Rent wi-fi hotspot for tablet,laptop,phone in France

[Riversanddale]

We are considering renting a wi-fi hotspot (small portable modem) for our Paris-Normandy river cruise and before and after touring on our own in France. We've found one company (Travel Wi-fi) that has unlimited data and will work on multiple smartphones, tablets and laptops at the same time. Our smartphone won't allow the chip to be changed and this service does not require it (the chip is in the modem). We've found boat connections on the cruises intermittent at best and hotel systems hit and miss in our travels. Has anyone used this or similar service (must include tablet and laptop service; phone is optional for us)?

[Got2Cruise]

Are you sure you need it? We found that the hotel in Paris offered free wifi and so did the ship. (Avalon). The wifi was good because you were mostly near Paris or Rouen so there was good connection. They give you a password and you're in. We also found that many restaurants in Europe offer free wifi. We used an iPad3, so it's an older version and it worked fine.

[djett]

I rented a hotspot from https://www.xcomglobal.com/ last year for our Uniworld cruise and stay in Paris. It worked great for our cell phones and laptop. It's not cheap but you know you'll have a good connection.

[janetcbl]

We have rented a tep hotspot (tepwireless.com) twice with excellent results. It is secure (unlike public WiFis) and has worked well on land and during a cruise. It doesn't work with a mobile phone.

[Rebel54]

I purchased a Skyroam device. It was cheaper than renting and I can buy days as I need them.

 

http://www.skyroam.com/index.php

[Host Jazzbeau]

Like Got2Cruise we have never felt the need for this on a river cruise. The pre- and post-cruise hotels offered free wifi, and so did our AMA ships. Have you checked with your cruise line?

[Riversanddale]

Thank you for your replies. Yes, of course, the boat and our hotels all have free wifi. But, after 7 cruises we have found trying to get on when it is convenient for us is when it is convenient for everyone else meaning SLOW or no connections. We do email and upload photos for family while traveling, check maps and site info, and look at local transportation options. It's totally frustrating I've found so I would happily pay for a connection that works. As for hotels, not all rooms have a good connection despite what the lovely ads say, so again we're willing to pay for a backup. We never use free cafe wifi and use a vpn for security whenever we're away from home so the rental modem looks like a good choice for us. It will also have coverage in other areas of France that we'll be visiting on our own after the cruise.

[janetcbl]

Riversanddale: you might like to check out this website for comparison of 2 rental modems. We like tep, but others have been happy with the other one.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/02/12/wifi/

[Rebel54]

The Skyroam wifi box cost me $99.00 and I got 5 free days of wifi on it. I went with the purchase because we will be gone 3 weeks and I didn't want to have to pay for a rental every day if I didn't need it. The box provides signal for up to three items. I tested it out and it was easy and fast.

 

Just something to think about. If you are interested I got a referral code when I bought mine that will save you $30.00 off the list price of $129.00. I'm not sure if it's still good but its. Sorry if it's not allowed to share that. I'm all about discounts so I thought I would pass it on.:

 

my code for $30 off: https://t.co/qDZ5NwH7bz via @MySkyroam

 

They may still have their sale going on too...I'm not sure.

 

I love the idea of having my own so anytime we travel all I have to do is sign up for a few days of time and use it as I need to when I can't get wifi for free somewhere. I love that peace of mind.

[FuelScience]

I posted a review of the TEP hotspot at the link below.

 

FuelScience

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2248978

[carefreecruise]

Have very good luck with free international roaming with T-Mobile. works in all Europe countries. Although it is at a reduced speed of 2g to 3g. Sill it works better than the Wi-Fi provided by the river cruise ships. I also set-up my Blackberry as a hot spot, so the wife can use her tablet and I can use my laptop.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Have very good luck with free international roaming with T-Mobile. works in all Europe countries. Although it is at a reduced speed of 2g to 3g. Sill it works better than the Wi-Fi provided by the river cruise ships. I also set-up my Blackberry as a hot spot, so the wife can use her tablet and I can use my laptop.

 

I heard about this and thought about switching from Verizon to T-Mobile. But my daughter in Los Angeles says she has heard the coverage there is terrible. Anybody know how it is in the NYC area?

[Rebel54]

I had T-Mobile for a long time and loved it. Only left it because I got tired of waiting for them to get the iPhone. When we went to Barbados it worked great and I didn't have any crazy charges. I did however have problems with it at my house on Whidbey Island, WA. Some parts of the island I had NO service.

[bubbulz]

I heard about this and thought about switching from Verizon to T-Mobile. But my daughter in Los Angeles says she has heard the coverage there is terrible. Anybody know how it is in the NYC area?

 

I've been looking at switching also. We have horrible service in our area with Verizon (despite adding a Network Extender in our home), and we travel internationally for about 10 days every 6 to 8 weeks. The plus of T-mobile in terms of coverage is that they use WiFi calling whereas Verizon does not (at least not yet). When my son was visiting us, he had crystal clear phone calls in our home (via our WiFi network) whereas our own calls drop frequently. So even thought T-mobile's network might not be as extensive, you have coverage anyplace you have a WiFi connection.

[carefreecruise]

I heard about this and thought about switching from Verizon to T-Mobile. But my daughter in Los Angeles says she has heard the coverage there is terrible. Anybody know how it is in the NYC area?

 

I was also on Verizon for 15 years and do notice now not full bars in the areas I frequent the most... You can try it out for, I think 15 days and return the phone and all fees if the coverage is not acceptable in your area. Also a BIG plus is native Wi-Fi calling that was mentioned before. Although the Wi-Fi needs to be very strong to not have dropped calls when using it. They also have a fixed .20 per minute charge when calling back to the USA if no Wi-Fi is available to use. After all the years using T-Mobile, only time I ever came home and received an unusual charge; was when I was checking my visual-voice mail, assuming I was hearing them over Wi-Fi. So now I don't check voice mail any more while out of the country unless I am sure we are connected to Wi-Fi. It was only $3.55 so no big deal if I make the same mistake again...

 

Almost forgot - Calling Canada and Mexico or from Canada and Mexico to the USA is no charge and unlimited...

Edited April 17, 2016 by carefreecruise

[FuelScience]

Will probably switch to T-Mobile when my AT&T contract expires this fall unless other carriers get the message and start extending their data plans to Europe..

 

FuelScience