Electronics

[Carolm]

We have a home in Florida that we use occasionally.  We would like to have internet service, but it doesn't make sense to pay for it year around.  Does anyone know of a company that offers internet for short periods of time?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Etoile308]

Look into the different cell carriers that have coverage in the area you need. Most have pay as you go, or no contract plans. 

[Mz iMac]

First of all, you would need to know all the internet carriers that service the State Of Florida and/or the city of your vacation home.   Once you do, contact them by phone and/or snail mail of your interest.  Shop around to get the best rates.

Use your favorite search engine to research.

[Carolm]

@Etoile308 @Mz iMac Thanks for your replies.   I have checked for regular internet providers in Florida but none offer short term service.  Looking for something we can purchase by the week, or by the month.

[itsmagic]

Do you have Comcast available in your Florida vacation home area?  I’ve heard they have a 30 day prepaid internet plan. 

[Mz iMac]

@Carolm  " I have checked for regular internet providers in Florida"

What I was getting at is that you need to research ALL the internet providers that are ALLOWED to provide service in Florida and/or its communities.  Since you already checked the regular providers, research smaller internet providers that are allowed in Florida/communities.

As an example:  I live in N.J.  Verizon & Comcast are the "go to providers."  However, there are hunderds of smaller companies including sattalite companies that are only allowed to provide internet services in certain cities & counties w/in N.J.  Most of these smaller internet companies will only do business w/companies.   A few will service the "public/consumer"  which are usually sattalite companies like "Dish" which is the major sattalite internet company in South Joisey. 

To get you started, check out this website:

highspeedinternet dot com/fl

[Carolm]

Thanks @itsmagic , I will certainly look into that.  It would be perfect!

[Justholdingon]

if you have spectrum in the area, I could have sworn they advertise they have no contracts and do a monthly deal.

[gardenman]

I used to work with Frontier in customer service and we had multiple customers who had two homes, one in Florida one elsewhere who would switch their service from one to the other using a vacation service provided by Frontier. You could turn off service at one location and pay just a small fee for up to nine months then resume service. If you had Frontier at both locations you could rotate from one to the other. There were lots of issues however and the rules varied from area to area. (I'm not a huge fan of Frontier.)

The easiest solution is a smartphone. My cheap little LG Tracfone lets me use it as a hotspot on the go. Anything I can't do on the phone that I need a tablet or my Chromebook for, I can just pull down on the phone's menu, activate the hotspot feature, tell my other device to use that for the Internet and I'm back in business. Data through Tracfone gets a tad pricey at $10 a gig, but the phones can be pretty cheap. They have refurbished LG Premiere Pros (my phone) on sale now for $19.99. If all you're doing is checking your email or forum browsing a gig of data can last quite a while. 

[Boehm Collector]

@Carolm  .. if you are a Comcast customer and they have Hotspots in your area in Florida you can log on through your account.