powerlifter

I travel mainly to the Middle East or Africa where I would need a sim card to get internet access. So the day passes would hardly be of use to me unless I had a long layover in the UK or EU. The last hotel I stayed in the internet was mostly unusable. I have looked at Glocalme and the website is too hard to find the countries that you may fly into to get access to buy internet service. So what are your thoughts on which device to buy?

Dubai Stu

Skyroam is only HSPA. It will support a foreign SIM card. I have thought about a GlocalMe 2 which seems to have a fair amount of LTE bands and two SIM slots.

miikka

I have been traveling with Goodspeed - 4G MiFi with 9 slots for SIM cards but typically the SIM cards are sourced through them (there are options to use own SIM cards as well).

Boostedtaco

I have a Skyroam and a Glocalme U2 mifi's, both have it's pluses and minuses.

Skyroam

Positives -
Great coverage (used it in West Australia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Amsterdam, Spain, Italy) and customer service is excellent. It has the ability to purchase additional data without having internet access. E.g. Ran out of day passes and you're not able to use a computer/phone to buy passes. And ability to monitor data usage on the device

Negatives -
It only has 3g/HSPA+ and it gets pretty warm/hot when in use. The usb port seems flimsy

Glocalme U2

Positives -
4G speed! I just used it this weekend in Mexico City and got 26 megs down and 30 up on speedtest app. Ability to use a sim card? I haven't tried it yet. Battery? it seems to good. Never had a chance to use it all day.

Negs -
The ability to buy more data when you've run out. I ran out of data and couldn't purchase more data until i was able to get internet access on my phone to use their website to purchase more. I emailed the company and they "said" they'll see if it's possible to add that feature. The Glocalme app needs improvement on my phone anyway. It lags and at times hard to connect to the app. (galaxy s5) Possible data bleeding? I read on amazon it bleeds data, I couldn't verify as I turned off the mifi when not in use.

I hope that helps!

Dubai Stu

Thanks. Nice contribution. I would just add you can use your own SIM on a Skyroam device as well.

Boostedtaco

I found this listing of countries that they support. Not sure if's the ones you're looking for.



No problem! Whoops i forgot that.

powerlifter

This trip is to Oman. So I will need a sim card to use wifi. The client has booked us into a hotel where the reviewers have stated that the wifi is slow. We are gone for two weeks so I need good wifi. I was in West Africa on the last trip, and the wifi was abysmal. I had a hard time with WhatsApp and facetime. I do not want to do that again.

powerlifter

Are you talking Sky Roam or GlocalMe?

sillypainter

For Oman, you can get a great deal here https://www.cellomobile.com/hotspot-rental/oman.html

Boostedtaco

Sorry, that's GlocalMe.

powerlifter

I went ahead and bought skyroam. The reviews were better on amazon than GlocalMe. I will see how it goes. Thanks for all the input.

mpiotrow

Having just started looking at SkyRoam/MyFi options, what is the benefit of being able to use your own SIM in a device? If you do that, can you then use the data on SIM without having to pay for the SkyRoam usage? Is it possible to tether multiple devices with your own SIM (even if the SIM does not support tethering)?

Thanks for any/all help!

Dubai Stu

There are a number of reasons. The one that comes to mind is that Skyroam is a good deal for a short term stay in a country, but not a long term one. I spent three weeks in Australia two years ago. A local SIM easily would beat Skyroam, but I have one day in the Netherlands later this year. A local SIM card wouldn't be such a good deal. Then there are uncovered countries. It doesn't look like Oman is a covered country (see above). At that point, a Skyroam is jut another hotspot. TMobile has slow roaming included in its data packages (now at 256k). On the days you are just checking your email, that would be fine but once you have work to do, Skyroam makes more sense. If you are using a competitor with LTE service, you might want your home country SIM in the device for use at home, and the roaming service abroad. Skyroam, etc., can also give you backup coverage on a different network. Yesterday, I was in a hotel where ATT's coverage didn't reach the meeting room, but TMobile's did. I believe Skyroam also gives you a US internet connection which could get you around blocking in some countries.

When you boot the Skyroam up, it senses the external SIM card and asks whether you wish to use it or Skyroam.

mpiotrow

Thank you very much for the reply...I think the one question I mentioned which you didn't cover was whether or not you can tether multiple devices with an "untetherable" (for lack of a better word) SIM. For example, I'm looking to go to Italy for a few days, and I have an Italian SIM card which states it does not work in tether mode with my phone. However, if I put it in the SkyRoam, will it allow tethering?

Also, just to be clear, the SkyRoam acts ONLY as a data device, it does not handle or pass telephone calls through it, right?

Thanks again!

Dubai Stu

I doubt the device would respect it but I can't speak for the carrier. If I stick my ATT global unlimited datacard into a hotspot device ATT would be breathing down my throat. It doesn't take a genius to realize that an iOS device shouldn't be connecting to Windows update service.