karmaOne of the more popular uses, or misuses, of the term “karma” has to do with the idea that you’ll get what’s coming to you sooner or later. At the time I discussed the Karma personal hotspot service back in November, I hadn’t expected that definition to apply quite so literally, but the service experienced a number of unanticipated delays on the road to getting its hotspot service to market.

At the time I wrote that last article, Karma was in what it thought were the final stages of designing its new “Karma Go” 4G hotspot, and hoped to ship them by the end of the year. But testing revealed some flaws in its approach, and Karma had to go back to the drawing board and redesign the hotspot to incorporate more RAM. This redesign in turn meant that the device had to undergo recertification by the FCC before it could be manufactured, and so on and so forth.

The upshot is, the Karma Go hotspot device has finally been manufactured, cleared customs, and arrived at their fulfillment center. It begins shipping out to those who pre-ordered it today. Karma anticipates having them out to everyone who pre-ordered them within 45 days.

As I said in November, the Karma hotspot has reasonable data rates (topping out at $99 for 10G), plus a shared bandwidth service that allows other Karma members to sign up and use their data via your hotspot if they don’t have their own available. They use their own data allowance, not yours, though you could experience slower speeds if a lot of people latch onto you—and you get bonus data for anyone who signs up through your hotspot. You can get $10 off your hotspot if you order using this referral link.

Anyway, by and large I’ve been impressed with the way Karma has handled the shipping delay, with frequent updates to let those who ordered know the status of their devices. I’m looking forward to retiring my Internet On The Go 3G hotspot and seeing how the new Karma measures up. As with most cases of karma, it just turned out to be a matter of waiting until I finally get what’s coming to me.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I have had the original Karma for some time and it has been very useful during brief power outages at home where I can pick up e-mail from my laptop. It has saved me a bunch for my occasional use of it away from home on the iPad since I no longer have to subscribe to any data at all, and unused data is carried over. I preordered the new one when they first announced it so have been anticipating it forever. It is exciting to hear that the earliest preorders will be delivered on Monday and my fingers are crossed that I might be one.

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