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Unpopular view perhaps, but public WiFi seems obsolete except for where cell signal can’t reach. 5G is usually faster and somewhat more secure than connecting t
by dkasper 2y ago
Unpopular view perhaps, but public WiFi seems obsolete except for where cell signal can’t reach. 5G is usually faster and somewhat more secure than connecting to access points.
- fullspectrumdev 2y agoDepends where you are. In some European countries (Germany) mobile data is expensive. And mobile coverage even in cities can be kind of shit.
- chgs 2y agoCould you not simply get an eSIM from another country with better costs and use free roaming?
- looperhacks 2y agoLast time I looked into this, there were no (cheap) providers that allow you to permanently reside in another country
- ffsm8 2y agoDepends on the definition of cheap. I.e. firstly is available in most countries afaik, no matter where your residence is. https://www.firsty.app/ https://www.firsty.app/ It's not very cheap if you want to use it for months, but plenty of other options around too
- RandomThoughts3 2y agoFirstly is extremely expensive. To give you an idea, my 200Gb/month 5G uncapped speed plan costs me 14 euros a month here in France. Amusingly this plan includes 40Gb/month in Germany at no additional costs which is much cheaper than a German plan.
- eertami 2y agoThey will charge you for roaming if you're clearly abusing the system (ie, not living in the place you bought the SIM). How long that takes to happen depends on the individual provider - if they didn't then everyone would predictably just use cheaper eastern Europe SIMs.
- satyamkapoor 2y agoAgree but despite the roaming at times it can be way cheaper. For instance paying for BElgium operator (not necessarily the cheapest) you can buy an unlimited 5G (limited to 90G in BE without throttle) which in roaming is 31G costing 25 Eur. I’ve also seen some cheaper providers than this in DE but they limit 5G to 50mbps :(
- swiftcoder 2y agoI have some friends in Germany who have been using much cheaper Spanish pay-as-you-go SIMs for the last couple of years. Admittedly not as their daily drivers though - they use them intermittently for hotspots when they don't have access to decent wired/wifi
- CalRobert 2y agoEven free roaming has data caps IIRC
- fullspectrumdev 2y agoYep. I’ve gamed it a lot, but it’s a pain in the arse. You can do the trick of buying up a stack of prepaid SIM cards when travelling and using a cheap dongle, but it’s a lot of effort and eventually stops working - probably due to the IMEI being banned though I’ve not confirmed that. It’s less effort to just snag a new local SIM upon landing at most airports and using it as a hotspot. Or, you know. Rolling out WiFi as a public service. Which would be kinda cool.
- fullspectrumdev 2y agoMost have caps. My “solution” for a while was a stack of prepaid throwaway SIM cards with unlimited data from a nearby country and a cheap USB powered 4G hotspot in my bag powered by a power bank. They would last about a month.
- satyamkapoor 2y agoSome unfortunately only refer to DE. Every country adapted their data packages but in Germany, the prices are still vintage :/
- einarfd 2y agoJust had a look at Ubigi, which I used when on vacation in Japan, and they sell a data only recurring monthly Germany 20 GB data subscription for 19 USD. It's 8 USD more if you want all of Europe. So a bit more pricey. I haven't looked at other vendors, but I don't think there is anything special with my choice of data esim vendor, nor their prices. I haven't seen anything, on their pages, that indicates, that there are stay limits, and if there where, you would expect them to flag that? I wouldn't view these prices as expensive, and they seem not that far from what I pay I Norway. But what is cheap for some, is expensive for others, so what do I know? This also won't help with coverage, of course, and if you want a phone number, you would need an extra SIM for that.
- sunaookami 2y agoMobile data in e.g. Germany is much more expensive so free Wi-Fi is always better.
- jpalomaki 2y agoTechnically this is the case, but due to operator pricing wifi is is still good option. 5G comes with the roaming charges (not so much problem within EU, although there are data caps) and at least local operators here in Finland don't really have good 5G packages for people with multiple devices.
- looperhacks 2y agoSure, but neither my laptop nor my switch (the devices I'd reasonably use with Wi-Fi) support 5G or mobile internet at all
- ExoticPearTree 2y agoAll phones these days can act as a hotspot, so basically you always have a WiFi router with you all the time.
- moffkalast 2y agoData caps are still a thing for mobile data, coverage is often shit (as a result the speed is hit and miss), and basically only smartphones can use it so you have to faf around with making a hotspot. P2P stuff like webrtc is also blocked because we can't have nice things.
- cubesnooper 2y agoCell signal is terrible for privacy, uniquely identifying each individual’s location at all times. Though Wifi can also be tracked, it at least is possible to use anonymously with MAC randomization as is the default on many phones. (Leaving aside countries like Switzerland which outlaw wifi without mandatory registration.)