I am shopping for WiFi connection for use while in France and Italy April - June. I have a locked phone and they do not offer international service in Europe. I need to able to access Google Maps. Please advise if you have used Hippocket WiFi? What connection/carrier would you recommend (AT&T)?
Posted by
Schwerin
3679 posts
You can download areas & navigate offline in Google Maps. But the quality of Google Maps is not good in some European regions, e. g. Germany.
Alternatively you can use Sygic GPS Navigation app to travel indepently and without daily stress of loading something.
Posted by
West Michigan
262 posts
I use Organic Maps (Android). Great program, free, and I can download the maps for a country, or part of a country when I'm on wifi. So no internet needed when out wandering. I wouldn't want to have to drag around another device that needs daily charging. I actually carry a second, backup phone with me which could be used as a hotspot if I needed one, and I like having a backup phone.
Many on this forum will suggest Tmobile has much better, cheaper international coverage. That's what I use, requires no hassle at all.
Posted by
471 posts
I’ve used it in Poland, Hungary and Austria. I’ve also used it on overnight trains. I found it to work very well and never experienced and outages. The only caveat is that the battery lasts about 8 hours, so I bought a charging battery and had no problems. There were three of us and all enjoyed full service. I would not hesitate to use it again
Posted by
Chicago
756 posts
Perhaps an aside, but, if you have had service/owned this phone for a period of time
(6 months? depends on the carrier), you should be able to get a code from the
service provider and unlock the phone. Then you can potentially put a different
SIM (or eSIM, if supported) into the phone and not have to carry around an extra
device.
Downside is that the device can support multiple connections, so one Hippocket can
service multiple phones if there are a group of you. Also, if you put a new SIM card
in your phone, your existing phone # is null for that period of time, but since you don't
have service in Europe anyways, it seems a moot point.
I have not researched this specific offer, but it appears that it comes with some kind
of SIM card/service already enabled, so you don't need additional data service from
another provider. I don't know why you propose AT&T, as they only have roaming
agreements in Europe.
As noted, you can download maps ahead of time and turn on GPS (this will work even
with a locked phone) for directional guidance. What will not work is data capabilities
to show you restaurants, stores, museums, etc that are nearby, and information about
those places.