With mobile data plans in US being among the most expensive across the globe, and my recent need to frequently connect while on the go for work, I have been exploring options (other than Android Hotspot). I wanted a solution that will allow me to perform data-intensive work while away from home without causing a significant dent in my wallet.
For context, my mobile dataplan allows me to consume 10GB of high speed data, after which it is capped at what I believe 2G speed. This effectively renders the connection useless once the 10GB cap is reached. At home, I use Cox Internet (not by choice, but that is the only option I have).
Based on my research if I had to rely solely on my mobile data plan, for the amount of bandwidth I was consuming, I would have to shell out a minimum of $75 per month. However, this didn’t seem justifiable given the limited amount of non-work related phone usage I have.
Just as I was starting to consider the pricey option as my only choice - I vaguely remembered something I did with my Home Internet settings a while ago (will come back to this in a bit!)
Long story short, I realized I could leverage my Home Internet connection even when I am away from my router. Cox has this feature called Cox Hotspots, which allows their subscribers to access their Internet connection by connection to a public network of WiFi. I decided to give it a try and, luckily, most of the places where I needed to connect for work had a hotspot available.
While this solution is not perfect, and doesn’t work in all scenarios - it helped me a lot in reducing my Mobile data consumption, and saved me from having to make an expensive upgrade that I was contemplating.
About Cox Hotspots - and how to opt out:
As Cox mentions in this page, they use Panoramic Wifi devices to create the Cox Hotspots network (probably on top of dedicated hotspots Cox themselves setup?). This could be one of the ways they are able to scale to this level of coverage across the nation.
Cox mentions the below about Cox Hotspots - https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-hotspots-with-panoramic-wifi.html,
You can also enable your Panoramic Wifi Gateway to safely extend WiFi access to your friends and family without providing your network password.
How do guests connect to Cox Hotspots in my home?
The Cox Hotspot is only accessible by qualified Cox customers visiting your home who subscribe to [...] Cox Internet packages
Clearly, this was not meant to be shared with Friend & Family, but whole point is to create the Public network of Wifi hotspots - which is apparent even though Cox hasn’t called it out.
So, is there something you can do to opt-out? Yes, you can.
All you need to do is, go to your Cox Account’s privacy preferences page and Disable “Cox Hotspot” option.