sure why to even do it, since the primary phone can already have its own data through the same network. you'd pay a bunch for the hotspot from phone or mobile hotspot to the point it would end up costing a lot more than just a solid phone plan for the main phone.

a single phone would still make phone calls and all that even though it is providing a hotspot for a laptop or tablet or whatever. it'll just want to stay plugged in while it is pulling all that extra duty as the battery will be taking a big hit.

i've done it many times over the years, using my phone as hotspot for my laptop while still using the phone as i wanted to. it'll do both no problem. many times the kid had a tablet streaming netflix from the phones hotspot on a long drive while i was talking on the phone and so on...
 
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