WiFi hotspot vendor Karma is now offering a $50 per month “Neverstop” unlimited data option for the Karma Go mobile hotspot so customers can use it without worrying about data usage charges.
The company, which has been marketing Karma mobile hotspots since its inception in 2012 with non-expiring data packages from 1GB to 10GB priced from $14 to $99, announced the new unlimited monthly data package on Nov. 5. All of the company’s data plans are no-contract offerings.
Under the company’s existing 1GB to 10GB data packages, customers pay for the package and then can use it until it runs out without any time restrictions, when they can replenish it again. Customers get data speeds of about 6M bps to 8M bps, with high speeds of up to 25M bps, and can use the hotspot with up to eight personal devices online at a time, according to the company. Karma Go operates on 4G LTE through Sprint Spark, with a fallback to CDMA 3G service on Sprint’s network, according to Karma.
Under the Neverstop data plan, customers will get upload and download speeds up to 5M bps, and be able to use it with up to three personal devices at a time on their account. Customers can pause a device temporarily so that they to use a fourth device under the plan, according to Karma.
Steven van Wel, Karma’s CEO and co-founder, wrote in a Nov. 5 post on the Karma Blog that the new unlimited data option was added in response to customer needs. “When we first launched, the best way to do that was to offer pay-as-you-go data,” wrote van Wel. “It was simple: pay only for what you use, keep what you don’t use, no contracts, no fine print. That’s it. The goal is to keep you connected without having to stop and think about how much data you’ve used.”
Since then, “Over the past three years, we’ve seen your data usage increase as Karma has become a more and more constant part of everyday life,” he wrote.
Karma’s mobile Go WiFi hotspot, which sells for $149.99, competes with similar offerings from Boost Mobile, which provides a Netgear Fuse Mobile Hotspot, and Verizon’s Jetpack MiFi 6620L, AT&T’s Unite Pro, Sprint’s Live Pro and others.
Karma offers Android and iOS apps so that users can maintain their Karma Go accounts using their mobile devices. Neverstop is being added to those apps as well, so that users can choose the unlimited data option or fixed data plans under the company’s Refuel data replenishment service.
The Karma Go hotspot provides about five hours of data use on a charge of its 1,500mAh lithium-ion battery and has a standby time of about 220 hours, according to Karma. The device is 2.9 inches wide, 2.9 inches tall and 0.47 inches thick.
Karma launched its first-generation pocket-sized WiFi device in 2012 and the second-generation, Karma Go of today in July 2015. The Karma Go is designed to have nationwide coverage, the company said.
Also in November, Karma announced that it has expanded its WiFi services within the New York City subway system, fixing what had been spotty coverage in the past. The improvements arrived because Sprint updated its network connectivity within the city’s subway system, bringing network services to 83 of the city’s subway stations, according to Karma.
That expansion will continue, with Sprint committing to providing 4G LTE services to cover the entire New York subway system with by 2017, including some 279 stations in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.