Mobile Broadband, SIM back up in US for guests when internet not working. Any ideas?

[Ange2]

Hi fellow hosts!

I have seen many people suggest a SIM card or mobile broadband as backup for guests when the internet is down.

It seems very commonplace all over Europe, in Aus. and other areas, but  I have found few in the US. Maybe I am using the wrong search term, I keep on getting the ones that use hotspots. But in an internet outage those do not work.  Any thoughts? Do you have a backup and if so what do you use?

[Andrew90]

Look for mobile hotspot. There are also routers which will automatically failover to 3G/4G LTE connection if primary network source is lost.

[Ange2]

@Andrew90

Thank you. I'll check it out.

[Ed-and-Hugh0]

@Ange2 There are lots of options. You can get a mobile hotspot (which DOES work if your cable internet goes out). Some routers support a SIM card, and will fail over to the mobile network if the land-line goes down. Other routers allow you to plug in your cell phone via USB to use as a backup.

Of course, if you're home, you can just use your phone's hotspot in an emergency. Most phones support 6-10 or so connections which should be plenty for you and your guest on an emergency basis.