mifi for europe?

Anyone have a gsm mifi with european bands for rent/sale/loan? Or a different suggestion for data while on the road?

I will be in Germany, Belgium, and France, but mostly France. Lots of info on the sim chips available here:
http://paygsimwithdata.wikia.com/wik...with_data_Wiki

I am tempted to pick up one of the $120 Huawei units on amazon but would rather not spend that much if I can get away with it... though maybe it wouldnt be too hard to resell it once I got back in the US.

Any ideas?
-Guil

There's a whole thread that's still current on this topic right here.

Thanks Peel. The Xcom product is interesting but also quite the ripoff

I see you have an ED shortly after mine, what are your plans for data while on the road?

Originally Posted by gbarros

Thanks Peel. The Xcom product is interesting but also quite the ripoff

I see you have an ED shortly after mine, what are your plans for data while on the road?

I looked at the XCom stuff and it may work best for me (taking iPhone and iPad) and have someone to share expense. Check out iphonetrip.com - seems pretty good but from what I've seen it's all overpriced.
Mike

We should all get together and share a purchased unit. Mail it to each other when done with our ED trips...

I'll be traveling with a buddy of mine and well each have an iPhone and iPad, so a myfi would seem to be the perfect solution for me.

Originally Posted by gbarros

Thanks Peel. The Xcom product is interesting but also quite the ripoff

I see you have an ED shortly after mine, what are your plans for data while on the road?

Wonder why a ripoff? Something other then too expensive?

My daughter and I are burning it up from iPhones, iPad and Mac. Even Skyping and FaceTime bunch from everyplace including Marienplatz. Plus some else mentions it works great from moving car.

It may be expensive, but it's very easy.

Originally Posted by jhall1957

Wonder why a ripoff? Something other then too expensive?

My daughter and I are burning it up from iPhones, iPad and Mac. Even Skyping and FaceTime bunch from everyplace including Marienplatz. Plus some else mentions it works great from moving car.

It may be expensive, but it's very easy.

I called it a ripoff because of the price. It definitely has very useful functionality. For my 2week ED they quoted me around $270 plus ~$30 in shipping. For that much I can buy (not rent, buy) 2 mifi's and still have money left over to buy sim cards in each country I am visiting

I am working on putting together a rental system just like the old Bimmerfest gps rentals for ED, as of right now it looks like it will be $50 per week, but lets see. I will be testing everything out later this month and should have more details then. Won't be quite as easy as the xcom one, you will still have to buy a local sim (which I will describe in detail which one to buy from the airport vending machine), but it should cost half as much

Let me know please, coming back for a week the end of Sept (21-28) and I'd give it a try!

I ordered the unit and will be giving it a trial run Aug22-sep6. Will report back when I have more data

Just got back from my ED and using a non-Xcom mifi device was a piece of cake!

As soon as I arrived in Munich I walked into the airport electronics store and asked him for a sim loaded with a 1 week data plan. This cost me 20 Euro (the price of the sim, with 10E credit.) The guy at the store was happy to activate the sim and load up the plan for me using a store cell phone as my phone was in my luggage. I had awesome coverage for the 4 days in southern Germany, with no problems. Once we arrived in France, I stopped in an Orange store and asked for a Mobicard. It was 10 E and came with 5 E credit. I added 10E to it which I used to sign up for the Internet Max plan via the menu. All was good from then onwards and we had data while driving through France. The Orange store initially was a bit funny about us not being French residents and wanting a mobicard, but once we explained that it was just to have mobile coverage while on vacation they were fine with it. They did copy down some data from my passport though when registering the sim.

All in all this was well worth it and much easier than I expected it to be.

Anyone interested in renting my mifi device for their ED?

Whivh MiFi model did you get please? Just curious

Huawei E585. If you get one make sure it's unlocked

Originally Posted by gbarros

Just got back from my ED and using a non-Xcom mifi device was a piece of cake!

As soon as I arrived in Munich I walked into the airport electronics store and asked him for a sim loaded with a 1 week data plan. This cost me 20 Euro (the price of the sim, with 10E credit.) The guy at the store was happy to activate the sim and load up the plan for me using a store cell phone as my phone was in my luggage. I had awesome coverage for the 4 days in southern Germany, with no problems. Once we arrived in France, I stopped in an Orange store and asked for a Mobicard. It was 10 E and came with 5 E credit. I added 10E to it which I used to sign up for the Internet Max plan via the menu. All was good from then onwards and we had data while driving through France. The Orange store initially was a bit funny about us not being French residents and wanting a mobicard, but once we explained that it was just to have mobile coverage while on vacation they were fine with it. They did copy down some data from my passport though when registering the sim.

All in all this was well worth it and much easier than I expected it to be.

Anyone interested in renting my mifi device for their ED?

What brand of SIM did you get and how much data you have for a week?

I like to rent...but I am leaving on Thursday...sorry

Originally Posted by Prost

I like to rent...but I am leaving on Thursday...sorry

I got the blau sim which I believe had 2gb at full speed and then unlimited at lower speed once you exceed the cap. The guys at the MUC electronics store (with the helicopter in the window!) were very helpful and spoke english. Make sure to ask him to sign you up for the plan you want, you need a cell phone to sign up with. He used one of the store phones to set up my sim for me

Originally Posted by gbarros

I got the blau sim which I believe had 2gb at full speed and then unlimited at lower speed once you exceed the cap. The guys at the MUC electronics store (with the helicopter in the window!) were very helpful and spoke english. Make sure to ask him to sign you up for the plan you want, you need a cell phone to sign up with. He used one of the store phones to set up my sim for me

I will bring my iPhone4 and iPhone 3G...thanks

I wanted to bring my iphone4 also but unfortunately I had it updated past the baseband version that can be unlocked Very frustrating... which baseband do you have your on? ANy iddues running an older one on current ios version?

Originally Posted by gbarros

I got the blau sim which I believe had 2gb at full speed and then unlimited at lower speed once you exceed the cap. The guys at the MUC electronics store (with the helicopter in the window!) were very helpful and spoke english. Make sure to ask him to sign you up for the plan you want, you need a cell phone to sign up with. He used one of the store phones to set up my sim for me

btw, is ur Blau SIM come with voice as well as data or just data?

Yes, I believe you could do voice calls on the blau sim. It was marketed as a sim for an ipad but its unlikely that they locked it to data only. The attendant at the store was quite helpful and had a couple of different sim options available, including one world sim which even he suggested we pass on