Wireless Traveling Convenience Comes with the XCOM Global Hot Spot

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When traveling internationally, you won’t always have the luxury of a secure and speedy WiFi connection at your destination. One of the most reliable ways I’ve found to make sure that I’ll be able to get online with all of my devices — including my laptop — is by traveling with a hot spot rental from XCom Global.

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Rental for a ZTE 3G hotspot like the one I recently used in Barcelona runs $14.95 per day (plus shipping and handling). That includes all your data, and you can connect up to 10 devices to the same hotspot. Why is this better than buying daily WiFi at your destination’s hotel? Well, the obvious answer is because if you have your own hot spot, you won’t be limited to using your devices only at the hotel. Being able to check email on your iPad while sitting at a train station without using roaming data is pretty handy, but being able to use your laptop anywhere without worrying about the security of that coffee shop’s “free” WiFi is a huge bonus.

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$14.95 per day may seem like a lot of money if you are used to paying for monthly data in the US, and make no mistake about it — when you travel for a week or more the charges do quickly add up — but when you travel abroad, nothing is cheap. The Barcelona hotel we stayed at for MWC offered daily WiFi for €12 per 24 hour period, or about $16.66 per day. I had to give their service a try, and I found that like most hotel WiFi, my results were pretty mixed. The hotel WiFi seemed to have decent speeds some of the time, and then other times it was completely bogged down — whether because we were being throttled or because there were too many people on it. Who knows?

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photo taken by Helena

Having the XCom Global hot spot made it possible to get consistent 3G wireless service almost everywhere I went. The pack includes two batteries, a USB cable, and a charger that works world-wide, so staying powered was a cinch.

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If you are traveling abroad, and you are worried about being away from reasonably priced reliable data, then XCom Global can help.

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About the Author

Judie Lipsett Stanford
Judie is the co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Gear Diary, which she founded in September 2006. She got her start in 1999 writing software reviews at the now-defunct smaller.com; from mid-2000 through 2006, she wrote hardware reviews for and co-edited at The Gadgeteer. A recipient of the Sigma Kappa Colby Award for Technology, Judie has written for or been profiled by nationally known sites and magazines, and she has served on multiple industry hardware and software award panels. She is best known for her device-agnostic approach, enjoyment of exploring tech, gadgets, and gear, and her deep-diving, jargon-free reviews.