Can I 'tether' to my mobile to use it's internet for when I'm working on my laptop?

[Bee99]

Hi!

I own a mobile which is on a SIM only contract with O2.

I'm looking to save money and ditch my home broadband service which I have with Plusnet. The reason? I am away from home for months at a time and am paying for a service I'm not using!

When I am back home though I do need the internet for my job (browsing, emailing, video calls plus uploading and downloading large design files from web-based client servers).

I'm thinking to stay cost-effective that a better solution for me might be to 'tether' my laptop to my mobile when I'm working? I have Unlimited with 5GB of data currently. Do people think this solution would work and be reliable for working? I understand I may have to increase the data.

I'm in no way a techy and so if this sounds good or if anyone has better ideas for how I can get reliable internet which I only need to pay for when I need it, then I'd love to hear!

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@Bee99 

Yes it's a perfectly good idea provided your signal is good, but you will need more that 5gb so look at increasing your data allowance.

[Anonymous]

@Bee99 Hi, you can tether and connect to the Internet that way, you can try it anyway before you cancel your home broadband to see if you're happy with it, you will probably need to get a bigger data bundle with O2 as you will obviously use more data if you tether often.  

[Anonymous]

@Bee99 Hi, just a another thing to note: Strictly speaking Tethering is connecting your phone to a device via USB to connect to the internet, but you can also tether via wifi and bluetooth, this is important as some phones will not connect a device via USB but will by wifi/bluetooth.

[madasaf1sh]

@Bee99

As @mm7000gb has said I would test it first before ditching PlusNet, as you may fine that the large design files become corrupt on downloads and upload speeds are abysmal on mobile networks, and I know at my workplace they work with 20GB+ files .

Video Calls over teams or zoom use 2.5Gb per hour

And if you use over 650Gb twice in 6months o2's Fair Use Policy kicks in

[XavierB]

Can i tether from my mobile to a laptop and another mobile via bluetooth when I am in the EU? I have a EU bolt and a monthly contract with O2.

[XavierB]

Tried on iPhone 5S ! + Apple Mac laptop a few months ago and couldn't. I tried both via BT and wired connection to no avail. Data on the phone was fine and I could browse.

[XavierB]

Worked in the UK but not in France then.

[MI5]

@XavierB 

You need to use your hotspot to wifi to your laptop.