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SmarTone unlimited 4G data package

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  1. #1

    SmarTone unlimited 4G data package

    Does anybody use SmarTone unlimited 4G data package as a replacement to broadband internet at home, for example in older buildings or remote areas which only have a very low bandwidth fixed line internet option?

    This is essentially creating a personal hotspot with a dedicated handset for the household to use. If yes does it work well for you?

    As per the policy of this unlimited package above 6GB per month they have what they call a Fair Usage Policy which does not restrict speed but gives a lower priority access. In practice I'm not sure exactly what this means but the SmarTone sales assistant assures me the impact is negligible and many people are using this package as a home broadband replacement without issues, including himself, but

    I'd like some feedback from others using the package in this manner, if there are some in this forum. Our usage is browsing, occasional video streaming and daily video calls so probably fairly heavy in terms of bandwidth required and data consumption. Thanks in advance.

    Last edited by shri; 10-05-2017 at 03:22 PM. Reason: reformatting...

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    7,471
    Quote Originally Posted by rachelcolombo:
    [FONT="]Does anybody use SmarTone unlimited 4G data package as a replacement to broadband internet at home, for example in older buildings or remote areas which only have a very low bandwidth fixed line internet option? This is essentially creating a personal hotspot with a dedicated handset for the household to use. If yes does it work well for you? As per the policy of this unlimited package above 6GB per month they have what they call a Fair Usage Policy which does not restrict [/FONT]speed but gives a lower priority access. In practice I'm not sure exactly what this means but the SmarTone sales assistant assures me the impact is negligible and many people are using this package as a home broadband replacement without issues, including himself, but I'd like some feedback from others using the package in this manner, if there are some in this forum. Our usage is browsing, occasional video streaming and daily video calls so probably fairly heavy in terms of bandwidth required and data consumption. Thanks in advance.
    I used it on Lamma. Well we did have Netvigator but it was so slow that I upgraded my phone contract to unlimited smartone 4g and used my phone to share WiFi whenever I was home. This was much faster than the service netvigator provided and there was no noticeable slow down.
    rachelcolombo likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    1,551
    Quote Originally Posted by rachelcolombo:
    Does anybody use SmarTone unlimited 4G data package as a replacement to broadband internet at home, for example in older buildings or remote areas which only have a very low bandwidth fixed line internet option? This is essentially creating a personal hotspot with a dedicated handset for the household to use. If yes does it work well for you? As per the policy of this unlimited package above 6GB per month they have what they call a Fair Usage Policy which does not restrict speed but gives a lower priority access. In practice I'm not sure exactly what this means but the SmarTone sales assistant assures me the impact is negligible and many people are using this package as a home broadband replacement without issues, including himself, but I'd like some feedback from others using the package in this manner, if there are some in this forum. Our usage is browsing, occasional video streaming and daily video calls so probably fairly heavy in terms of bandwidth required and data consumption. Thanks in advance.
    I signed for smart one 4g unlimited. It was great when i was living around sham shui po district. Dl/Ul always 20mbps+ and very relaible connection. I was using it as home broadband replacement.

    Everything changed when moved to tseung kwan O district , it was the opposite. Getting less than 3g speeds and very bad connection. Complained and got feedback that capacity enhancement infrastructure upgrade is taking place until july.

    Its better to buy a prepaid and try assesing the strength and bandwidth available at your place before signing up.
    rachelcolombo likes this.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    6,317

    I've been told that prepaid cards have different reception than postpaid. Also I've tested 4G vs 3G cards at a shop before same location and they were similar speeds!

    I don't always buy that 100/150mbps mumble jumble. Maybe in central at one moment.

    To answer your question, yes people do this. I had the $4xx plan plus $128 unlimited data add on. FUP after 5/6Gb but it NEVER slowed down. I popped in the SIM card in a SIM card router and bam was ready to go. Reception was only 1-2bars inside my house but worked fine until my place was upgraded to high speed. Probably used it for 1-1.5 years and some months I would download 3-5TB of movies. Yes 5TB!! I used to download everything but switched to streaming.

    Only reason that I did this was work provided a phone, was traveling and needed data roaming overseas and I hate carrying two phones. This smartone plan at $650 or so per month isn't cheap either. Now I switched to one of those cheaper plans but definitely wouldn't try to download movies on it.

    Regarding signal yes important to check it out. But there are also antennas and stuff that you can buy to improve your signal and reception. I wanted faster internet so I was looking into it. But my download speeds for overseas movies was constantly 1-2MBps. Not sure what that means but it's quite fast for torrents in my experience.