In this video, I will show you how to make an internet back-up system for your SmartThings hub so you can continue to use your smart home as normal through internet outages.
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I see the vonets device also has an ethernet port. Are you able to have the main internet signal that was plugged directly into ST plugged into the vonets device instead so that ST will use that Ethernet port and only look for the phone wifi hotspot if that LAN signal is dropped? That would make this backup solution automatically failover, assuming you always have a phone in the house with the wifi hotspot on.
So this is a hotspot bridge. I think the budget given is somewhat deceptive, as you would need to already own a bunch of other pieces.
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you need a laptop to configure the bridge. (Lots of people under 35 don’t even own laptops now. )
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you need a smart phone with Wi-Fi hotspot capability and be willing to use that data plan for your smart home system. And that smart phone needs to be home all the time that you want your home automation system operating.
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You need to be home and awake in order to physically change over the connection when the Internet goes out.
I think most people who have done this kind of thing use more robust fallover systems, even though they may cost more. That would be particularly true, for example, for someone who had an Airbnb vacation cabin where they were depending on the home automation system for security and temperature notifications.
But choice is good, and it’s always good to know about new options. 
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Those interested in seeing some of the other ways that people have approached these issues ( and in particular, those seeking a solution which doesn’t require your smart phone to be present) can go to the community – created wiki, look on the quick browse lists, go down towards the bottom of that page for the “project reports“ section and then choose the “power“ list.
Or just jump straight to the following thread, which I think is typical. Although the thread itself is a couple of years old, the basic approach is still solid, although you might end up picking different devices. But essentially it combines a UPS power brick, a router with fallover, and a cellular modem with a low-cost pay as you go plan.
This is very similar to how many lower-cost security systems work. If the power goes out or the Internet goes out, you automatically fall over to a battery operated cellular-based system.
This is the approach that most people with boats or remote vacation homes will take. It’s not intended to run for very long, but long enough to get you all the notifications that there’s a problem and, if necessary have someone physically go to the location.
It’s also a good approach for people who live where they have frequent but short service loss from their regular Internet service. 
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…aaand then there are those of us who live in rural areas with no appreciable cell signal too. Oh well. It was a plus when I was serving time in the cube farm - the J.O.B. couldn’t randomly yank my leash nights/weekends for every little “emergency”, so fair is fair 
Anyway, the channel looks interesting, so I subbed 
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If you want to get away from cloud based systems altogether, Hubitat is worth looking at. Tiny company, good people, and if the company did go out of business the system would still work because everything runs locally.
Some community members run Hubitat for their essential tasks and Add In smartthings for the additional “ Nice to have“ third-party cloud integrations.
https://community.smartthings.com/t/hubitat-elevation-hub-home-automation-that-is-local/117107
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Yep - I’ve been keeping an eye on Hubitat. The deal-breaker for me is that almost all the bulbs in my house are LIFX and apparently not supported. Yet. 
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I will test that and let you know!
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You can set it up using another phone so you don’t need a computer but the process is more challenging.
This is just a simple quick and cheap solution. I am looking in to making this an automatic switch over but you would still need a mobile phone home to provide the data.
If outages were frequent you could use an old or cheap mobile phone and add a data plan to you mobile phone plan but at that point you might as well invest into a more robust solution.
This is more for being prepared for the occasional outage.
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You can connect the Ethernet into the back of the Vonets box and it will provide internet to your hub but if you lose internet and try and connect your hotspot it will require a power cycle to make the switch. I am sure there are other devices that would make the switch without power cycling the unit but you get what you pay for only 20$. This is more for an emergency internet back up. We only lose internet when we lose power but I wanted an inexpensive simple solution for the times were we only loose internet once every few years.
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