In a digitally connected world, getting online whilst traveling internationally has become as crucial as a passport. Whether you’re exploring a city you haven’t been to before, sharing special moments with family and friends back home, or simply working remotely, guaranteed internet can make or break your travel experience. Traditionally, international mobile roaming, utilised via your regular mobile provider, is how we stay connected when traveling overseas. Nowadays international travelers, young and old alike, are opting to use pocket WiFi devices to stay connected instead. Enabling travelers to be constantly connected to the World Wide Web, pocket WiFi devices like a Mobal Pocket WiFi are changing the way we connect and use the internet while overseas, and offer a better option for travelers that combines value, reliability, and convenience in a sensible device.Â
The Hidden Costs of Traditional Roaming
Conventional roaming services have ensnared travellers with unreasonable charges and disappointing restrictions for years. The majority of mobile companies charge high rates for international data, often between $10 to $15 per megabyte in some destinations. To top that off, even with their international roaming packages, travellers run into daily caps, throttled speeds once certain usage is reached, and arbitrarily confusing billing making it nearly impossible for customers to guess the final amount.
To say that the shock of getting a phone bill with hundreds or thousands of dollars in roaming charges has become a common travel nightmare is an understatement. These unexpected charges can easily umbrella the happiness that comes with your journey and disrupt what should be unforgettable experiences into financial depression. Besides that, the majority of these roaming plans have a limited amount of data that can be easily consumed in a matter of hours of normal smartphone usage, leaving travellers in need of the internet completely disconnected.
Cost-Effectiveness: Pocket WiFi’s Clear Advantage
Pocket WiFi devices have a clearly defined, predictable pricing structure which gives travellers back control of their connectivity costs. While roaming fees add up, with pocket WiFi rental services, the pricing structure itself, usually a flat daily or weekly rate covering “unlimited” or “generous” data. This pricing provides the chance for travellers to budget accurately for their connectivity needs without the possibility of bill shock.
It becomes more cost effective for long trips or groups of people. A single pocket WiFi device can support multiple users and devices all at once, making it much more economical than purchasing an individual roaming plan for each traveller. Families, business teams and friend groups can share the cost of the device and have unlimited access, usually all for equal or less than a single person would have spent on roaming services.Â
If you travel regularly, the math only gets more exciting. Over the course of the year and using pocket Wifi rather than roaming, your savings can amount to hundreds or even thousands of dollars that you could spend on experiences, accommodation or even extending your travel.
Superior Coverage and Reliability
Perhaps the most notable advantage to a pocket WiFi is its superior reliability and network coverage compared to roaming services. Pocket WiFi devices connect you directly to the local cellular networks in the area you are visiting, providing the same quality of service that residents in that country expect. Connecting directly to the local cellular network means you won’t experience the latency and signal degradation of roaming like when your home carrier routes your data through one of it’s international agreements.
Roaming service is usually dependent on agreements between your home carrier and local networks. This can mean that you get connected to second or lower priority networks, which ultimately has an impact on network performance. This often leads to slower network speeds, dropped connectivity and poor coverage in places that local residents enjoy great coverage. A pocket WiFi device is set to connect to the strongest available local networks, giving you the best performance.Â
The reliability factor of a pocket WiFi becomes very important in business travel instances. Losing connectivity in critical moments for your important calls, video conferences or time sensitive communications can be disruptive for business travel. Having the peace of mind knowing your internet connection will not dropout at the most important times is something that professional travellers can not put a price on.
Simplicity and User-Friendly Operation
Travellers typically struggle with the intricacies of managing roaming services. The pre-travel planning required to enable international roaming, coupled with the constant usage monitoring to avoid excessive charges, necessitates constant attention to detail and management of the services. Each carrier has a different process to follow, and in many cases, the traveller is left with the obstacle of working through the device settings with no assistance or contacting customer service or support in order to enable the services properly.Â
Pocket Wifi devices simplify the entire process of getting connected to the internet through their plug-and-play design. Once the traveller receives the pocket Wifi devices, typically accomplished by having the wifi delivered to the hotel or available for pickup at the airport, the connection can be established by simply turning on the device and registering the traveller’s devices with the wifi signal. There are no calls for service activation, no need to change phone settings or configurations based on the travelling carrier or service provider.Â
Pocket Wifi, in addition to not permeating unnecessary management, is also intuitive and efficient for purpose of usage monitoring. The majority of pocket wifi devices also offer clear displays which show battery life, wifi signal and data usage. This is in complete contrast to traditional roaming services which typically provide cumbersome methods of monitoring data usage (dropping into a carrier website or app that often does not work when accessed abroad).
Enhanced Security for Peace of Mind
Security concerns are another area where pocket WiFi offers a much better solution than traditional roaming services. When you use a roaming service, your data has to go through several carriers (networks) and possibly numerous international carriers to reach its intended destination, which adds additional security and vulnerability issues associated with multiple networks. Every time your data goes from point A to point B there are numerous transfer points and opportunities for your data to be compromised.
Pocket WiFi devices create a private, password protected network which makes a barrier between your devices and the public internet, which also protects your data from other devices; as well, it provides another layer of encryption potentially more secure than what individual apps and even websites provide. This security advantage is important when performing sensitive activities (e.g., like online banking, work emails or sharing personal information).This is also important when public WiFi networks, which may be the only option because of high roaming fees, present a serious security risk that pocket WiFi completely negates. Public hotel lobbies, cafes and airports that offer free WiFi put you and your personal information at risk because cybercriminals easily infiltrate unsecured WiFi networks to both steal stolen data or launch an attack on the connected devices. Pocket WiFi will allow you to utilize the same conveniences as public WiFi without any of the security threats.
Seamless Device Sharing and Connectivity
Today’s travellers are typically not travelling with just one device. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, and other devices with internet capabilities have become a common component of travelling, whether solo or with family and friends. Each of these devices are going to want Internet capabilities to reach their maximum utility. Traditional roaming services still primarily service only one device, with the others either not connected (or have completely separate costly data plans). Pocket WiFi devices are specifically good because they’ll support multiple devices at the same time. Most pocket WiFi devices will allow five to ten devices to connect, and you will not notice a performance hit. This creates an obvious advantage for many travellers: you can stay productive on the laptop while the smartphones are connecting for navigation and messaging. Likewise, a family of four can keep their devices connected without the issues and costs of multiple roaming plans.
Sharing the service of a pocket WiFi device means more than just convenience in many cases; ultimately it becomes a practical necessity of many travel situations. A photography enthusiast can upload photos to cloud storage instantly; a business traveller can remain productive across several devices; families can also entertain their children and offset boredom with streaming services on long road trips or during transit delays.
Navigation and Real-Time Information Access
In such a fast-paced world, we take reliable internet connection for granted when navigating in the modern world or seeking up-to-date travel information. GPS navigation apps rely on data connections to present real-time traffic information, route changes, and points of interest; while translation apps connect to databases to retrieve correct translations, they can be a traveller’s lifeline, allowing them to communicate in foreign countries. Real-time transit apps can allow you to get a better sense of navigating public transit systems and especially avoid delays.
When you travel with a pocket WiFi, you can rely on consistent and high-speed service to ensure your vital travel applications work the way they are supposed to when you need them most. The unintended consequence of internet roaming plans, where the connection may be throttled and geographic coverage may be spotty, are limited bandwidth and inconsistent quality of connection, leading to frustration when working with both maps and translation services.
The everyday importance of reliable internet can, in some respects, make any emergency situations worse. When unexpected events occur when you travel, having reliable internet may separate having to contact foreign embassies/rerouting flight arrangements in a foreign country or returning home to speak to family. Certainly, having the confidence that you have reliable access to the essential points of contact is beneficial for peace of mind.
Making the Smart Choice for International Travel
There are many benefits of pocket WiFi beyond cost savings. The combination of predictable pricing, better coverage, more security, and ease of use, provides a convincing argument for any international traveller who wants connectivity while travelling. As travel continues to change and our reliance on connected devices increases, pocket WiFi is the smart, forward-thinking option for a traveller who wants to be connected around-the-clock while exploring the world.
Choosing a pocket WiFi device for your international connection, boils down to the relative importance you place on value, reliability, and peace of mind. Roaming services certainly seem convenient, especially if they are included in your existing phone plan, but they are rife with excessively expensive charges, unreliable coverage, and cumbersome management that will end up disappointing travellers. Pocket WiFi devices will give you the freedom to connect when-and-how you want with fewer surprises, and predictable pricing that improves your travel experience instead of impeding it.
For those travellers that value service that provides seamless connectivity, predictable costs, and the ability to share internet service with multiple devices; pocket WiFi is clearly the option of choice for staying connected while abroad.
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This post brought to you by Zachary Stroup
Photo: iStock
