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Well, a quick look through the Cricket website doesn’t show any “home” devices. But, they do offer wifi hotspot service add-on for your phone for $10 a month. If you have high speed internet on your phone, it would allow you to use it as a wifi hotspot for other computers and devices. I think it’s a rip-off to have to pay to use that functionality, but most cellular providers do make you pay for it. There are some other caveats with the service as well, such as a requirement to already have the “unlimited” service plan on your phone, and a 10GB per month usage quota for the hotspot. Still, it might be cheaper and better than satellite internet!

Consumer cellular have both kinds of home connectivity devices available on their website (telephone and data are two different devices). But, I couldn’t find any mention of using wifi hotspot from your phone. So, to get home hotspot, you would have to get the device, which is $80 to purchase, and requires you to add another data line to your service plan.

In both cases, the hotspot feature would be completely portable, so you wouldn’t have to keep it at home. In the case of the Consumer Cellular device, the advantage is that you CAN leave it at home, or in a hotel room, or at a friend’s house, so other people can use it while you’re away.