Den Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Are you going to let us in on the secret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie reay Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 sorry new to all this forum stuff. wanted to know if anyone knew the best deals for broadband whilst travelling europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor girl Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Hi Stevie I've just been through all this and done loads of research and have finally sorted it out, so here's a few thoughts. Whereabouts are you travelling? If it's in Europe and you want to get a contract deal before you go, the only company worth even considering is Vodafone. Even the other mobile phone companies told me Vadofone's deals were the best. (Check how long you're committing to in advance. I think you'll probably have to commit to 18 months.) If you're tempted to go with another phone company because they sound cheaper - beware! The costs when you actually use the internet abroad may soar! Even with Vodafone, it's still quite pricey. There are a couple of options. One is that you pay £15 per month and then any time you want to use the internet, it will cost you £10 for a 24 hour period (starting from when you go online). The other option is that you pay £60 per month and you can access the internet any time you like. Both of these use a 'dongle' (like a little plug in modem which goes into your USB point), which you may have to pay a little extra for when you take out your contract. In both cases, there's a limit to how much you use the internet. With the first option, I can't remember what the 24-hour limit is, but on the other one, you can use up to 200 MB per month whilst abroad. After this, you have to pay for the extra that you use. This means it's only suitable for doing things like checking emails and light-ish usage - not for downloading podcasts or uploading videos or anything like that. When I was getting the deal, I decided to swap over my old number (already with Vodafone) to the broadband service and they gave me a huge discount. i got the deal for £40 per month - so there are deals to be had, but possibly only if you're a vodafone customer already. It's worth trying to wangle whatever you can get. In any case, I'd see this as a back up and try to find wi-fi areas whilst travelling as much as possible. In my case (we're going round Europe for a year) it's just so that I know I can definitely have access to the internet as I'll need it for work, but I'm only going to use it when there are no other options available, so I hopefully won't go over the 200 MB limit. Other than that, i think that you can probably get pay as you go deals in the countries you visit along the way. That would probably end up cheaper in the long run I imagine, and doesn't tie you into a contract but you won't necessarily know what you can get till you're out there. Depends if you want the security of knowing you've got it, like I do, or you're happy to wing it. If you want to see a few more opinions, check out this thread, too http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=5615&posts=18 (It's on this site, under the 'hints and tips' section.) Good luck! Liz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie reay Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 Thanks Liz That was very helpfull. We too are going to travel europe for a year, but as we only need the internet for e-mails and information we will probably try and wing it. stevie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 An increasing number of camp sites have WiFi connections (usually in or near the office, bar or restaurant). But you'll need an up-to-date guide book to discover which. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesmad Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 We have just come back from spending 3 weeks in France and we used the wifi at the camp sites, it was a bit fiddly, but it did work. We were informed that McDonalds in France have Free wifi, we didn't try so I don't know if it does work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJH Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 THIS STORY came out yesterday. Just illustrates the perils one might face from high roaming charges abroad. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watsoa Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Used McDonalds free WiFi in both France and Spain - you don't have to buy anything if you don't want to. Subway sandwich bars also have free WiFi for customers.Alan W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 GJH - 2008-07-08 5:53 PM THIS STORY came out yesterday. Just illustrates the perils one might face from high roaming charges abroad. Graham Graham how do you condense that long url into "this story" please?I've sat outside McDonalds in France and used wifi too - very useful.I have also used wifi on a site in Spain for 5 euros a week but some sites are misleading. This year in France I bought 2 hours thinking that would last me the few days only to find out that you had only 24 hours to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJH Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 Patricia - 2008-07-08 10:46 PMGraham how do you condense that long url into "this story" please?You wrap the hypertext code round the web address. Unfortunately I can't spell it out in detail because of the way in which this forum treates the code (trying to turn it into a link all the time).Some forums have icons which do it automatically for you but not this one.Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie reay Posted July 9, 2008 Author Share Posted July 9, 2008 Thanks all for the useful information much appreciated. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.