Wifi options in Europe

[colombo]

Hi All,

I've gone through a number of threads on this topic, but I was hoping for some EU specific advice.

I am picking up my boat from Greece and sailing it back to Spain. We both work online, and although we will be able to bin work for various stages of the trip, it will be a big help to have some fairly reasonable 4g when we are semi close to the shore, and in future in general/

It seems like using the 4g from a sim, and pairing that with a router is the best bet. Does anyone have any advice on the best routers for use in Europe specifically, and whether adding a signal booster is worth the associated cost and installation? I'm happy to do this if anyone has any advice on the best way to go. If it significantly boosts performance then it will pay for itself in the amount of extra time we can be on board. The boat will live its life around the med, and we will get a lot more use out of it if it is semi practical to get online and do the remote office thing without major panic about connectivity.

Thanks

[DavidN]

4G and 5G is pretty much everywhere in Europe, and one sim bought from any country works in all of Europe at no extra cost. I.e. there are no roaming fees.

You could just make your phone a hotspot or buy an inexpensive 4g router that are about 30 bucks from nearly all phone shops. I would buy this there though as I discovered doing the reverse that you are doing when i bought my 4g router in Europe to use in US you use different frequencies so it didn't work but all phone shops will sell them that sell sims (well most). I was working from my boat last year and invested in lots of wifi extenders and 4g boosters but in the end i didn't use any of it because unless i was in some remote island in the middle of nowhere i always had a good 4g signal. And when working i was usually in a bay or marina near a town with a good signal.

What I found the most helpful to get a good data speed was to buy a few different sims, as different networks have better coverage in different areas.... you don't have to pay for unlimited data to start with but just buy a sim on that network and then see which one has the best signal where you are and do a quick test. Then go online and top up that sim with however much data you need for the time there. I often found in the more remote locations i'd be saved by one sim out of the 3 I was using having coverage and the other two showing zero bars. But as i say 99% of the time my main sim with high speed unlimited data for £37 (about $50) a month worked everywhere fine so i wouldn't worry to much.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

David