3 Reasons You Should Carry a Portable WiFi Device When Traveling

[Tina Anderson]

poike

For better or worse, for many travelers these days it's not an ideal vacation if they don't post about it on Instagram. All those fascinating, picturesque locations, all of your pictures in those beautiful outfits and doing cool, exotic things, deserve to be seen by your Instagram followers. And for that, of course, you need an internet connection wherever you go. But if you're traveling abroad how are you possibly going to do that with international roaming charges so exorbitant?


WiFi, of course. And while many hotels, restaurants, bars, and other public places in various parts of the world offer it - often free and sometimes for a fee - it's well worth investing in a pocket-size WiFi hub you can carry with you everywhere, which requires only a local cell signal to operate. You can rent one from various providers - usually starting 10 USD per day - or purchase one and subscribe to your local service provider's international data plan (which may well be more cost effective if you're a frequent traveler).

And here are three good reasons why I highly recommend it:

It's Safer Than Most Public Wi-Fi Networks

Sure, public WiFi can sometimes be a total life savior, but it can be slow - and on occasion can also expose users to hackers and other security threats. Connections these days are easily available at malls, parks, restaurants, even general areas of some cities - and given that anyone can access it, only makes it even scarier.

In fact, public Wi-Fi connections are notorious for being highly insecure, and if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, hackers can snoop on your online activity and even steal your personal information - and and the next thing you know, some stranger across the world is shopping with your credit card. A portable WiFi hub with an activated "firewall," however, will guard your privacy.

There's Instant Internet Access Anywhere

Apart from the security issue, there's the access issue. In terms of getting online, many travelers have made do with hopping from one public WiFi point to another. And that can work well enough in many cities. But still, there are times when Internet access is handy or even necessary when you're out on the street, in a park, or what have you. Not to mention the fact that in more remote places without WiFi access - the beach, the mountains, the countryside, what have you - you're out of luck. But having your own device will solve that problem almost anywhere there exists a cell-phone signal.

You'll Have All that Speed to Yourself

What determines the speed of the Internet? It’s latency - basically the lag between sending and receiving information between the Internet and any connected devices. Latency has to be short, but it gets affected when there are multiple users connected with a given Internet router, and it can literally cease to exist if any one of them starts streaming. Therefore, keeping your own portable internet device would give you full, uninterrupted internet speed, all the time. And you can even share the signal with anyone with whom you're traveling - making the the device even more cost-effective.

So you see, carrying a portable Wi-Fi internet connection device is all that you need if you are traveling and want to keep providing an uninterrupted connection to your phones. Using a Wi-Fi internet connection while you travel, will not only allow you to save money on your cellular data limit, but your phone’s battery won’t bug you by running out of its juice. Seriously, what is better than having a WiFi connection all to yourself on vacation or if traveling for business?