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Still looking for a good service plan for cell phone to stream Hulu. How much data is needed for, say, 2 or 3 hours of streaming a day? ( do not understand what 10Gb of data translates to for watching movies.)
Part II of the question, is: what happens when the data is throttled down? do movies still play? Is the "buffering" icon flashing every minute or so?

Dick_Martin 7 Apr 9
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In Toronto where I live I have a 400GB plan for 40 bucks a month. I usualy see movies every night for about 3-4 hrs and at the end of the month I only used 125GB. But 40 bucks is not much and I have almost 2 yrs with this company called Teksavvy. It is a DSL service using PPPoE. Also use a laptop on my WIFI. Never have gone over 400GB even though I sometimes do massive downloads using Bit Torrent protocol.

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I have unlimited data with T-Mobile because I stream a lot of music and movies.

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You need an unlimited plan, period. tmobile would be my choice, and I write about this for the industry.

... And if you want T-Mobile on a budget, MetroPCS is workable.

@Meep70 I have not worked with metropcs at all but I know a lot of folks that like it.

@jperlowThey are the same company on the same network with the same performance. MetroPCS is less expensive and prepaid, vs being billed. Other than that, I think the only real difference is in the roaming agreements, where T-Mobile subscribers will have better coverage in outlying areas than MetroPCS.

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Data plans can work with any smart phone. You choose how big of a data plan you want to pay for. Unlimited data, after you've used up the 4G LTE data, will drop down to 4G, then 3G. If it's a prepaid plan. Idk how you could run out of data with 10GB? I have 9GB now.

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We do have unlimited here I think is the speed that counts.

Rosh Level 7 Apr 9, 2018
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Okay buddy .. excuse me if this comes across as alien speak .. but i'll give it a go.. IF you tether a linux based operating system to Android 4.4.3 or below you will get a connectiong that utilises your data plan for computer use and you can connect your laptop or desktop computer, (on all contracts even if tehering disallowed).

You may need to ask a friend who is tecchnical, but it you can get this to run and find the right data plan, you could get unrestricted tethering to the internet on your computer through the phone .. I would never dare do such a thing 😉 free intenet tethering goodness no!! .. despicable lol . .you still pay for the data but the tether is the bit you won't get normally now...

However if you can find a friend to help you set this up and run a vpn on it all your throttling issues will vanish too .... I personally havea very old contract (10 yrs or more) that i never upgraded and just purchased phones myself.. When you get a fair deal on a sim just keep it .. Buying another phone and saving up is going to be cheaper than letting go of the cheap sim deal you find in the longrun.. Hope this makes sense. I would personaly suggest Linux Mint on a dual boot if using a Windows machine .. through Mint you will tether okay through android 4.4.3 and can watch shows on streams..

As i said you havne't seen me lololol .. Jokes aside it is not as shady as it all sounds.. Definitely not encouraged as providers now want people to pay for that tether "privelage" .. .Fact is ensrhined into Mobile communications law is the fact that restricting the tether on any android operating system is technically illegal and the mobile carriers are acting against the law.. 😉

@moonmaid Just find a friend who understands 😉 if you can!

@Dick_Martin You are going to have to work out data rates yourself .... This plan seems popular with some US reddit users I am seeing... Watch Verizon though as in some rural areas coeverage may be inconsistent .. so that may be a concern... I would look for something along these lines though... With unlimited data or a high cap.. The actual data you use is best worked out by looking in your phone settings, under DATA USAGE.. on all android phones and you can check how much you are using month to month. You can work out how much your streaming would be but I cannot do that for you !! Peace.

I looked into tethering - that would solve a lot of problems. A couple of companies were pretty belligerent with their NO!!!! You give me courage though. I am guessing the connection to a router is wireless? That means finding the right router? hmmmm... thnx.

What about this link?
[vpnuniversity.com]
"2017 has finally brought an explosion of ‘Unlimited’ 4G plans available from US wireless carriers. Cordcutting (and saving money) is hugely popular, and people are sick of paying for 2 separate data connections.

So can you use your 4G unlimited data for your home internet connection?

You betcha...."

@Dick_Martin i use the phone as a router. You really need a pre android 4.4.4 system. Like a HTC desire 510 or something. Old things but still tether unrestricted to Linux or Mac. So you set up a wireless hotspot on the phone. Connect wifi to that on computer. If you do that most carriers won't even know you are tethered. So you only need a data plan for the phone but not a specific tethering plan (as they don't know anyway) .. vpn means carrier can't see your traffic either so can't further identify data in any form. You can go onto every android forum in the world and nobody knows how to pull this off ? so it takes a bit of getting head round. I have a sim that is maybe 14 yrs pld now. 15uk£ true unlimited handset data only. Ran net off it for 14 years. If i connect that sim to my new phone (standard android 7 operating system) ill get illegal tether warnings on my computer browser on mac & linux. If i do the same with the old phone to a wondows o/s ill get a tether warning too. Connect the old phone to mac or Linux wifi though you are on. Its worth looking into. Maybe borrow old phones. Kind of phone people give away now as "crap" or sell for pesnuts. Then try some sims of friends. I have set it up for a couple of disabled mstes who would otherwise never have got online. Reslly useful .. don't tell lmao ?

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Sounds to me as though you need unlimited data.

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Doesn't TMobile have a BingeOn plan that streams video apps for free? Maybe look into that. ?

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If you plan on streaming for more than 2 hours every day, you most likely would need more than 10 GB's of data. I know Family Mobile carried by WalMart, has a 9 GB plan which cost $40.00. Once your monthly data allotment is exhausted, your browsing and streaming speeds will drastically decrease, which is a pain. You might try experimenting with a VPN app that offers data compression when connected to one of their servers, so as to conserve speed data. If you or anyone else for that matter have a tech related query, just let me know as I might be able to assist.

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On average 1gb of data equates to about 1 hour of hd (720p or higher) of video

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