Verizon FiveSpot CDMA / GSM mobile WiFi hotspot leaks out
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 19th 2010 1:14AM
posted July 19th 2010 1:14AM
[Thanks, RWN]
posted July 19th 2010 1:14AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Its so tiny, I LOVE IT!
@uckApple
Indeed, it does look quite tiny and sexy.
@uckApple : that's not what she said?
Come on with the LTE already. :D
@wingsabr
LTE FTW WTF BBQ ?
Sweeet.
And since it's on Verizon, it'll only be a million dollars.
@CRA1G
You forgot to add the overly priced tax
- and the provincial tax
- and the hidden fee
- and the hidden fee
- and the hidden fee
- and the hidden fee
- and the hidden fee
- and the hidden fee
@CRA1G
Actually its only going to cost 750,000 with the 5mb tiered data plan, And the MB is not a typo.
@CRA1G Verizon annoys me with their prices. I was at Best Buy looking for a MiFi, and Verizon was selling theirs for 100 dollars on a 2 year contract, while Virgin Mobile, who has ridiculously cheap plans, was giving theirs for 150 dollars with no contract whatsoever.
Japan has the same product, and it's SIM lock free.
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/wifi/index.html
@Pork
Yeah, I thought the same thing. Amazon lists it for around $208.
Spec's here, basically it's a quad-band GSM + EU UMTS freqs.
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/wifi/detail.html
@num0 do have a link for amazon? I can't find it anywhere and I would like to buy one of these.
Love the concept but hate the international data plans.
It's never the cost of the device, but the cost of the service that keeps me from jumping on board.
I want a $30/month no-contract device that gives me more than a silly 500MB worth of data before I'll bite. Anything less (data-wise) or more (cost-wise) is simply ludicrous to believe that the average American will consider purchasing it.
@Jeff Kibuule Right there with ya! I have Fios at home for $30mo w/ no limit and amazing speed. 4g speeds should be $20-30mo for unlimited at shitty mobile speeds. And how about being able to cut you phones mobile web w/ Verizon to add this little guy for all your devices. I'm not paying you twice Big Red!
I get why verrizon would like this device but I don't quite get why any customer would. I mean if you want a device that works all over the world why not just go with an at&t or t-mobile mifi. Or better yet an unlocked mifi and an att or tmobile sim for it when you want to use it stateside. I dunno isn't the general rule of thumb in engineering that if you can get the same job done with a simpler device the better (in this case a GSM device versus a GSM and CDMA combo device). Just my thoughts.
@Que I personally see a limited life to these "mifi" type devices. With more and more phones supporting wifi tethering though official and unofficial means, why would someone want to 1) pay for yet another device 2) lock into another contract 3) pay yet another "line of service" and data service charge along with all the state and fed taxes to go along with it?
If they offered such a device as an add on to a current line of service with no, or a very small fee like $5 i might go for it. For example on TMO's network there's a 5 gig cap till they throttle. Have both your phone and "mifi" pulling from the same data bucket when you hit 5gig combined between the two, throttle both devices.
@d0ug
I would get just this and Skype and you could use any and as many different phones as you want, but Verizon will screw you with the data rate. Actually it's still a *little* big if I was being picky.
@4x4vn Definitely an option. lol I wonder what provider will be the 1st to either block skype, or deduct call minutes from your plan for the time that you spend in a skype call.
@4x4vn I really have to wonder how much longer providers will get away with selling these as an extra line of service.
Can you imagine the uproar if your cable company, or directv or dish made you open a "new line of service" for each receiver?
The cell phone companies need to operate under the same rules that cable/sat uses. setup an account an choose a package. all the devices under the account get the same plan/features for a $5 or so monthly addon fee.
Sort of like a family plan, but as far as i know most providers family plans only pool the minutes, all your addon's unlimited txt messaging, data, etc have to be added on and payed for separately for each line of service
@d0ug
Actually T-Mobile US's data cap is 20GB before your device is limited to EDGE data. This is up from 10GB a year ago, and 5GB the year before that.
is there a bandwidth cap with the affordable plans?
Personally... My Verizon 'hot spot' is called the Palm Pre Plus, and it's a pretty good one!
@DaHarder
... of course it doesn't do all that well globally, but I don't travel overseas that much anymore.
@DaHarder I wouldn't want to use this thing overseas either unless VZ comes out with some kind of international data plan. Take this thing overseas under the current overseas data roaming setup that provers use, and you're gona need to take out a personal loan when you get back from your trip to pay for all the roaming fees LOL
FiveSpot eh? Sounds like the merged Alltel employees came together and made something. Only the five people in your "My Circle" are allowed to connect to it though. :(
@Master of the Intangible that would be really funny and sad if they did something like that, gotta register your MAC addresses to your "circle" and you cant change them more than once a month!
@Master of the Intangible I'd guess the "Five" in Fivespot refers to either the number of users (like the article implies) or a penta-band cell radio, like the Nokia N8 and new iPhone have.
how much? huawei has something similar for a gsm device for about 200 bucks.
3G hotspot I can fit in my pocket. Awesome.
on first glance i thought it was a palm pre. Both do 5 person hotspot too
Why would anyone want one of these mobile hotspots to roam overseas with? That $10,000 roaming bill when you get home will be nice! Maybe you can put an overseas prepaid SIM in it? likely knowing VZ though this thing will be locked down to hell and no way to SIM unlock it
Maybe VZ is teaming up with global providers to provide decent roaming rates? And really why cant the world's providers get together and make roaming more reasonable, or just downright goto a you let our users roam on your network for free, and well do the same for your users kind of system, that's how a lot of peering agreements work with the big internet backbone providers, so long as one provider isn't abusing the hell out of the other.
Really while overseas just use open Wifi, or get a broadband card/"mifi" type device from a US GSM provider that will unlock it for you, so you can use an overseas SIM in it. and really cant you just disconnect for awhile and enjoy your trip overseas?
Man, Verizon sure is "leaking" a lot of stuff, lately. I'll bet they're really MAD, and looking extra hard to find this nefarious "leaker" hidden in their ranks!
I can see the international data roaming fees adding up already....how much did that one guy get charged who watched a football game on his slingbox using international data -- like $60,000? And then they lowered it to $20,000 and they thought he would be happy..lol...maybe I'm getting the numbers wrong though.