If you are traveling for work, you need the internet to remain connected with your colleagues and clients. If you are traveling for leisure, you need the internet to stay connected to social media platforms, and also to keep your friends and family updated. In any case, finding an internet connection while traveling is almost essential. To help you stay connected and not suffer through isolation while traveling, here are some of the best ways you can try out!
Public Wi-Fi Hotspots
Everyone realizes the importance of having a constant supply of internet signals that can accommodate people’s on-the-go connectivity needs. Whether you need to work while traveling or make an important long-distance call over the internet, it is crucial to find good internet service. For this reason, the majority of the restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, and even just simple departmental stores have a public Wi-Fi hotspot ready to use. These public hotspots are open networks that are completely free to use. Some people do encrypt these hotspots with strong passwords, which you would need to ask the shop owners or workers.
However, keep in mind that these hotspots are completely public, making safety a huge concern. The publicly open networks make it very easy for hackers to crack their way into your sensitive information. It is not advised to use these Wi-Fi connections if you deal with any sensitive information or need the internet for your office work.
For this reason, you might want to explore AT&T internet plans and packages. As a subscriber to AT&T, you will be eligible to use its thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots spread across the nation. These hotspots are much more secure as they are only used by AT&T subscribers. Plus, the ISP cares about your security and will therefore have a better-encrypted hotspot to use. Lastly, unlike the public hotspots that are being used by everyone, AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots will have a much better speed.
Portable Mobile Hotspots
Technology has surprised us in so many ways recently. As the internet became more common, more innovative solutions to on the go connectivity surfaced. An example of this is standalone Wi-Fi hotspot devices.
These hotspot devices are very small, compact, and handy hardware devices that function wirelessly. They work as a hotspot Wi-Fi access point, connected to a mobile cellular network. Most of these devices have a sim card in them, and you must subscribe to or buy an internet data plan for it to work. The devices are rechargeable, and are very lightweight, making them travel-friendly.
So, why can’t you just use your own mobile phone’s built-in hotspot feature?
Using your own phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature will drain out the phone battery in minutes. Some phones even get heated up when their hotspot is on, and you have connected multiple devices to the phone’s hotspot. Secondly, using the phone’s hotspot feature also limits its usage. Since you will be paying for the mobile’s data plan anyway, why not invest in a separate, standalone Wi-Fi hotspot device altogether? It is a much more future-proof investment and is highly suitable for frequent travelers.
Some of the best portable mobile hotspots come from brand names like Verizon, Huawei, Netgear, and HTC. There are various bands of mobile hotspots available, ranging from 3G to LTE to now even 5G!
Cellular Network
Many urban, suburban, and rural areas have cellular towers. These towers are much more densely installed in urban areas but less dense in rural areas or areas with complex geography. These cell towers transmit signals to and from access nodes completely wirelessly. This means that your mobile phone and the cell tower connect to one another wirelessly, acting as two separate end nodes. The cell towers are stationary, but the mobile devices move around, and their connection changes from one cell tower to another as they move around different locations. In areas where these cell towers are not available, cellular internet is also unavailable.
Cellular network standards or “bands” such as 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, and 5G are very popular, and everyone has at least used one of these some time. 5G is the latest cellular band that is meant to have much greater speeds than all older bands and standards. However, the rollout for 5G is still very less, and only two providers, including AT&T and Verizon, actually offer 5G connectivity. Plus, 5G connectivity requires the latest mobile phone models for compatibility.
This type of internet connection is provided to you by your mobile service provider. You usually have to buy a cellular data plan, and then you can enjoy cellular internet anywhere and everywhere. Once you have cellular internet on your mobile phone, you can also turn on the hotspot feature in the phone and connect your laptop or other devices to the cellular internet.
The best part about using a mobile service provider’s cellular network is the possibility of roaming packages. This means that if you are traveling overseas, you could inquire from your mobile service provider if they have any roaming packages that will allow you to use the network in foreign countries too. The wireless nature of cellular networks makes it possible to be reachable in many distant locations as well.
Some Tips to Remember!
It is extremely important to remember that when you connect to public hotspots for Wi-Fi, your personal data will be exposed to many unknown people. While public Wi-Fi is a great solution for people on the go, it is recommended to only use public networks for non-sensitive work. Don’t use these public networks for your confidential business information, sharing credit cards, shopping online, sharing home addresses, and so on. You should instead subscribe to a generous internet provider like AT&T to get access to a much more secure and faster public Wi-Fi hotspot.
When you are using devices like portable mobile hotspots, keep these devices charged at all times. Investing in a power bank might be the most viable option, so you don’t run out of battery at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Even if you use cellular networks on your mobile phones, higher cellular bands like 4G and LTE take up a lot of battery. It’s essential to remain prepared and recharge your phones whenever possible.
In the end, your online security and preparation for anything while traveling are a must. Traveling can become very easy if you have a stable internet connection, and extremely difficult if you are disconnected from the rest of the world.
