I need a few of these for rpi’s around the farm. Tired of dealing with LoRa.
I’m using an old “ZTE Falcon” hotspot, I got it from T-Mobile maybe 8 years ago, it’s 4G/LTE, still works fine, tried multiple SIM (mine is unlocked), in general I’m using it via WiFi because we connect multiple phones/tv/laptops on it while traveling in a RV. I tested it with a USB cable between my linux and the hotspot, and it appears in Linux as a “usb0” interface, got an IP address, and works fine, it disables WiFi IIRC when plugged by USB.
$20 on eBay free shipping https://www.ebay.com/p/2255550619
My carrier is Google Fi — one perk is that they will give you free data-only sims (up to 10 I think?) and you just pay for the data you use like any other data. I have used old Android phones in USB tether mode this way, and it works just fine. So, rpi+old/cheap phone should do the trick.
One fun bonus is that if you tether over USB it will work as a WiFi dongle, too — the failover from WiFi to cell should happen on the phone, transparently iirc. Not sure if that affects you.
Caveat is that I did this a while ago, and their pricing structure may have changed. Finished to be a great deal but has slowly become another carrier with not much to differentiate it…
