Cricket Offers $10 Hotspot Add-On

You might remember that in mid-July the brief addition of a mobile hotspot page was spotted on the Cricket Wireless website, leading to a lot of speculation that the company, which thus far has prohibited the use of mobile devices as hotspots, might soon add the capability. Well, it looks like that day has finally come, albeit with some catches. Available immediately, customers can pay an extra $10 to use their Cricket-branded device as a hotspot. Most phones are already capable of this, and Cricket is basically charging you for the ability to use the data you’ve already paid for on another device. Prepaid Phone News says this is a blatant breach of the Net Neutrality rules, and I’m not sure that they’re wrong. Either way, being able to tether your device is nice and if you don’t mind paying the additional fee for something your phone should already be able to do, here are some things to consider:

• The add-on is NOT prorated, which means that you’ll want to be sure to add it at the beginning of the month to get the most bang for your buck. If you add it three days before your plan renews, you’ll just have to pay for it again three days later when the plan renews.
• Mobile hotspotting is currently not supported for BYOD or Apple devices–your phone must be a Cricket device, purchased from Cricket Wireless.
• The Mobile Hotspot add-on is only available for plans priced at $50 or higher
• Mobile Hotspot will pull from your regular data bucket.

Of course Cricket isn’t the only company that charges for the ability to use your device as a hotspot but it’s still a pretty controversial thing especially as the courts and the FCC are still sort of testing the waters with the new Net Neutrality laws. I’m not a legal expert so I won’t try and give an opinion on whether or not this is legal, but it certainly seems like something of a ripoff. What do you think? Will you pay $10 for hotspotting with your phone and the data you already pay for? Tell me your thoughts in the comments!]]>