Check with the rental company. It probably wouldn't be cheap, but might be cheaper and a lot less hassle than trying to get a telco modem or hotspot

Set up their phone as a hotspot?

You'd have to compensate maybe but most cell plans give you effectively a couple of days worth of data per month free for hotspot usage.

Taking a trip to a 90s time bubble? 😉

No real wars, internet existed but not ubiquitous, America is doing fairly well all in all, I wouldn't mind taking a trip back there...if nothing else to retrieve the body I had back then.

other than picking up wifi spots at libraries, Starbucks etc..
If your employer wants you to connect they should provide a cellphone or 4g modem.

Just don't do banking.

And who doesn't have a smartphone.

And I don't do banking from any location except my desktop computer at home, or in person at the bank.

The period of time I need connectivity for is when we are between Starbuxes, on the road, in motion... which would otherwise be 'dead' time. If I can use that time for my work obligations then I'll have more time to enjoy the travel when we are not on the highway.

philosophically,
Bright

The are not what I would call inexpensive, but since they can handle multiple connections maybe the others would pitch in?

You can purchase one of these devices, and then turn the service on when you need it, and off when you don't use it.

I went to Amazon and typed in Mifi and got a list of a lot of different devices:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mifi&ref=nb_sb_noss

Scroll down the page, there is one for about $45.00.

The biggest problem with this is they only work where there is cell service. No bars, no internet. We had one where I worked for people to use when they were traveling and didn't want to use their personal minutes for work.

That is what these devices are designed for. Some of them can have up to 16 devices connecting to them! (slows it down a bit with that many, but it works). With only 1-4 devices using it for wifi, it should work great. As long as there is a cell tower in the area.

I live in a rural area and we don't have good cell service here at all, and so it would not be useful without cell service.

Definitely more secure than using any kind of public wifi (I don't recommend ever doing that, using pubic open Wifi connections, even if you are establishing a vpn connection, because the login to the vpn can be snooped on public wifi (like in airports, hotels, starbucks)

In other words, it's not designed to freeload off available networks but can be used with an existing network data plan. This makes sense with what the Consumer Cellular people told me - that I should be able to go to Target or Best Buy, and purchase a 4G AT&T SIM card, which Consumer can then activate with a data plan for a month, and add the charge to my regular bill.

With the $45 MiFi device and the data plan it might be a bit pricey but the work time gained might be worth it. And it's possible I could talk the office into paying for the MiFi gadget. They discourage use of public wifi with organizational machines.

appreciatively,
Bright

I don't think that Consumer Cellular has as good of cell tower coverage as Verizon or ATT. What type of service you get depends on the manufacturer, and what the device supports, (my experience is only with the Verizon mifi card). I didn't have to insert a card, I just had to call verizon to activate it. Then make sure to de-activate it after the trip (This is usually on a monthly basis, but I think they might be able to pro-rate it)

My mom has Consumer Cellular on her phone, and I have Verizon, and I had better bars most of the time than she does. But neither of us have any cellular connectivity when we are at the house, unless we walk outside and up the driveway.

A 90 day WalMart "Straight Talk" plan is $130 for 25 gigabytes of data. You can add additional data, 2 gigabytes at a time, for $15. A Straight Talk mobile hot spot is $49.

That's pretty typical for these plans. I'm just using WalMart as an example.

It's easy to rip through 25 gigabytes of data, especially if you don't tell Windows that you are using a limited connection and to block any upgrades that are not absolutely essential for security.

You'll also need to practice extreme ad-blocking and restrict video streaming services to 480p or less, if you stream at all.

My flip phone can work as a hot spot but I'd only use that for emergencies. My provider charges $10 a gigabyte.

I figure if your work expects you to use a mobile service they should pay for it and hand you whatever equipment you need, all set up and ready to go.