Sprint

A laptop card is free after rebates, with a two-year contract. Sprint offers a 5GB plan for $60 monthly. No free Sprint hotspots are available.

Verizon

The card is free with rebates and a two-year contract. For $40 monthly, you’ll get 250MB of data. At $60, you’ll get 5GB. Or, select a prepaid plan. They start at $15 for one day with 75MB of usage. No free hotspots are available.

Share your connection

You can also share your cellular connection at home or on the go. But remember this—you pay for their data use.

Sprint and Verizon offer MiFi. This is basically a portable hotspot. Up to five gadgets can connect to it via Wi-Fi.

After rebates, you’ll pay $80 on Verizon and $100 on Sprint. A two-year contract is required. Monthly service charges are the same as with laptop cards.

If you use a different provider, you can still share your connection. You’ll just need to buy a 3G mobile router. These accept your cellular laptop card. Shop carefully. Most accept USB cards. Others accept PC cards.

For example, D-Link’s DIR-450 or DIR-451 both run $220. They accept PC cards. You’ll need to select the model based on your carrier. There’s also NETGEAR’s MBR624GU ($100), which accepts USB cards.