I am debating my Internet options 💻🗃📶 🔌

With winter upon us, the pandemic raging towards us, it seems unlikely I’ll be working downtown full-time any time soon again. From spring to autumn, working at the library and using my phone for internet has worked, okay but I’m starting to think I’m going to need a better solution come December into January. It’s just going to be too cold to work at the library sitting in my truck plus it gets dark out early.

I can try to continue to use my phone for Internet but I’m not sure how well that will work, as I might run up into data caps and the fact that it’s small screen and limited processing power doesn’t work that great on all websites. This might particularly be an issue when I have to watch videos or do Zoom sessions. For editing documents, I can always transfer documents to my laptop using a USB cable. Plus I kind of wish I could participate in various Zoom community events that I am currently missing and other events that have been moved exclusively online.

The obvious answer would be to get my apartment wired and set up either with Spectrum Cable Internet or FIOS Internet. The benefit of that service is its virtually unlimited, no data caps to worry about. It’s not cheap though, although it looks like I could get FIOS basic service for $40 month for a minimum of 12 months after paying the installation charge which is probably a couple hundred bucks and for a $300 router. The FIOS service is probably cheaper and more reliable than the cable service especially because I don’t own a television and have no interest in watching any of that commercial programming.

That said, I’ve been very resistant to having Internet at home, because I enjoy walking down to the park or the library after work. If you are going to sit for a few hours and surf the web, then it’s good to stretch your legs for a few minutes of walking first. Prior to the pandemic, I would walk to the library several times a week, even when it was cold and snowy. I’d bundle up to fight the wind chill. I don’t like having a lot of commerical advertising in my apartment, and I worry if I had Internet at home, I’d spend all this time watching stupid Youtube videos or playing on social media. Not that I don’t do that already with my phone.

I started researching Wi-Fi Hotspots and found that I could upgrade my phone plan in mid December to add 10 gigabytes of Hotspot data for $10 extra bucks a month or 20 gigabytes of data for $20 extra a month. I conformed that my phone has that capability to serve as a hot spot for my laptop, so that’s the route I’ll probably take. Looking through my logs on my computer if I am careful – and don’t do much video streaming – I should be good with certainly the 20 gig plan. As it’s month to month, once the pandemic is over and I’m back working downtown and the library is a open again, I can drop the Hotspot plan.

While I’m sure it’s nice to not have a data cap and the speed and reliability of a wired connection, it sure is a lot cheaper in the short run and flexible to use my phone as a hot spot. If I decide to winter camp I could even work remotely from a heated tent and my laptop. If I upgrade my phone plan to include the extra Hotspot service it will be unlimited cellphone data (up to 60 GB), which would mean that I can do Zooms and watch videos on my phone without having to worry about too much data.

Honestly, I don’t like subscription fees. But I think I have found a solution that will work well enough for remote work during these cold months. The pandemic will be around for a while longer – maybe months but not years. There are two almost approved vaccines and come next spring into summer it will be warm enough to work in the park or library and then I can reevaluate each month what data plan I need going forward. I’m hopeful that by spring I’ll be working back downtown full-time again and the library re-opened so I won’t need the hot spot add on package anymore.

Right now I have a little more than a month left on my current phone service so I probably won’t upgrade the package until December. But that’s only a little over a month and if I end up needing it before then I’ll loose a little bit of my previously purchased service but it’s not a big deal. Still cheaper than getting a permanent wired connection at home.