Comms and Signal · Solis
Solis Go Hotspot and Power Bank
Data anywhere there is any tower, with an 8,000 mAh battery built in
Worth the upgrade
Why it's on my list
When your carrier's tower is dead and the one across the valley is not, this is how the phone gets a signal: a hotspot that picks whichever network is up, no SIM, with the battery and the cables built in. The second carrier in my bug-out bag.
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What it is
Pocket hotspot that picks whichever carrier has signal, no SIM and no contract, with an 8,000 mAh power bank built in and USB-A, USB-C and Lightning cables tucked into the body. Comes with 1 GB a month for life plus 30 GB of global data; 24-hour battery, 10 devices. The second carrier in the bug-out bag when your own phone's network is down.
What it is
A hotspot that uses whichever carrier has a tower up, with an 8,000 mAh battery and the cables built in
This is the second carrier in my bug-out bag. When your own carrier's tower is dead and the one across the valley is not, your phone cannot switch; this can. No SIM, no contract, a power bank in the same body, and a charging cable for every phone in the family tucked into it. On my off-grid communication page the lesson is to layer: this is the layer between the phone and the satellite dish.
The hotspot
Picks the network that is up
Why it matters
The point is not speed, it's choice. In a partial outage, or in country where only one carrier has a tower, a phone locked to its own network is a brick. The Solis connects to whichever carrier has signal and shares it with up to ten devices, so the family's phones ride on it over Wi-Fi.
The numbers
- Connects to whichever carrier has signal, no SIM, no contract
- Up to 10 devices
- 24-hour battery on the hotspot
- 1 GB a month of data for life, plus 30 GB of global data in the starter pack
The power bank and the cables
8,000 mAh, three cables in the body
Why it matters
A hotspot is only as good as the phone it serves, and a dead phone is the usual failure. The battery tops up a phone or two, and the USB-A, USB-C and Lightning cables are tucked into the body so the one you need is never the one you left at home.
The numbers
- 8,000 mAh power bank
- USB-A, USB-C and Lightning cables tucked into the body
Where it sits in the plan
It needs a tower; the dish and the radios do not
Why it matters
A hotspot still depends on someone's tower. A booster squeezes a weak tower harder, the Starlink Mini needs no tower at all, and the GMRS radios on my no cell, no internet page need nothing but each other. The Solis covers the common case, a partial outage, cheaply and without a second phone plan.
The layers
- Partial outages and one-carrier country: this
- A weak tower: a booster
- No tower: Starlink and the radios
Signal on my list
Where it earns its place
More in Comms and Signal
Radios that work with no tower, a booster for a weak one, and internet from the sky.