On our recent family trip to Europe, we considered a few options for having Internet access while on vacation. I know many people buy a European SIM card for their phones with a data plan, but there were four of us so the thought of buying 4 SIM cards was a little daunting. You can use free wifi at various spots as you visit, but we wanted continuous Wifi so we could use it for navigation. In the end, we settled on renting the mywebspot pocket wifi.
Ordering was easy via their web site, and we chose to have it delivered to our first hotel in Amsterdam. We also chose the prepaid envelope option, so we could just drop it in the mail when we left Europe.
What’s In the Package
There’s not much in the package… but it’s everything you need. You get:
- The mywebspot device itself
- A USB charger – ours had European plugs
- A USB cable
- A foldout instruction guide
The device itself looks very much like a mobile phone. It has four lights on one side, and the other side has a label with a QR code and the wifi name and password.
The only lights we ever saw lit were the battery light and the wifi light. The battery light comes on when charging it, and the wifi light blinks if it is establishing a connection or is solid if the wifi is available.
Using the mywebspot Device
To use it, simply hold the power button for a few seconds until all the lights turn on. After a few minutes of booting up, the wifi is ready and you connect to it with your phone, tablet or computer like any other wifi hotspot. Just carry it with you and you have wifi everywhere.
It claims to have a battery life of 8 hours in constant use. Our experience was that this was optimistic and it tended to last about 6 hours. We carried our own battery pack and connected the device to it to keep it charged up.
It was very reliable and provided Internet access almost anywhere. The only places that we noticed that Internet access dropped out were deep inside buildings or parking garages, places where you would have trouble with cell phone access.
The device gets hot in use… almost uncomfortably hot. I carried it in my pants pocket most of the time, and I was aware of its presence by the heat. When I thought about it, I put it in my camera bag instead so the heat didn’t bother me. Obviously, you should be careful that some pickpocket doesn’t take it.
There is a bandwidth limit on the device, which they call “fair usage”. The limit depends on what area you are in, but in Europe and USA it is 1 GB/day. If you exceed that, the device still works but is considerably slower. There is no way that I am aware of to see your usage.
Summary
The mywebspot pocket wifi device was very simple and easy to use, and did exactly what it promised – portable Internet access.
I will definitely use this service again.
This post has affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission at no additional cost to you should you use the link to order a device. I have not been otherwise compensated to write this post, and it is based on my personal experience using a device that I paid full price for.