Background:
I'm on AT&T, fresh out of my 2-year contract and not looking to going back. I have a discounted ~$35/month voice plan, when texts and taxes are added I pay around $55/ month.
I require internet at my house for school and job hunting, and due to my location I was forced to purchase an AT&T Mercury USB internet card under 2 year contract. I pay around $60-65/month for 5gb of up/downstream bandwidth.
I've always used cheap $10-15 phones that could text and call, that's all. I just broke my third phone within a year.
Question:
I can buy a Blackjack II on ebay for around $75-100. It has a hackable GPS chip, wifi, and USB connection. For a $20/month increase, I can put my phone on the unlimited text/data plan. Then I could USB tether my phone to my computer and have 3G speeds with unlimited bandwidth for a third of the cost of a restricted separate device. The only thing is I would have to break contract on the currently data-only phone line, which I think is around $175 to do.
So at a decrease of $40/month in service charges, and ~$250 in up front costs, I would break even and start saving $40/month at the 6-month point. Is it this simple? Is it easy to tether a phone to a laptop? Any experience with the Blackjack II specifically?
I'm on AT&T, fresh out of my 2-year contract and not looking to going back. I have a discounted ~$35/month voice plan, when texts and taxes are added I pay around $55/ month.
I require internet at my house for school and job hunting, and due to my location I was forced to purchase an AT&T Mercury USB internet card under 2 year contract. I pay around $60-65/month for 5gb of up/downstream bandwidth.
I've always used cheap $10-15 phones that could text and call, that's all. I just broke my third phone within a year.
Question:
I can buy a Blackjack II on ebay for around $75-100. It has a hackable GPS chip, wifi, and USB connection. For a $20/month increase, I can put my phone on the unlimited text/data plan. Then I could USB tether my phone to my computer and have 3G speeds with unlimited bandwidth for a third of the cost of a restricted separate device. The only thing is I would have to break contract on the currently data-only phone line, which I think is around $175 to do.
So at a decrease of $40/month in service charges, and ~$250 in up front costs, I would break even and start saving $40/month at the 6-month point. Is it this simple? Is it easy to tether a phone to a laptop? Any experience with the Blackjack II specifically?
