I´m sitting at a Starbucks in San Francisco before a reading on Mission street.
I came in because I needed to check the exact address of the place of the reading online.
For the third time during my trip (Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), I got my drink/food, sat down, opened my computer, only to find out the Wifi at Starbucks wasn´t working.
The place is full of people with computers. Yet none of them are enjoying good Internet connectivity.
I, on the other hand, am writing this while connected to my TEP wireless device. This little thing has saved my life too many times during my trip.
International data roaming being as ridiculously expensive as it is, after trying out TEP, I think I can never travel again without it.
It is tiny, yet, it can offer serious data transfer speed, depending on the plan one chooses. I had 3 GIG, and I was able to keep up with my online courses, which include short video lectures, upload videos, and what not.
In today´s world, free wifi is becoming rare. Cafes that advertise free wifi often offer a poor service, and there is nothing as frustrating as missing out on seeing a great city to spend 20 minutes trying to connect to a network that ultimately doesn´t work.
The only “disadvantage” I found with my Tep was that it offered a weaker signal in some locations. For example, I had some problems when I moved from one condo to another in Miami, but in San Francisco and California, the connection couldn´t have been better.
As a traveler in a foreign country, this tiny device could save your life, and I highly recommend it.
I received it in the mail, including return postage paid, and it was totally hassle free.
When I first started traveling around the world, free Wifi was all around. I remember sitting down at the stairs of some Waikiki hotel in Honolulu and having a choice of several readily available networks.
Today, hotels charge extra for Wifi, for example, a Vegas hotel charged me 10 USD per day to have Wifi on two personal devices, coffee shops offer very unreliable free Wifi, and most cafes and restaurants do not offer it at all.
As I asked New Yorkers for directions, one day I forgot my Tep in the hotel and was unable to use Google maps, I realized how dependent we all are on the app for directions. Even local people were unable to tell us which way Soho or the Brooklyn Bridge were whenever we were at a loss for orientation.
I realized that renting a TEP wireless device may be a small investment, considering all its advantages.
For less than what some hotels charge for Wifi service, a personal wireless device like TEP can save any traveler a great deal of trouble. Whether you are looking for the best restaurant in an area, a cool terrace to watch the sunset or simply the way back to your hotel, portable Wifi is always the way to go.
