7 Good Reasons To Always Use Tethering When You Travel

It used to be that public Wi-Fi hotspots were few and far between. These days, however, you have to scroll through a list of choices as every store, restaurant, and public restroom offers you “free” Wi-Fi.

The thing is, through the magic of tethering (if your contract allows for it) you’re carrying around a personal hotspot all the time, which is (almost) always the better choice for a long list of reasons—which I happen to have with me right now.

7

Security You Can Actually Trust

How safe a computer network is to join depends almost entirely on how that network is configured. When you connect to the Wi-Fi at work, the network admin has set things up so that you can’t, for example, monitor what your colleague is doing on their computer. A normal default Wi-Fi network such as the one you have at home or most likely the one your local coffee shop is using is set up to assume everyone on the network is trusted.

The Wi-Fi password itself is the encryption key, so anyone who has the password can decrypt the traffic on the network. This does not mean that they can get past the encryption of a website, which has its own separate layer of encryption using HTTPS. Still, there are many ways bad actors can exploit public Wi-Fi networks to do you harm.

They can execute a so-called man-in-the-middle attack, steal insecure credentials, hijack website sessions, and way, way more creative and devious traps. A VPN can help with this, but it’s not a foolproof solution by any means, which is why I’d only ever use public Wi-Fi as a last resort and then only to do something trivial and not, for example, my banking.

If you use cellular data over tethering, you’re connecting to the internet using a private encrypted connection managed by your carrier. There’s no such thing as perfect security, but that’s a heck of a lot better than random public Wi-Fi networks. So personally I recommend leaving public Wi-Fi as an absolute last resort.

6

Consistent Speeds Without the Crowds

A public Wi-Fi network lets you access that establishment’s broadband connection, but that goes for everyone. So if the coffee shop has a 50Mbps connection and there are 25 people on the network, you’re getting a measly 2Mbps of that already miniscule pie.

Obviously if you’re somewhere fancy like a high-end hotel, there may in fact be a lot of bandwidth to go around, but no matter what, your performance is dependent on the other people on that network,

Now, technically this is also true for cellular data, since you’re sharing bandwidth with the other users connected to that cell tower, but the overall amount of bandwidth available is orders of magnitude more.

5

No Sketchy Login Portals

To their credit, some public Wi-Fi providers do try and offer better security than just plain vanilla Wi-Fi security, which means very little on a public network.

This is when you encounter a login portal when connecting to “free” Wi-Fi where you need to offer credentials. In some cases, it turns out, you actually have to pay for access, and you’ll get login details after purchasing a voucher. In other cases, you’ll have to register an account and provide personal information such as your name and address.

There’s usually also a long legal agreement with some pretty heinous privacy issues in it, but, of course, most people won’t even read it before agreeing to, goodness knows what. At the very least, this is a grind to get through that tethering using your own data gets around easily.At worst, you’re giving away information that you really shouldn’t be and agreeing to things you wouldn’t have if you weren’t in a hurry.

4

Works Anywhere You Have Signal

If you rely on public Wi-Fi hotspots, it means you’re effectively moving from one data island to the next. In the past, fast cellular broadband coverage may have been spotty, but it’s unlikely these days to find dead spots in urban and sub-urban areas. So you don’t have to be tied to an airport lounge or coffee shop when trying to get online.

3

Fewer Hidden Risks and Restrictions

In general, your private cellular internet connection doesn’t restrict you any more than a home broadband connection does, but a public Wi-Fi hotspot may have all sorts of restrictions, such as certain websites being blocked, no video streaming, or VPN use being disallowed. If you need these sites or services, having them blocked defeats the point of a Wi-Fi hotspot!

2

Better Reliability for Work and Travel

Even if the advertised speed at a public hotspot is decent, in my experience, these connections are just too unreliable and unpredictable. So I wouldn’t want to use one for work, video calls, or anything else that relies on a secure and stable connection. As long as you have at least a few bars of signal, your own cellular connection will likely be more consistent.

Just remember that if you’re traveling, roaming data charges can be egregious. So try to find a local cellular solution. In the past, I’d simply buy a prepaid SIM card at the destination airport, but many phones now support eSIM technology, which means you can connect to a local network and pay local prices using what you already have. There are now also dedicated eSIM services for travelers like Saily, but I have not used them myself so I can’t comment as to the quality of the service or deals.

1

Future-Proofed by 5G

If you already have a 5G modem or phone that you can use for tethering, then things will only get better as time goes by. 5G coverage continues to grow (in spite of weird 5G myths) so you’ll have fewer and fewer reasons to rely on random Wi-Fi hotspots. Of course, if there’s a Wi-Fi hotspot you trust (such as your work Wi-Fi), then by all means use it and save on your own data costs, but in almost every other situation, tethering is the way to go.

You don’t have to use your phone directly either. If you want the ultimate private browsing experience for your devices while out and about, consider getting a travel router as part of your kit. With a good travel router, you can get better speeds, connect more of your devices at once, and even use wired Ethernet if you really want to prevent any sort of Wi-Fi snooping.