On both AT&T and Verizon, I'd say that if you can wait until the next round of hotspots, you should. We haven't tested AT&T's Netgear Nighthawk 5G hotspot, but it likely won't perform better than the LTE hotspot in this roundup, and it's more expensive. Verizon's M2100 is a good choice if you're near Verizon's admittedly limited millimeter-wave 5G coverage. T-Mobile's M2000 is excellent, with good battery life and data performance comparable with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone. (T-Mobile's Magenta Max plan says it has truly unlimited data, but it isn't designed for use on dedicated hotspot devices and so you may get cut off unexpectedly.) You can find more details on the carriers' constantly changing hotspot plans at .ĪT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all have 5G hotspots out now. After that, the carriers deprioritize your data or throttle it unpredictably. If you add a hotspot onto an "unlimited" phone plan, you get up to 50GB of high-speed data with Verizon, up to 40GB of data with AT&T, and 40GB with T-Mobile. That gets you the most data for your dollar. On AT&T and Verizon, your best bet is to add your hotspot line to your existing carrier's phone plan, as a separate line. Hotspots are available from all three nationwide carriers, as well as several virtual operators that use the larger carriers' networks.Īlong with the three major carriers, you can get hotspots from Boost (T-Mobile), Cricket (AT&T), H2O (AT&T), Karma (T-Mobile), Metro (T-Mobile), Net10 (Verizon), and Simple Mobile (T-Mobile), along with other minor players. With that in mind, here's what you need to know to pick the right service and hardware, along with the top-rated hotspots we've tested, and even an international option.
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