I spend a lot of time on the move – going between my office in Melbourne, classes at university and visiting my family in country Victoria – and I need to be connected when out and about; so for the past few weeks I’ve been using the Telstra 4G WiFi hotspot.

While I have been using it predominantly for my phone and tablet while in transit, at work and university; last week I attended a conference and was able to share the device with a group of people around me so we could all connect during the conference.

Similarly, it was easy at university to work collaboratively with other team members who had their laptops paired up with the 4G hotspot. It meant that rather than having to huddle around and look at one computer, we could look at our own computers and remotely share documents.

The best thing was not having to think about it and knowing that when I was away from home, I had fast internet. It can be in your pocket, and you can forget about it. Even at the gym I was able to leave it in my bag on the shelves and still use my iPad to catch-up on ABC news while using the equipment which was a good 10 metres from the device.

I’ve found the device is really good for commuting and travelling. The speeds peaked when I was on trams and using public transport. When I was indoors it sometimes struggled to reach top-speed, especially in multi-story buildings but what was most interesting was how capable it was when I used it in the country. In Gippsland, I had great reception. While it was only working as a 3G device (4G hasn’t been turned on there yet), it was still fast.

The first time I paired it with a device was a bit of hassle because it kept scrolling so I couldn’t read the entire code until it came back – it felt like you were waiting for the Tattslotto results to come on the screen! This ended up being a very minor problem that I only had to deal with once for each device.

My other piece of advice is related to the battery life. On the first day I was using it, I tried to use it non-stop for eight hours and that pushed its boundaries a little too much. So from then on I knew what it was capable of and just remembered to charge it every night or carry the charger on me for longer days.

Overall, it has been a 21^st Century lifesaver. I like that I can just pop the device in my pocket and use my phone and tablet throughout the day without even thinking about it.