Mobile Broadband for Europe ? Any Suggestions

[monte]

Hi
I'll be sailing through the Med and would like a mobile broadband dongle for the laptop using maybe 2Gb/month and travelling through France portugal and spain for now. I s there a company that provides one for all countries like my mobile SIM (onesim)?
Or will I need one for each country?
IF so..any suggestions for those countries?
Thanks
Rob

[sy_gilana]

Gymsim does good roaming, but expensive otherwise go to SIMYO.ES and check out their offerings.

[Dockhead]

I sail on the European Atlantic coasts, and not in the med (so far), but I have never seen a good roaming data service in Europe. As far as I know, you will have to buy a dongle with SIM card in every country. Since the dongles are free or cheap, it's not that big a deal.

In the UK, TMobile and Three have the best data packages I've seen. TMobile is unlimited (subject to fair use limits) for ridiculously cheap prices -- 20 pounds or about 32 dollars for six months of continous service.

[jenkolav40]

im looking at this myself as i plan to travel to france .spain sardinia italy and greece.
vodafone uk do a data traveller plan which for £2 per day gives you 25 mb download or for £8 per day you can have 100 mb per day. if its only to keep a check on the weather and keep an eye on emails i suggest the 25 mb daily may do.

[Griszou]

Originally Posted by jenkolav40

im looking at this myself as i plan to travel to france .spain sardinia italy and greece.
vodafone uk do a data traveller plan which for £2 per day gives you 25 mb download or for £8 per day you can have 100 mb per day. if its only to keep a check on the weather and keep an eye on emails i suggest the 25 mb daily may do.

Free.fr in France gives you 3 gigabytes data, unlimited French and US mobile plus unlimited French landlines for 19.99 Euros/month without being trapped into a X month contract.

[LifePart2]

Spain was a headache trying to get data for my laptop.

However, Sardinia has been a delight! For the TIM network, I just bought a usb dongle plus 3 months x 10Gb per month, 3G+, for just 49euro - and it worked first time (which is also a rarity - spent over 7 hours on the phone with vodafone customer support in Spain).

good luck.

Noel

[monte]

Nice one Noel
I bought a dongle and plan from carrefour Spain. It works great
price is $30 for the dongle and plans are 3gig/month for $30 or $1 euro per day for 100Mb. You only pay for the days you actually use it so its not a bad deal.
Ill be in Portugal soon, not sure what they will have there...

[LifePart2]

In Portugal we used both TMN and Vodafone - most people seem to use TMN and it did seem to work reasonably well for us, though it wasn't great for skype calls. Costs weren't too bad, but can't remember the details. We used a dongle.

Having said that, in Portimao, if you anchor right up close to the cafe on the beach you can wifi into their connection if you have a wifi aerial booster thing.

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by LifePart2

In Portugal we used both TMN and Vodafone - most people seem to use TMN and it did seem to work reasonably well for us, though it wasn't great for skype calls. Costs weren't too bad, but can't remember the details. We used a dongle.

Having said that, in Portimao, if you anchor right up close to the cafe on the beach you can wifi into their connection if you have a wifi aerial booster thing.

Noel i see that in each bay we go to but how do you get in when its locked ie no passwords?

[LifePart2]

Not all of them are locked. If they are, and you are getting a good signal on your boat that suggests it should work, then go ashore, buy a drink and get the password. And then use it from your boat when you return home. ;-) Doesn't always work of course, which is why we use the 3G if we can get it at a decent price.

[monte]

just an update for the record. Arrived in Portugal and went to vodafone. Bought a card for the dongle for 15 euros that has 1G for 30 days included. Works well in my carrefour dongle. Top up for 10 euros for 10 hours as needed. No dropouts. Should see us through Portugal over the next few weeks.

[AngeW]

We have a deal with 3 Mobile here in Italy. 3 gigs (100 mb day) for 5 euro a month. Think Tim may have better coverage in islands and remote places though.

We head to Greece in a couple weeks. Any good data plan recommendations?

Cheers, Ange

[careka]

The cheapest , to have a good antenna to get in open spots, and if you se resturante, on that list, you drop in and by a beer, get the password, and you can use it from your boat.
if you are not to fare off.
Up in Scandinavia you can get ICE.no/ice.se and use it in Norway, Sweden, Danmark. it runs on the 450mhz and you will be online, even all the way from Danmark and over to south Norway, if you have a small antenna.
(and best place to have it is around 3 m above sea leavel. and free sigth)