I just moved into a new apartment, and after an awful experience with Comcast in my last place, I was disappointed to find that my building was only set up for their service with no available alternatives.

Disappointed, but not disheartened, I started to think of some non-traditional alternatives. Since I don’t think hanging a satelite out of my window would please my landlord, the options were pretty limited. Fortunately, my apartment does have access to 4G data from my cell phone carrier, Sprint.

I started looking at their options for mobile hot-spots. Currently, I pay around $90 per month to get unlimited data and as many minutes as I need. The hot-spots are little boxes that turn a 4G cell phone signal into wireless broadband internet for use by a laptop or tablet. Sprint’s unlimited data plan for their phones is pretty awesome, but unfortunately, it doesn’t extend to their mobile hot-spots.

I was pretty bummed, because I knew that the 12 GB limit imposed on their mobile hot-spot just wouldn’t do. If I were going to skip having cable, I’d need to have 10 or 20 times that amount. In just two days of using my cell phone to watch movies and download things, I was up over 2 GB of data.

Then it came to me. What about a second phone?

I knew there were some apps that allow you to turn your smart phone into a mobile hot-spot, but I didn’t want my primary phone to be used as a modem all the time. If I did that, my cell phone would be unavailable whenever I wanted to use the internet. This is inconvenient for a number of reasons, especially if I were to have guests who wanted access to the internet as well.

I started doing the math, just to see if it really made financial sense. My cell phone bill would increase by adding a second line, but could the savings of not having a cable bill offset that increase?

Since I don’t need cable television – I don’t even own a TV – but I do need internet, I looked at just getting a cable-based web connection. Of course, Comcast doesn’t want you unbundling their services, so in order to get the internet, I would have to pay $49.99 per month, plus tax. The other option – getting a second cell phone – would add just $39.99 to my monthly cell phone bill. Another advantage of this is that I don’t have to pay any installation fees, and the phone itself will be free.

Now, I’ll admit that this plan isn’t perfect. For one, I’m relying on 4G data, which could go down if cell towers are affected by a storm. There’s also the 2 year contract, which is a significant consideration, but my lease is 18 months anyway. No TV might deter some people from this plan, but since I’m already a Netflix subscriber who watches very little anyway, this isn’t a problem.

So, I just completed the order of my new phone which will double as my internet connection for the next two years. Obviously, I’m putting a lot of faith in this decision, so I’m looking at it as an experiment. It could pay off in big savings, and it could be a huge hassle. Either way, I’ll be sure to update you all here on Uloop.