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Pay As You Go MiFi Available from TruConnect

By | September 19, 2011 | 8 comments
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Several mobile carriers offer MiFi mobile hotspots, but they require hefty monthly fees along with a two-year contract to get the hardware at a reasonable price.

TruConnect’s new 3G MiFi, priced at $90, aims to avoid contracts entirely. The service, which uses Sprint’s 3G network, uses a pricing model based on bandwidth consumed, rather than tiered data plans that provide a predetermined amount of data per month, usually between 250 MB to 5GB.

There is a small monthly charge of $4.99, but for users who don’t consume a lot of data, it’s a far more appealing option than Verizon’s base price of $39.99 per month. TruConnect charges $0.039 for 1 MB of data, which equates to just $9.75 for 250 MB of data (plus the $4.99 base cost).

If you’re a heavy user, using over a GB or more each month, it’s probably best to stick with a tiered pricing plan as paying per MB can get expensive. However, for users who only use MiFi every once in awhile, or who currently don’t use it at all, TruConnect is an excellent option as a backup data plan. It’s ultra low base cost makes it a perfect choice for traveling or in the event of a home or office Internet outage.

The service is available using the TruConnect USB device for Windows and Mac laptops, or the TruConnect MiFi, which allows up to five WiFi-equipped laptops or tablets to connect at the same time.

For more information, or to purchase, check out the TruConnect website. The USB device retails for $69.99 and the TruConnect MiFi retails for $89.99.

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About Juli: Contact me via Twitter: @julipuli

  • http://twitter.com/kcwookie Mark Fuller

    3.9¢ per megabit is $30.72 per gig plus $4.99 base for $35.71 for one gig for one month. That makes VirginMobile a lot cheaper for their system that runs on the same network. Virgins plan of $50 for 2.5 gig of 3G is a lot cheaper plus you still net although at a slower speed for the same price.

  • Anonymous

    My usage is sporadic and I don’t use my device each month. With VirginMobile you can buy less and service charges are built into the block. Virgin, it cost me nothing not to use it. It appears to be a better gig all the way around.

    • http://www.truconnect.com TruConnect

      With TruConnect you will pay only for what you use. At Virgin Mobile your data will expire after the one week or 30 days that you bought it for. There is no limit on TruConnect as to when you can use your megabytes. You paid for them. Why should they go to waste? That said if in some months you do not use TruConnect you can stop the $4.99 monthly fee and start again whenever you like. There are no deactivation or reactivation fees. Just simple and honest.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Bradley/100001591676304 Michael Bradley

    Mom is getting an Android pad and a TruConnect Mifi for Christmas, on my account. Question: If she forgets to turn off the hot spot and also forgets about the pad (she’s not computer savvy), does data usage still occur, assuming I can setup the pad to sleep or hibernate or even shut down after, let’s assume, 30 minutes of non-use??? Can the hotspot be setup to disconnect after a period (30 minutes) of no activity???

  • Steele

    does streaming videos and internet surfing constitute as using data? or is it more on the downloading videos  games and stuff?

    • Juli Clover

      Streaming video and website browsing do count as data. 

  • Lyndowning

    how much would viewing email and surfing, but no downloads cost in mbs for one hour?  What is the “roaming” situation with Truconnect?

  • http://twitter.com/The_Sunshyn Sunshyn Vanderheiden

    We purchased this based primarily on reviews which specifically state that it works through connecting through usb as well as through wifi. It was to be a backup for our business in case we lost our regular internet connection, a major concern considering the hurricane on its way. Use via wifi when traveling was only a secondary concern since many of our important privacy-critical applications are not allowed to reside on portable devices. However, this device turned out to not work via usb on our PC, and their customer service absolutely refused to support that feature in the slightest, saying the device was not made for that.

    We had to wait through the weekend before could reach their customer support, sat on hold for an hour, and now the hurricane has closed all the stores so it is too late to purchase a pc wifi adapter (an additional, unexpected expense) and given their poor support it seems likely that that won’t work either.