Mobile wifi for Europe travel

You may not need any. We used hotel,cafe, bars free wifi. We did get free texting with AT&T international plan, lowest level, it did include a small amount of data

Mary

Which company is your cell phone provider? Verizon charges $10 per day and lets you use your existing date/minutes/texts in Europe. If you don't plan to make any calls, I would just rely on free wif at hotels, restaurants, etc. When you board your European bound flight, turn off cellular data and place your phone in airplane mode. You can then turn on wifi without incurring any data usage/charges. You can also get whatsapp for free texting over wifi. Test it before you leave home!

More and more destinations are offering "pocket wifi" devices. It's a small device, a little smaller than an iPhone in some cases. You carry it around with you in your bag and it broadcasts a wifi signal that you can connect to, so you or anyone within a short range (10-20 ft?) can access it, password protected of course. In some cases hotels will loan them to you for the duration of your stay, in other cases, you can rent them from local cell phone carriers. I've seen this mainly in Asian countries so I'm not sure about European destinations.

IMHO, mobile Wi-Fi is not necessary for the average traveller. It's very easy to surf the net using Wi-Fi at hotels, cafés or wherever, with occasional access to cellular data via a roaming plan or a locally purchased SIM. Mobile Wi-Fi also uses the cellular data network, so there will be a cost for that as well.

What kind of international roaming options does your home cellular network offer?

The roaming charges for my home local data plan is too expensive. 1€ for every 1 MB. The data is for when I want to search for a place of my destination during the trip or when I'm lost. That's all.

If you have an unlocked phone, you could also buy a local SIM card with a more generous data allowance. That would probably be better than a Mobile Wi-Fi unit. You could also look at the travel phone firms such as iRoam, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal as many of them offer data only plans.

Ken

What do you mean by unlock phone?? How do you do it?? I'm new to this

Some cell phones are "locked" to the network that sold them, so only SIM cards from that network will work in the phone. If the phone is "unlocked", it will accept SIM cards from any cell network. Contact your cell provider as they can probably tell you whether the phone you're using is "unlocked", and will also be able to tell you how to unlock it.

From what I've seen, most cell phones sold outside of North America are sold "unlocked". I just upgraded my iPhone and unfortunately it's "locked". My network won't unlock it until the end of my term (2 years) or until I pay the full price of the phone (the purchase price of the phone is spread over the term of the contract). The exception is iPhones purchased directly from Apple, which are unlocked.

You can easily determine whether your phone is locked or not - simply insert a SIM from a different cellular network in the phone. If it works, the phone is unlocked.

Thanks Ken

I'm using iPhone 6. Means that I can only use one sim at a time. Cause I need my own SIM card at the same time to get msg from my country

Thanks Ken

I'm using iPhone 6. Means that I can only use one sim at a time. Cause I need my own SIM card at the same time to get msg from my country

The price difference between a lock and unlocked iPhone here in the States is HUGE (double?).

KC,

"The price difference between a lock and unlocked iPhone here in the States is HUGE (double?). "

Yes, there is a considerable difference in price between an unlocked phone purchased from Apple, and a locked version purchased through one of the cellular networks (I know as I've done both). In reality the prices between both types of phones will be similar, when considering that cellular networks often spread the cost of a new handset out over the length of the term plan. Therefore at the end of the contract, the user typically will have paid about the same amount. If you buy direct from Apple, you're paying the cost "up front". Most cell networks will provide the unlock codes once the contract is paid, or if the customer wants to pay the cost of the phone before the contract term is up.

kenlee,

Your last reply provides a better view of your circumstances. As you'll need to be using your home SIM to receive calls from home, that means you will be roaming with your home network at least for voice and text. Whether you use a mobile Wi-Fi "Hotspot" or not, you MUST leave your cellular data switched OFF for the duration of your trip. Any time you turn the phone "off" and then back on again, you must verify that the cellular data remains "off".

The least expensive option would just be to leave cellular data "off" during the entire trip and just use Wi-Fi in hotels, cafés or wherever. If you pre-plan your excursions well, you shouldn't have much need to access data when you're out touring.

If you would prefer to use a Mobile Wi-Fi unit, check the travel SIM firms that I mentioned above to see if any of them offer that type of service. With a Mobile Wi-Fi, you will be using the cellular data network, so there will be a cost for that.

Thanks so much Ken

I guess I'll try to maximize the wifi in hotels and cafes

have you thought about adding off-line apps to your phone before you go. there are plenty of free/almost free apps where you can download maps of where you are going and a host of information about hotels and attractions in a particular area. they work without wifi.
that and free wifi in a lot of places AND with Viber etc, should get you by. I have taken a mobile wifi device with us , just in case, but didn't use it, in nearly 5 months of travelling in Europe.