A Brief History of Hotspots

I do a lot of computing on the go. Be it trains, hackathons, hotels, or being stuck on the runway, internet connectivity is a requirement. I’ve tried a number of solutions throughout the years to stay connected. Long before the days of a “data plan” I was tethering my Dell Inspiron through a hacked Verizon KRZR K1M with a standalone GPS. It was a clunky simulacrum of the iPhone, but it worked (unfortunately, it would take another decade for that sort of technical prowess to be cool).

When I boarded a bus to conceive of, build, and launch a startup over the course of 3 days while traveling to SxSW we were aided by a number of Mifi devices. The 3G hotspots regularly overheated, provided spotty internet connectivity, and were generally a pain to use. After moving to the Bay Area I had a brief stint with Clear hotspots, but their lack of consistent coverage in Alameda was discouraging. Even wired and WiMax technology was tested and found lacking. In NYC we ultimately dumped Towerstream after losing connectivity each time a cloud passed over the Empire State Building.

Darkness fell. Hampered by sluggish speeds and poorly constructed devices, I began to wonder if it was all a pipe dream. Suddenly, a bolt of hope came from an unexpected source - Verizon.

I had heard the Galaxy Nexus was a quality phone (a surprisingly large percentage of my nerd friends have the device) but I had never considered it as a possible contender for best internet hotspot. With the recent announcement of the Galaxy SIII, the price for the Nexus has fallen to $49 on Amazon. I’ve been using the device for about a week and can honestly say that the Verizon LTE network is no joke. I get about 10-15 Mbps down and 5-10 Mbps up in the Bay Area. This spikes to 30 Mbps when I’m using the device in the later evening. Who knows how long these speeds will continue but for the time being I’ve found my connection method of choice.