Verizon's Fivespot International Hotspot Is Expensive Like All The Others

It seems to me that there are very few situations where an international hotspot like this would truly be necessary. I mean, what with wi-fi everywhere, tethering, rental services, and so on, it seems like an expensive convenience to have. That said, it could be very handy, if you’re willing to pay per megabyte instead of walking down the street to that internet cafe.

The basic international plan costs $129.99 and includes 5GB of data in the US and 100MB of data elsewhere. You can pay another $90 to up that to 200MB internationally, but I wouldn’t if I were you. Just watch your data consumption: they charge you a tenth of a nickel for every kilobyte you go over. That’s $5 per megabyte, son. It supports (in alphabetical order) CDMA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA, HSUPA, and WCDMA. Lovely! More info at Verizon.

These prices are in fact competitive; AT&T and Sprint have similar devices with similarly outrageous plans. It’d be cheaper to wait till you land and buy one there.