Portable WiFi?

Grehan

Grehan

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 Jun 2001
Messages
3,729
Location
Inland France + Oxon.
www.french-waterways.com
We've had an approach from a French concern called HipPocketWiFi. They look like a 'properly set up company'.
http://hippocketwifi.com/
They rent out a portable 4G WiFi hotspot device that connects to Orange France and then serves up a connection to up to 10 'connected' devices. Rental is 4.90€ per day for a 300 MB data quota. The device is delivered by them to wherever it needs to be collected from and at the end of the rental one pops the device in a supplied envelope and puts it in a postbox.

Any comments?
How interesting? Practical? Economical?
 
Portable WiFi works fine provided the signal is strong in your area - it's been a while since I was in France, so I cannot comment on how good the coverage is likely to be. A few years ago, it was excellent in the cities, but quite patchy in rural France - it's a big country and quite sparsely populated in places - difficult to justify the investment required to provide really good coverage.

The prices you quote are not particularly good by UK standards - I bought a MiFi unit from Three a few months ago for about £40 outright and pay about £15 per month for 10GB data allowance - I'm on a one month contract, so I can cancel at short notice with no significant penalty.
 
One quetion is how do they stop charging as in my experience French post is not the fastest, I'd hate to pay aweek at 5 euros a day just for the post time.
 
No experience with Mi-Fi as I use the marina wifi in Spain but what would I expect to be paying in Spain for a couple of hours usage a day in Spain and any recommendations? My Spanish phone is on Movistar but Orange is the next most popular locally.

The marina wifi is 20 Euros a week. Will I save anything?
 
colind3782 said:
No experience with Mi-Fi as I use the marina wifi in Spain but what would I expect to be paying in Spain for a couple of hours usage a day in Spain and any recommendations? My Spanish phone is on Movistar but Orange is the next most popular locally.

The marina wifi is 20 Euros a week. Will I save anything?
Click to expand...

Expensive. I was in Spain last week and used my UK O2 phone - O2 charge £1.99 a day for 'all you can eat' data in the EU (I think Vodafone charge the same). A local SIM will be cheaper still, but it's a faff getting hold of one.
 
colind3782 said:
No experience with Mi-Fi as I use the marina wifi in Spain but what would I expect to be paying in Spain for a couple of hours usage a day in Spain and any recommendations? My Spanish phone is on Movistar but Orange is the next most popular locally.

The marina wifi is 20 Euros a week. Will I save anything?
Click to expand...

20 Euros per week would be expensive by UK standards - our networking on the boat is done through a MiFi on a 4G contract from Three - we pay £15 per month for 10GB and get a pretty good service. We are on the edge of an area of 4G coverage - sometimes it locks onto the 4G signal and the rest of the time it falls back to 3G. The 4G is very fast - compares well with our home broadband; the 3G is slower, but still very useable.
 
Thanks all. I'm out there the week after next and I'll check it out. I work when I'm on the boat so I need a reliable fast connection. The O2 deal is better now that they don't restrict it to 15mb per day.

Food for thought.
 
telford_mike said:
Expensive. I was in Spain last week and used my UK O2 phone - O2 charge £1.99 a day for 'all you can eat' data in the EU (I think Vodafone charge the same). A local SIM will be cheaper still, but it's a faff getting hold of one.
Click to expand...
In Faro at the mo, went to the Mall and the Meo shop a few days ago on the advice of one of the guys here. Sim card for 10 euros with 10 gb data for a month, I dont even know how many calls I can make but the data is the key, I havent even used 200mbs so far. I unlocked my Samsung Orange phone for £20 before I started, the important thing being that I can use it as a hotspot, so the sim card is being used by me, swmbo and sil all at the same time. Fast as well. They didnt even ask for my name or anything! As bureaucratic as P can be I was surprised at that!
S
 
Hi

When you are using he phone abroad for data and sharing the connection it is not always possible to tether - i.e. you are restricted to internet and email on the phone only. This is certainly the case with the current 3 deal in France as I found out last week.

I do not know if the local data sims are designed for use in a smartphone of if they only work in a mifi type unit

Regards

Jim
 
Hi Grehan. We are currently at Port des Bains on the Canal des Vosges - pretty rural - and using an orange domino, rechargeable online if need be. In Germany, we had to get a Vodafone equivalent, because the domino is locked up. However, over the past two months cruising, there have only been two or three nights we have been unable to get online - or post a blog entry: nwrparsons.blogspot.fr.
Best regards
Saskia
 
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