Rick’s Consumer Report on a Wi-Fi Hotspot Rental

Perhaps you’ve noticed how regularly I’ve been posting to my Facebook page. Part of the reason is this year I’ve had the luxury of my own portable Wi-Fi hotspot device. (Telecom Square gave me one to use for my travels this season, and I’m flying to Israel with one next week.) Here’s my take on the experience:

You can now travel with a tiny hotspot that frees you from messing with the gobbledygook of getting online while on the road. Telecom Square rents a handy little unit about the size of four fingers called a Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot that works virtually everywhere in Europe (and most of the rest of the world too). While it’s not cheap, the convenience, reliability, and luxury of being online anywhere and anytime in my travels makes it a great value for a traveler like me.

There are a few different rental options. You can get a single-country plan with unlimited data for about $13 a day or an all-Europe plan (with 1 GB per month in 40 countries) for about $10 a day. Or you can spring for the “World Wide Wi-Fi” plan which gives you unlimited access almost anywhere (which is what I had) for about $25 a day. That’s about what many hotels and airports (that still charge for Wi-Fi) cost.

The downside: When you rent your own hotspot device, you need to pay every day you have it, whether you use it or not. The upside: You have it right with you and are nearly always able to connect with loved ones or business associates back home (assuming you’re not in some Wi-Fi hole where nothing can connect). A further advantage: It allows you (and anyone with you) to connect up to five devices at the same time for no extra cost. I experimented this year with this portable hotspot on our tour buses (while I was on our Scotland tour). We’re considering using something like this in the future as a standard feature on our buses so that up to five tour members at a time can be online during long rides.

All over Europe, it’s routine to see travelers scavenging free or cheap Internet service–in hotel lobbies, sitting on the floor at airports outside the VIP lounge door, and wasting valuable shore time while on cruises. I personally am tired of putting on my clothes at midnight to ride the elevator down to the hotel lobby to get online.

Now, with the luxury of my own private mobile hotspot, I can get online without fiddling with login credentials, petty payments here and there, and worrying about time limits. And, since a single hotspot allows access for up to five devices, my travel partner and I can have all our gear–smartphones, laptops, and tablets–online as we like and need. I’ve been online–communicating, working, or being entertained–on taxis, buses, trains, and cruise ships. I’ve used it in airports and even in cafés overlooking remote beaches. I also appreciate the device even in hotels where online access is free because my signal is often stronger and faster.

These devices are easy to use and hold their charge a long time. You only need to sign in once because your computer will remember the device every time.  Getting online is as simple as turning the power on. To learn more, visit mobilewifi.telecomsquare.us.

The portable Wi-Fi device in my hand keeps me connected to the Internet anytime and anywhere.
The portable Wi-Fi device in my hand keeps me connected to the Internet anytime and anywhere.
Comments

5 Replies to “Rick’s Consumer Report on a Wi-Fi Hotspot Rental”

  1. We’ve been using our Verizon hotspot (which we refer to as “The Puck”) for online access within Colorado, but haven’t used it yet for travelling anywhere outside the state. Its single display light glows green or purple, depending on whether you’re connected to a 3G or 4G network at the time. We should see if it has International capability, or could be “upgraded.” It’s running us around $50 a month now, so we’ll have to see what the effect would be.

  2. Be careful with that term “unlimited”. Usually there’s fine print which defines “unlimited” as 200Mb a day. It can get costly if you treat it as a truly unlimited plan.

  3. Call me old fashion, but really when we finally get away from home, we have and iphone with an international service and tell the family call us if there is an emergency. We check in maybe once or twice and enjoy the freedom from all the regular day to day. I know that most people are wired to something multiply times a day, and if it is part of your job I get that. But I just want to be disconnected, and that is part of vacating my life for two weeks.

  4. Too expensive for me. Most of the places I stay have free wifi these days – I thought it was only the top end hotels that were still charging.

  5. This is about 15x more expensive than it needs to be. Get yourself an unlocked GSM Android phone (e.g. Google Nexus phone). Pop in a PAYG SIM from the country you’re staying in and use the wireless tethering ability of the phone. You’ll pay $15-50 a month for high speed data and have a good phone to go with it.

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