How Can I Get Mobile Internet Without Spending More?

The Why

I've been thinking in the past month if it is wise for me to get pocket wifi. O, I received a call from a sales agent, but I declined to get a unit and subscription.

I know other people will die (an exaggeration, of course) if they couldn't go online. They connect to the internet everywhere they go. But I'm not like that. My smartphone is not high tech because I mostly use it for call and text.

So, why do I want to get mobile internet? It's just for the purpose of preparing for an emergency. As an online freelance writer working at home, I rely a lot on good internet connection at home. But sometimes unexpected situations happen.
If there's no electricity or if there's a network problem, I can't connect online. If I can't connect online, I can't work.

I searched for the rates of mobile internet offers by local network providers: Smart, Globe and Sky Mobi.  I compared the features of the lowest plan for each network (See below).

• Smart Bro Pocket Wifi - P299 plan - free device with 12 months lock-in period - 3.5 Gb monthly data allowance - up to 12 mbps speed
• Globe MyFi - P299 plan - free device with 12 months lock-in period - 1.5 Gb monthly data allowance - up to 12 mbps speed
• SkyMobi plan - P499 - P1,000 for pocket wifi device - 3 Gb monthly data allowance + 500 MB Sky On Demand - minimum speed of 12 mpbs up to 42 mbps 

I wasn't really sure if these offers are worth getting. Thank God, I didn't get any right away because I discovered that I could get the mobile data  I only need for a lot less.

I'm not sure how helpful the following tutorial is to you.  You probably know about it already. But since I'm not that tech savvy, I'm sharing it anyway for the benefit of those who are like me.

The How

Last August, during one of the special holidays, we visited our father.  I don't have any freelance work then but we were scheduled to have a Skype chat with our brother. Unfortunately, there is no internet connection in the house because the modem is malfunctioning and is due for replacement. What can we do?

My sister suggested that we just use mobile data. This is how she said we will do it:

First, we need to get mobile data using my smartphone.  I am a Globe subscriber, so I got Go Surf 50, which is 1 Gb mobile data good for 3 days.

Second, I used my smartphone as a hotspot so that I could connect our iPad, which we will use for Skype chat.

How can we do that?

Here are the steps to activating your smartphone as a Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot

Go to your smartphone's settings. Look for the gear icon.

Click more under data usage

Click Tethering & portable hotspot.

Click Portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

Set up Wi-fi hotspot, that is name it and put a password.
Click to Turn ON the Portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

Go back to Data Usage and turn ON mobile data. If you're not going to use your mobile data, turn this off to avoid unknowingly using up your mobile data.

Third, I can now connect any gadget like an iPad, laptop, other mobile devices by connecting to my smartphone's hotspot. Just look for the Wi-fi (the name you gave) and use the password to get connected.

Note 1: Be sure that your Bluetooth is turned off or else you cannot turn on Portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
Note 2: I'm not sure if your smartphone has the same interface as mine. But I'm sure yours will be similar.


WOW! I can't believe that my primitive smartphone had more uses than I imagined. We were able to connect our iPad to my smartphone's portable wi-fi. We chatted with our brother for more than an hour and there was some more data left for surfing or using FB messenger. I was also able to connect my laptop and I did some checking of my email and sent messages, too.

By the way, if you're curious, my smartphone is a Cloudfone GEO 500q with 0.5 Gb RAM and 2 Gb ROM, I think.

Hence, my thoughts on getting a pocket Wi-Fi device was laid to rest. Knowing that if my home internet connection fails and I need to get mobile internet, I can just use my smartphone to get 1 Gb of mobile data for just P50 per day with good enough browsing speed as back-up plan. To me, that's a lot of savings. If I won't be using this method for more than 18 days per month, this is way better than subscribing to P299 Pocket Wi-Fi plans with less monthly data allowance.

I hope this post was helpful to you. Let me know your comments below.