08-16-2011, 02:27 AM
We are off grid also and recently went from Verizon's 3G Mifi (wifi hotspot box) to their 4G Mifi and the difference is very noticeable. The 3G box was subject to many stalls and typically was around 0.6 Mbps. While Verizon's literature and sales person said 5-11 Mbps (and I've seen higher claims in researching comments about the various 4G boxes), we regularly barely break 5 Mbps and often less. This morning's test came in at 4.84/1.25 Mbps. The contract also comes with a 5 Gb data cap and unfortunately we are running into it rapidly. We do a fair amount of news watching and research on the net. However we don't look at movies at all and only occasionally at the Flash videos accompanying many articles these days. So what's up? Only conjectures, but it's clear that we do more connecting more easily and download more whole pages now rather than stopping loading during slow times or stall periods with the 3G. And what we're downloading now are the bloated pages, full of ads and images, that seem typical these days. Finally, there's a gotcha with the wifi hotspot box, which serves our two computers. Obviously we're more or less doubling our download, but the 5 Gb cap applies to the box. The overage is $10 per extra Gb with a 10 Gb plan available for $80 per month. The cost per month is $50. Since two separate modem boxes for each computer would run $100 per month, we're probably better off with the Mifi.