the differences between 3g and broadband.

[the surfer]

HI everybody. Im a newbie and confused about the differences between 3g, broadband and wifi. I have a freedompop hot spot that I had planned to use with an irulu tablet. As I understand it, the hot spot is exclusively 4g wimax. 3g is not provided. Do I need a 3g/4g dongle to access the broadband in my home? thanks for any clarification.

 

[Solandri]

• ■3g = long-range (5-30 miles) cellular phone data service for Internet
  ■4g = Faster version of above
  ■Broadband = high speed Internet provided by an ISP. Usually DSL, cable, or fiber. Defined by the government. Used to be 2 Mbps or faster. Currently planned to be updated to 25 Mbps or faster.
  ■WiFi = short-range (a few hundred feet) wireless network access, usually at home or a company. Usually connected to the Internet. (Using a directional antenna, you can increase its range to several miles.)

The FreedomPop hotspot is a device which talks to FreedomPop's 4g cellular wireless towers on one end, and to your wifi devices on the other. It acts to bridge the local wifi devices to FreedomPop's 4g cellular network, thus giving your devices Internet access. You don't need a dongle - the hotspot takes the place of a dongle/dedicated device which plugs into a single computer, and instead uses wifi so (1) you don't need a physical connection, and (2) multiple devices can use it simultaneously.

Technically it could quality as broadband, though you may get some argument about that since it's over a radio signal instead of a physical cable, and it's probably pretty slow compared to dedicated lines.

 

[bill001g]

What you need in your house is WiFi. The hotspot receives wimax from the cell tower and talks to your end devices with WiFi. WiFi is most times called 802.11 and some letters. Your tablet already has a adapter that can talk to the hotspot. It should just work.

Unfortunately the terms 3g and 4g have gotten very murky because of marketing department at cell phone companies. This is why there is actually another set of even more confusing letters like WiMax, LTE,HSPA etc etc that more properly define how the end device talks to the cell tower.

Be very careful about using any equipment that is WiMax. based. In the USA this was implemented by sprint and clear mostly. Many other vendor resell these networks under their name and use sprint/clear network. They actually work pretty good but everyone else in the world went with LTE....which is why you see so many ads for 4g-lte on tv. Sprint and clear have announced they are going to discontinue WiMax and go to LTE. The hotspot/dongles dongles are completely incompatible. If you are buying new equipment I would be going after LTE based stuff.

 

[the surfer]

Hello and thanks for the clarification. If I understand the above, then It pronpts the following questions.

1. If I carry a hot spot with me, Ares there any circumstances where I might need a dongle? can a dongle do everything a hotspot can? (They are cheap enough that I'm considering carrying one in my gear bag as a backup, just in case)
2.Im making economic decisions at this point. Broadband is the cheapest dollars/gb, for stationary use? hotspot the cheapest mobile?
3. I understand that wimax is going away in nov. As I understand It, lte will be filling this void. The devices I have are compatible with lte. Is this my best choice or should I be considering a adifferent format in order to stay ahead of the curve? My needs are minimal, email, maybe some radio, listening to podcasts, uploading txt docs and minimal pics. What is critical is the ability to connect.
4. Another question, most of the research I've done specifies Huawei compatible dongles. Is there a standard associated with Huawei that I need to be aware of? At this point, Im simply focusing on something that meets the lte standard and can accept 3g/4g.

Thanks for your help.

 

[bill001g]

I have done some looking at freedompop since your last post. It appears this provider uses sprints network. What that means is you need devices that say the are compatible with sprints network. It appears freedompop is now using sprints LTE network also.......not all these virtual cell providers are doing the same a bunch are just going to close up next fall.

Pretty much the reason to use a hotspot is so you do not need a dongle on every device. It also lets you use a table or cellphone that cannot accept a dongle or work on freedompops network directly. It is mostly a personal preference.

I would go to sprints site and get the lists of compatible equipment it should all work.....except iphone for some reason.

Be very careful freedompop has a massive number of complains....mostly from people who did not read the fine print. It appears you can get charged for using too little data as well as for using too much. Still it is one of the very few you can actually get a small amount of data for completely free if you are very careful.

 

[judyblue]

For house wifi using, I recommend Huawei broadband, also called wifi router/hotspot. Recommended model: E5878, E5776, E5377.

 

[bill001g]

For house wifi using, I recommend Huawei broadband, also called wifi router/hotspot. Recommended model: E5878, E5776, E5377.

Be very careful recommending hardware is a total waste of time when you do not know the carrier someone is using.

Even though it may say LTE there are many different radio frequencies these operate on especially when you do not even know the country. Then many of the ISP just refuse to support certain devices, they technically would work but the ISP choose for whatever reason to not allow them.

I am pretty sure none of the 3 device you recommend will work on the ISP he is planning to use.