Don't rent from them, not 4G as they advertised, only work 4 days out of 7 days rental. Customer service is really bad too, went to the airport location to pick up, no record of my order, the girl put together one for me from a pile of customer drop off, only work that night. When I found out there is no signal the next day, the helpline takes forever to answer, told me they will send me a replacement 2 days later, then cancel it on the day of. The staff were very nice but the equipment is shit. read more

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We rented a pocket WiFi from TravelWiFi in Zurich Airport in April 2024. It didn't work even in the center of Zurich. we returned it after 2 days and asked for a refund. They gave us a partial refund and took it back after 3 week. It's a garbage compan. read more

I purchased a Europe sapphire 3 and a 40gb Europe data plan for a trip to Greece. The device powered on upon landing in Greece but we didn't get service. I spent the next 1.5 days emailing with customer service who kept telling me they were working on a fix. They finally admitted there was no fix and switched to saying they had a Europe wide network issue. They refunded my service plan but refuse to refund the device. They want me to take the device back to my home country and continue to troubleshoot. I explained that I purchased the device to use on Europe, and it doesn't work, and I can't understand why they would make me keep a device that doesn't work as promised. I would recommend avoiding this company read more

IT'S TRAVEL SEASON, BAYBEE! I've been using Travel WIFI for many of my recent trips last year. I honestly have never had a problem with this company as they are so responsive, wonderful customer service and the device is very reliable! Let me admit that using their device truly helps from getting billed a huge amount for roaming charges from a mobile carrier. I've used travel WIFI for over 3+ of my trips out of the country and the process to sign up has been very easy. I have used them to go to Mexico, Canada, Asia, Italy, and Trinidad. I usually go to their website here: https://travelwifi.com/ and enter the country that I will be visiting. I go for the basic purchase and three days before my trip, I receive a UPS package with my device. On top of that, I even get a free return package to send the device back. During my stay, I get continued emails checking in to see if I am enjoying the device and asking if I have a question. A few days before the device is supposed to be returned, I received an email informed me that I could keep the de4vice if I wanted to for a fee. Not really needed in my situation, but nice that they give this as an option. The prices are very reasonable and not too much. The device charges in about 2 hours and last on a good charge for over 10 hours. I also like that multiple devices can use the WIFI box simultaneously. I can agree with some of the Yelpers about the spotty service although the device says there is the internet, there were times where it wasn't working. But honestly, it was not the fault of the device so I can't blame it on the company. There are times where it will take long periods of time searching for a signal, maybe it was the location of the places that made it spotty. In all honesty, it's a WIFI box, don't have high expectations to get service 100% of the time. If you lower your standards, I promise you won't be disappointed. I will continue to use this company to order a WIFI box when I am going to visit any country. **Make sure they give you the new devices; the old devices don't work and the chargers don't work for the device. ** read more

Gave TEP another chance for a trip to Asia. I used it in several countries: Phillipines, Thailand, Macau, China. Overall, it worked well. The experience was much better than my prior rental. The device was quite responsive. I think that last time I just got unlucky with a defective device. It was fairly easy to use, and the battery life was great. As per my prior review, I'd recommend bringing a battery back too. Service was good for the most part. I only got the 3G service, so sometimes pictures were slow. And for some reason the pictures did not send/ receive via Imessage, but I was able to transmit pictures through Whatsapp, etc. The main reason I prefer to rent a pocket wifi like this rather than a SIM card is that I can hook up multiple devices. In particular, I can hook up my laptop, just in case I need to work, which is quite critical. Tip: pay a bit extra for the 4G read more

I rented the Sapphire Travel Wifi for my recent trip to London and Paris. Upon arriving, it worked for maybe 2 hours, then stopped working. I figured maybe the battery was dead, so I charged it for a few hours, but it didn't work. I spoke to their customer service, who said I should charge it overnight. I left it charged overnight, but it still didn't work. Unfortunately they had no other solutions for me and that it might be the device itself. For the rest of my trip, I had to pay my cell phone service a daily charge to use roaming, which was very expensive. Travelwifi asked me to ship it back and they'll refund me once they receive it. I returned their device over a month ago, and I still have not received my refund even after multiple attempts to contact them. DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THIS FRAUDULENT COMPANY! read more

This device is great for the right type of traveler. Only you would know your own data needs and travel itinerary so make sure you do as much research about the device and the coverage before purchasing or renting. We tested the Teppy while in Florence, Italy and were impressed the most by the device's portability, it's ease of use, and by the download and upload speeds when in a optimal coverage zone. In the most optimal conditions (outside and in an urban city), we were able to see 31 mbps down and 18 mbps!!! Comparatively, our Airbnb's internet was 5 mbps down and .05 mbps up (and the apartment also a glitchy connection that kicked us off every now and then). It should also be noted then that being inside a building with thick stone walls can also affect coverage. We tested our Teppy inside our Airbnb on the second level of a stone building and the speed was significantly slower than putting the device outside on the window ledge or again, using it outside in a clear area of the city. For a pair of digital nomads like us who sometimes need to upload images and work with larger files of content, it is possible to hit the throttle limit. This is mentioned on the fine print of the purchase page: "If you have the 4G upgrade, you get 1GB of high-speed data per day. After you've used 1GB, your connection speed gets slowed to 256kbs until the end of the day. If you do not have the 4G upgrade, you get 500MB of high-speed data per day. After you've used 500MB, your connection speed gets slowed to 256kbs until the end of the day." This is a great device for those that need peace of mind that they can get connected to the internet while traveling. It's ideal for urban and semi-rural areas around the world without the hassle of dealing with roaming charges, SIM cards, or expensive international data service plans for phones. Once you own the device, you can pay only as needed and that's really important for the type of budget minded travel we do. You can find our complete review for digital nomads here: https://wp.me/p60COm-5kr read more

Travelwifi - The items that come with Teppy - a case, instructions, the device itself, a travel adapter for outlets, and a mini USB cord for charging. - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

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This was my literal lifesaver in traveling across Europe, I don't know what I would've done without it. I heard about it through a friend and thought might as well give it a try, because even though Sprint provides a free international plan - I still had trouble getting signal at home sometimes, so I didn't know how it would be abroad. I'm so thankful I did because there's no way I would've been able to navigate myself through new cities and communicate with other people through the translate app without it. I was even able to let my friends that I was traveling with link on to it, as well. I used the TEP device while traveling through Copenhagen, all over Italy coast to coast, Prague, Budapest, and Switzerland without any problems. My traveling experience really wouldn't have been the same with all the convenience, money, and time this gave me. I was able to make the best use of mapping myself, figuring out the best transportation, and keeping in contact with my family and friends, in order to have the best trip possible. This is probably one of the best electronic devices I own and I'll definitely keep using it in the future and recommend it to anyone who loves to travel. read more

Travelwifi - In Positano along the Amalfi Coast in Italy - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

TEP wireless is the #1 most important tech accessory I travel with. Having reliable portable wifi makes my travel experience smoother and safer because I'm always connected. I recently tried their new 4G model in Taiwan and the coverage was amazing. I could FaceTime friends at home with zero lag or glitchy video. I could watch YouTube videos in HD with no buffer delay. It was often better than the hotel wifi! I was really pleased with the reception and connection speed as it's much faster than their basic model I tried earlier this year. The only places I got spotty coverage were in train tunnels in the countryside which didn't get any cell signal overall, so not the fault of the device. If you're looking for a mifi for your next trip, TEP is an amazing option. Just be sure to carry your charging cable and wall plug or external battery pack to keep your device powered all day long, especially if you're a social media junkie like me. read more

Travelwifi - Super fast 4G in Taipei - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

If you want your trip RUINED, then use TravelWifi. I purchased their wifi device and paid an overnight shipping fee, one whole week before my departure date. And? I still have not received anything one day before my flight!! I had to call them twice, and emailed them twice to follow up. Their response is very frustrating -- "we will let our logistics team know" "we need the tracking # to update to know when it is delivered" "we are monitoring it" -- all sounds like promises but with no actions! If you don't want to be stressed out, don't take the risk and don't go with them! read more

I used Tep Wireless for the first time in the Philippines. I rented a 4G Teppy which was delivered to Canada prior to the trip. My Teppy is the long slim one without a screen. It's been a good travel companion in Manila. It takes a few minutes to acquire signal/data once you turn it on. Speed is quite good for the most part especially when on the car. This has helped me catch up a lot on work while on the crazy Philippine traffic and also allowed me to use Waze for navigating. I've had connectivity issues, for sure, but I'm not sure if it's due to Tep Wireless or the Data Network Operator: - Signal is spotty at times. Sometimes, even when I'm on the same spot, the signal drops. - There are weird cases where the signal strength shows full bars, but there's no Internet. On my cellphone or laptop, it would show as "Connected, No Internet". I love how one device will work on multiple destinations as I will be using the same device for my trips to Japan, India and Singapore as well. read more

Better than nothing, but just barely. If this were my first wifi rental, it would be my last. Have had successful experience with two other companies previously, so I have a benchmark. Used this in urban areas in Spain and Portugal; I'm a low end user - no streaming, big downloads, etc., but the bandwidth was atrocious. Battery life was poor also. Instead of a long essay, that gives the overview. I won't be using TEP again. read more

I never leave reviews... 0 stars. I am stressed to near the point of tears by this company using me. I purchased a $99 monthly subscription with a device to help me have internet connectivity in a place with an unreliable and frequently dropping wifi connection. I received the device after two days of shipping issues. I got the device up and running only to find that I am in the exact same situation. I was misguided by advertisement claims to think that I could use this device to connect primarily to internet providers and bypass the local wifi networks which are shoddy. Unfortunately this is not possible as the device just automatically connects to the same shoddy wifi networks and there is no way to change that. I was 100% led to believe this product is something different than it actually is. That being said, they claim their pillar of business is to ensure that things are "fair" in their package inserts and websites. I messaged an agent explaining my problem and how this product is not what I thought it was due to the lack of functionality. I need stable network connection provided by the internet networks in the area, not yet another device to lose signal every other minute when the wifi goes down. This is all only hours after receiving the device, and it has only been used for less than 5 minutes (enough to turn it on and figure out it's not doing what I needed it to.) Not only did the employee tell me that they can't tell me whether or not I will get a refund for the $99 I paid until I go out of my way and shell out even MORE money to return the product on my own time and dollar (still to not even know if I will get a refund or not), but she also says they will charge me an additional $129 for cancelling a plan I NEVER USED. She refused to give me the contact information for anyone else in the company or appropriate departments I can reach out to for help when I requested this multiple times. I feel completely violated as a consumer. My experience with this company is that they are dishonest, unhelpful, and exploitative of the very people who wanted to give them their money and business. Anyone familiar with consumer rights?? I feel used by a company doing shady business. I read good things about their customer service and their own claims to "fairness", but I have never been taken advantage of so badly from a company. read more

Terrible, falsely advertise product! They lie and say you will get unlimited data BUT IT'S NOT TRUE!! THERE'S A 500MB CAP PER DAY!! RENTERS BEWARE!! Wish I had read the reviews of Tep before travelling to Germany! (http://www.notquitemainstream.com/tech/2013/01/10/an-awful-experience-tep-wireless and http://www.engadget.com/products/tep-wireless/pocket/wifi/). We paid for unlimited data on our pocket wifi which was $6 extra per day, on top of of the $7 charge daily. We didn't want to take any chances since we wanted to use it all day long. Our transaction via email went smoothly, the charge was over $100 for 6 day rental ($30 for shipping is such a RIP OFF too). Half way on our trip, we get an email that we've exceeded our usage amount!! But wait, I thought we paid for unlimited data?!? WTF? That's not fair, that's not what was agreed or paid upon. So we sort of ignore it and go about using our pocket wifi. This morning we get an email that we have exceeded our usage (over 500MB/day) and they are cutting off our data!! And if we wanted to continue using our pocket wifi, we had to shell out MORE money!!! What a SCAM!!! These people are crooks, advertising unlimited data with cheap rates just to trick you to paying more and cutting you off completely!! LIARS!!! AVOID!! FROM TEP WIRELESS: We've received an alert from our Internet Service Provider (ISP - the people who connect your pocket wifi to the internet), telling us to disable your internet connection. This alert was triggered because your internet usage has been extremely high; since your rental started you've used around 616MB per day. You've been given a buffer of 500MB, and once you use that, the ISP will cut off your data connection. Kind Regards, Katie Tep Support --------------------------------------------- UK: +44 20 3318 2523 US: +1 877 888 3741 www.tepwireless.com read more

Travelwifi - Email from Tep Wireless - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

Unreliable. I picked this up for my three week vacation in London. From day one I had issues with the tep WiFi. I tried everything they suggested and still couldn't get reliable service. I even got the extra mobile hotspot... was even a worse product then the unreliable WiFi. Day one I contacted them to ask how to download the mobile hotspot (this sets up how every conversation was with Tep Wireless went) I had the code but I never got the instructions on how to download the app. So basically no app name or link. It took two and a half days for them to email me a link. They said they needed a manger to sign off on them giving me a link to download their app.... seriously... a manger needs to approve sending a link that I already should of had. That was basically every day of speaking with them. Also I only got the mobile app to work a few times mostly it would say unable to join. The spots that did work my girlfriend logged into with out the app as they were free museum/cafe WiFi spots. The WiFi hub.... OMG the WiFi hub I got every excuse you can imagine and some make the company sound bad. I am in London and was told I needed to be somewhere with less buildings... are you kidding me... I was floored. I told them I would try in the park and it still had issues. Other part was it would work on the 3G but then would randomly shift to H and H+ and I wouldn't get any service. They said I should be happy H and H+ are faster then 3G (note to Tep, it isn't faster if the customer can't use it) eventually I got frustrated and asked if there was anywhere I could replace the hub as it doesn't work (oh also it wouldn't charge with the adapter they sent) they said I could go to Heathrow (hours away) or Paddington 40-50 minuets away. I chose Paddington and we scheduled for me to replace it in the morning. I went and surprise no one knew I was coming and... wait for it... needs a verbal confirmation from a Tep Wireless manager. The store couldn't get one to answer the phone and I emailed them as well 30 minutes later I was giving the hub back with I'm sorry we can't exchange it without a verbal confirmation.... Tep response to my email was to blame the store. Saying the phone rang once and hung up so that was why they didn't answer and they never needed to give verbal confirmation before so they didn't know why the store needed it. Like I said at the start this is how everything conversations with Tep Wireless went. Do not buy this it was a headache the whole trip. I could go on... read more

Travelwifi - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

We rented the Tep 3G for our 2 week trip to London, Paris, and Amsterdam and it worked perfectly. I was a little unsure if we needed to upgrade to the 4G, but the 3G worked perfectly for us- 2 devices using mostly Google Maps (pretty constant), Pokemon Go (pretty constant), and some misc other online games. We didn't do any streaming of music or videos, but Pokemon Go can eat up data and we had no issues. The only time the coverage was really spotty was when we were on the trains between cities so that isn't really surprising. No issues in the cities themselves, never hit any data caps, the only 'problem' we would ever have was draining the battery, but I had my own power bank so that wasn't actually an issue, just be aware if you are using it constantly on a long day out you will need to bring a power source or stop to charge it periodically. read more

I have been using my Teppy on every trip for the past six months and it has never failed me. I absolutely love the shape (fits in your coat pocket), value for the money, and ease of access- everywhere we have been it has worked flawlessly. Their customer service is on point and they're active on Instagram which is always helpful. I can't say enough great things about the brand. So many times I find myself stranded in an airport, no longer does the two hours of free WiFi apply to me, I get as many as I want! Same thing applies for the airports where there is no WiFi (or working WiFi), and believe it or not, they do exist! I love the feeling of always being connected when I'm far from home. I was a late comer to the world of pocket WiFi, but I'm definitely a Tep fan for the long haul! read more

Travelwifi - Teppy at the carnival :) - Internet Service Providers Near Me - London, XGL

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I would not recommend Tep Wireless. I have used different companies for their portable WiFi with no problem what so ever, but thought I would experiment with this company since the reviews looked promising. Boy was I wrong to not go with a company I was used to using. Our WiFi was always searching for service even though we were in a well populated area where we should have had no problem. I tried chatting with them every day (thankfully using our working airbnb WiFi) and they said we would be getting our money back because they were very sorry. So from our 10 day trip we maybe got 3 days of spotty working WiFi, which is totally unacceptable while in a different country with no phone service. When I got back they tried telling me that we had good usage for 8 days and would only get two days worth of money back. I chatted/fought with them almost everyday to try to get the remaining days of no use back. They finally gave a partial refund (not what we agreed on) and I am too frustrated with them to even try for the rest. There are plenty of other portable WiFi companies out there with much better service that I will be using and I would urge others to do the same and not use this company. EDIT: I reviewed them on their own website and they deleted my bad review. So their website is only showing positive (and false in my option) reviews. That is horrible business practice and everyone should be aware of their behavior and bad service. read more

I have used the Tep wireless device now in 3 different countries and have had fabulous experience! First I used in Albania where no other European SIM cards (tried 3 different cellular data) was working for me even on roaming. Teppy was my savior as I was traveling for the first time in that country. The connectivity was amazing and speed was super fast. Later I have used Teppy in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur and both times the service was amazing. Each time I have used it, only 2 devices were used at maximum and browsing was great! We even used to stream Spotify on our roadtrip! Overall, a great experience and looking forward to use it during my future travels. read more

Seriously excellent wifi while on travel September 2017 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil for 9 days. I was doing a search for portable hot-spots for my next vacation to Brazil, and stumbled upon a few yelp reviews for Tep Wireless. I totally trusted the reviews, noticed they had a discount for yelpers, SCORE! I called them directly, asked a few basic questions. They were polite, patient, and answered my questions and concerns efficiently. When it was time for me to order it, that process was easy. I was nervous watching the prices add up, but I was happy to use the yelp discount. The package arrived on time as planned. I read the instructions and I tested everything, all parts were fully charged and ready to go. Once I was at the airport US side, I wanted to give it a try. However, if I turned it on, it would have started the 24 hour countdown for 1 day's use. So, I decided to wait until I actually arrived in Brazil for a plane transfer to begin 1 days' 24 hour countdown. I turned everything on and waited. For some reason, the connection was not picking up. I remember reading the instructions and it said give it a turn off and back on again. That did the trick. It was on, working, AND I HAD WIFI!!!! I was so happy. I was able to call my mom on google talk, and instant message a few people on facebook and whatsapp. I was in Brazil for about 9 days and my portable Tep wireless hot-spot worked perfectly fine. It was so cool to be able to YELP, check into places and post photos and share on instagram. But I could text and chat on whatsapp and that was super convenient. When I totally did not need wifi, I would turn the device off so I wouldn't run the power out. I used the portable re-charger once. My only feedback, I found it difficult to re-charge the back-up battery. The usp connection was loose. Luckily, I had my own back up batteries, which I never needed to use. Once I returned, I put the Tep package in the addressed, pre-pain envelope and mailed it back to the UK. I personally went to the post office to drop it off and got a receipt. I hope they received it by now! I will use Tep Wireless again on my next international travel, hands down, without a doubt. It was so easy. read more

Rented Teppy to use in Louisiana in the US and highly regret it. The pros: The online chat people on the website are really nice. Setup is easy and quick. **Edited to add: Bumped up my rating to two stars as Tep Wireless was kind enough to refund most of my payment based on my request since I basically wasn't able to use data at all...however, still expensive considering all I was able to do was receive a few emails on a couple days** The cons: Everything else. Connection was spotty, at best - which meant being unable to use Googlemaps as I had planned. On the rare occasion that I was actually able to connect, it was so slow that it literally couldn't even load a blank Google homepage. You get 4G/500MB of high-speed data per day (depending on whether you upgrade to the 4G package), after which it gets throttled down to 256kb. Not. Even. Google. Homepage. Just sayin'. Had to connect to a local Starbucks, going through multiple online chat people on their site to try and troubleshoot through the connection issues. None of them worked, and although I replied to daily follow-up emails of "How is the Teppy, is it working for you now?" letting them know that it still wasn't connecting, there was no real additional help beyond "Sorry to hear that, can you provide us more information?" starting the endless loop of telling them the issues, having them say sorry, getting an email asking if it's working now, telling them it's not working, then having them say sorry, getting an email asking if it's working now... Teppy was completely useless for me in the US. Buying a brick, shoving it in your purse, and trying to get data out of it would be more fruitful than trying to use a Teppy. At least the brick can serve as a balloon weight or something... read more

I used Tep for the first time in Guatemala. I'm a travel writer / digital nomad so unlike my fellow travel buddies, I needed to have a strong wifi connection to hop on calls with clients. I had a slight hitch with the battery on my first go but then I emailed their Customer Service team and they literally replied within 5 minutes. I had to ask them a couple more questions over the past few months, as I continue using Tep and they are so speedy and helpful. I'm now in Costa Rica and will be using Tep throughout the month, especially on days where I need a strong connection to wifi for calls and to complete assignments. The price is super reasonable too - $8 a day for continued use. In New York, that's like half the price of a salad (crazy, I know). There is a limit to the daily data but I've personally never run out, and I've had two devices connected and my friends have joined in on the wifi too (it can accommodate up to 5 devices). Overall, this is a lifesaver for travelers + digital nomads! read more

First day in Amsterdam, no signal. I have to contact the help desk via texting messages back and forth. Instead of saving money I still have to use my US carrier to do all this. The whole day it didn't work for me. The next day in the afternoon had signal but when we moved to Belgium and Luxembourg, I have to contact them again. Germany was fine. So I made a review on their website exactly like this and they did not publish it. read more

Just returned from a 17 day trip to Asia (3 different countries). Unfortunately we were very disappointed in the service. Simply put, it's not reliable. Often the device simply didn't connect, and when it did it was incredibly slow. We tried to work with customer service (who was responsive) but no solutions helped -- and we tried them all. There was only one or two devices connected, and we were in big cities (Bangkok and Shanghai for example). The packaging is nice...and the directions are fairly simple, so no complaints there. Sadly...the device just didn't work reliably and as such we had to find other internet solutions. Did it ruin our vacation? No. But, when I expect to have reliable internet service it's very challenging when it doesn't work. I simply cannot recommend TEP. read more

On the glowing reviews I read, I rented this portable wifi but it was spotty in London AT BEST and DID NOT WORK AT ALL in Nice, France. They also sent me a backup battery charger that DID NOT CHARGE. The battery lasts 3-5 hours and drains quickly. Will try another company in Europe next time. read more

I must admit, I wasn't very impressed after my first hands-on experience with the Teppy! After I charged the batteries I took it out with me on a walk, close to where I live and while I could easily connect to the mobile hotspot, the connection I got was really awful! After that bad first impression, however, I rebooted the device and after doing that everything went way smoother! I actually got a better data connection (12 Mbps) than via my 4G-connection on my iPhone! However it still is "only" 4G, so don't expect broadband connection speeds! The BIG advantage of using a device like the Teppy is no more hassle of trying to find a local store that sells SIM cards! You just turn on the device ... Et voila! You're connected! So while I'll still be using regular WIFI connections whenever possible ... with the Teppy by my side as a backup, I'm sure that I'll have an internet connection! read more

The connection was spotty during my trip to Europe. The customer service was no help. It used to be a great device but guess not anymore. Goodbye Tep Wireless, you just lost one of your loyal customers. read more

Used this device in London and Paris. I was lucky to ever reach 2Mbs. On average, my speed was usually around 0.5Mbps, which is what you're supposed to get when they throttle you, not when you're well below their threshold. You might try asking their customer support on how you can increase your speed, like I did. This process is largely them asking you to reset your device in a multitude of ways, all of which were predictably ineffectual. I also had the peculiar problem of the wifi not working on a train, which according to their customer service is expected behavior but feels quite outdated in this day and age. Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on what city you're in, with respect to speed. However, to have such poor performance in two major cities is quite disheartening and doesn't inspire much confidence. Let's be clear, if all you're looking for is something that you can use Google Maps with, then this will be sufficient and the device is, if nothing else, reliable. However, if you're like me and you like to Yelp various locations, look things up and load articles on Google, play mobile games, or any other basic internet services you expect to have on your phone in the modern era, you will be greatly disappointed by the slow speeds. And in case you're wondering, no this device does not work quickly enough to handle Pokemon Go (seeing as Yelp now has Pokemon Go as a setting, this seems appropriate given the audience). I will say, Tep Wireless has a fantastic customer support system and it's not their fault that the product their company is peddling is rather mediocre technology which delivered the worst portable wifi experience I've thus had (I've used several companies in Japan as well as Hip Pocket wifi throughout Europe). They were incredibly responsive and courteous. In the end, after 3 days with the product, I was fed up and decided to switch to another company. I went with Hip Pocket, which went for the same price and was incredibly pleased with my performance; I would highly recommend you consider Hip Pocket wireless if you're in the market for renting a portable wifi. That being said, Tep Wireless treated me fairly and refunded me for all my unused days and the return process went smoothly. On some level, you could view Tep Wireless as a way of purposefully limiting your wifi and allowing you the bare necessity (ie Google Maps) for traveling. If being disconnected is your goal (and you have decent wifi in your housing accommodations for nighttime browsing), this product actually might be for you. I mean this to be read without any sarcasm; I know several people who enjoyed being disconnected. However, for the average user, I suspect you'll be as sorely disappointed as I was. read more

Absolutely abysmal in Italy & France. Device turns itself off frequently. After you reach a daily cap of 1 GB (for a family of 4, this is nothing), they throttle the service to 256 KBPS, which results in barely a 10 KBPS download rate on phones, with no internet on both Mac and Windows laptops. Worse yet, they don't tell you about the cap before you buy it. So the "unlimited data" is effectively a paltry 1 GB/day, if you're lucky enough to stay connected for more than 15 minutes. The customer service rep, although reachable 24/7, kept blaming our laptops for the issue, as if there's a logical reason 3 laptops would simultaneously stop working with the service. Clearly, these guys need to work on their marketing (by being honest about limitations) and customer service (by sharing the limitations with their reps) to streamline workflows and prevent customer disappointment. If they'd just been honest/open about the limitations before renting the device to me, I wouldn't be writing a 1 star review. Instead, they chose to be misleading, and provide a product that only works under limited circumstances. Lastly, they provide no method to bypass 1 GB cap and throttling. We offered to pay more for better service, and they provide no option to do so. I would not recommend this company's product to anyone. read more

I could give no star if I would! They waited until the last day to ship out my order by UPS day air, and it's after I called their customer service! My flight leaves on Sunday, and UPS dropped my package on Friday to an access point which only opens MON-FRI!!! There is no way I can get my device for my trip, it's totally ruined. It's not UPS's fault, it's just a very terrible company and bad service. Why wait till the very last second to ship out an order while I placed that order WAYYYYY in advance!!!! I ordered that more than a month ago! Not everyone will be waiting at home for your package the day before they travel!!!!! And the way they organize service won't give you any flexibilities such as to pick up your package at an access point! It's just terrible terrible and terrible. I never write negative reviews for anything! This is my very first one, TEP WIRELESS SUCKS! It doesn't matter if I can get my money back which I really hope they will! Because I never received the service. But more importantly just MY WHOLE TRIP WAS RUINED! read more

Signing up for Tep Wireless for our 2 week European trek was the best decision we could have made. The further away that I am from home the more important internet access is. Verizon knows this and charges usurious rates for European roaming. We were left with choosing between being exploited by Verizon or doing without internet on the go. I've tried both approaches before and Internet on the go is vital. Travel on public transport or on foot is so easy with Google Maps that forking out to Verizon even crossed my mind but is unnecessary with Tep wireless. It's terrific. Then there's the "near me now" feature from Trip Advisor. Turn it on and find great restaurants when hunger strikes or find things to do in close proximity. Anyway Tep is $7 per day for 150 MB per day. It's a great deal and so easy to use. Just turn it on and connect to its secure wifi network. Worked like a charm. Every once in a while it was difficult to connect to the cellular network, just like a phone does at times. No only do I have no complaints, but I plan on using this service every time I travel. And when we got home I put it in the prepaid envelope and put in my mailbox. So easy and so affordable. Priceless and highly recommended. read more

Horrible service. I ended up having to spend a couple of hundred dollars extra buying data from my phone's international service to compensate for this device. I've used it in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany and the results have been the same in each country. The device barely works and where on my phone it says I have full strength LTE service, the TEP device says it has 2G. Just pathetic. Something is completely off on how they count data also. For example, I did a test one day on my phone versus the device. My phone said I had used 75mb of wifi data, the device said I used 155mb! I ran a couple of other similar tests and in all cases the device seemed to grossly incorrectly count the data being used. After you use 350mb the device throttles your usage. I would hit that limit very quickly every day doing almost nothing on my phone. Their support was not very helpful. "Take the battery out and put it back in if you're getting slow service." Wow, gee, that was SUPER helpful! Overall, I would stay very far away from this company. I have used Xcom Global many times in the past with no issue. I went with this company because it was a better price, but I guess you get what you pay for, don't you? Lesson learned. EDIT: Based on the response below from the company - Their response is a perfect example of how their customer service has been. Instead of being actually "helpful" they seem to be more focused on giving excuses or to prove the device is working fine, which it is not at all. Their comments such as "Through yesterday, you've been using our service continuously for a total of 18 days, and in that time you've used on average 555MB per day" are completely erroneous. The service has been on, yes, and I have been trying to get SOME use out of it, but most of the time end up having to turn off the WiFi service on my iPhone and use the local LTE. So the idea that I've used 555mb per day on average is not only false but completely laughable. I would *LOVE* for them to show me where I have used that data! This is the one that really make me chuckle: "You've had about 40 interactions with our customer support team, who have done absolutely everything that they can do to troubleshoot your device remotely. They've been responsive, cordial and explanatory every step of the way. We've tried to ask for your exact location to check coverage, to no avail." First of all, the "interactions" were just like their response below. Not helpful. Not doing anything to fix the situation, only trying to prove that their product is not at fault here. That doesn't do the end user any good. As far as not being able to tell you my exact location, would you like me to screen shot the emails where I told you things like "We are currently at the Disneyland Paris area..." or did you just choose to ignore those because it fit your story better? BTW, we also have one other person who is on this tour with us that has your service and is also experiencing the same frustrating issues. I will be encouraging him to post a review as well now that I see how you handle such feedback. (read: not well) While I appreciate the refund, I do not appreciate the implications you make saying the information I posted in this review was false. That is not a good way to conduct customer service. I also never asked for a refund and in no way was I wanting anything for "free." Instead I would have just preferred exceptional service from your company and the device, which is not something I received. It annoys me when companies can use "full refunds" as a crutch for poor service. That's not how things are supposed to work. read more

I originally posted my review on Tep's website because they asked me to write a review. However, it seems that they only keep the good ones. My original review was also one star. I'm giving only one star because I paid for the faster 4G service but the pocket WiFi was almost useless on my trip to Vancouver, Canada. Texting was hit or miss, and I couldn't use the WiFi for google maps or the internet, which was the main reason I rented the pocket WiFi. I wanted to be able to use google maps to get around and to look up places on Yelp. I couldn't do either of those things because if I clicked on my google maps or Yelp apps, it would just be constantly loading the site. If it ever did stop loading, it would say that my phone could not connect to service. The device just drained my phone battery. The battery of the pocket WiFi also died around mid afternoon on my first day even though it had a full charge. It was such a frustrating experience on the first day that I barely bothered with it on the second day. Luckily, I only needed it for 2 days and my travel companions had access to WiFi. I did troubleshoot and made sure my phone settings were correct, that I had the correct WiFi name and password, but the problem wasn't on my end. Very bad experience and will not be using this company again. read more

DO NOT under any circumstances use Tep wireless. To start they provided a faulty device that would not work unless we worked with technical support for 30-45 each day we wanted to use it. In addition to providing a device that DOES NOT WORK, they also fraudulently charged me for purchase of this device (that does not work) as well as a monthly subscription. Why would I purchase a device that does not work? Their help team contradicts themselves and you give a different answer each time you contact them. They will also conveniently quote their contract when it when it works in their favor. I highly recommend using another service for WIFI while abroad. read more

Poor logistics -- Poor service We had a horrible experience with Tep, both in terms of Tep's ability to mail us a device, and in terms of that device's internet functionality. We placed our order 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 5th and received a confirmation email from Tep with a tracking number. The tracking number said we would get the device by Monday, October 9th. We didn't actually receive the device until the 10th, and at this point we were at a new hotel. Tep sent a second device to our new hotel, but didn't coordinate the shipment with their network team. The result was that we had to spent 30 minutes talking with their support staff over the phone just to get our device working. Once the device was working, it's service was unreliable and slow. Our overall Tep experience was horrible and added an unnecessary level of stress to our trip. We'll never be using Tep again. Order number: 550302. read more

Took a trip to Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy) and I had high hopes for this service after reading lots of glowing reviews (and even a few bad reviews, but since they were not the norm I figured it must be good for most people). It started out fine - turn the device on, wait for it to find service, then connect my phone. I quickly realized that the service was spotty and unreliable. Sometimes it was fast and quick but other times I was sitting and staring a spinning circle in Google Maps trying to connect. After contacting Support because I was tired of not getting any speed when I really needed it, they said I had exceeded my data allotment of 1GB per day and had to wait until the next day for the allotment to reset. Seriously?!!? All I had been doing was texting with other members of my group and looking up places on Google Maps. I was not streaming video or even music. Support sent me charts of the days I had been connected showing over 1GB of usage per day and I was floored. I was even on the hotel WiFi much of the time rather than the device. My data plan here in the US is only 12 GB per month so I don't use anywhere NEAR 1GB per day of data. I decided to run a test where I left the device on but I turned off the WiFi on my phone. I left it alone for a few hours and then reconnected my phone and checked the data usage (via a link provided to me by support). Low and behold, 100MB of data had been used even when no devices were connected! This thing uses data even when you aren't using it all! Fast forward to Italy - I was constantly unable to connect to anything and the device was just blinking over and over meaning it couldn't find a network to connect to. Other people in my group where using their cell phones with the local networks (and paying for the privilege) so I don't know why this device couldn't find any service. I have multiple messages back and forth with Support with them basically saying I use too much data but I don't know how I could have used any less since I started turning off the device every time I wasn't actively using it. Then when I needed to use it, I would have to turn it back on and wait for it to find a signal (which can take 5 minutes or more) and then start using it. The whole process was very inconvenient and unreliable. When I returned from my trip, I was contacted by Support and they offered me a refund of half of the price for their Satisfaction Guarantee. I have to say I'm definitely not satisfied since I the whole point was to be able to stay in contact with the world and not have to pay through the nose to my wireless provider but I ended up being disconnected throughout most of the trip until I could get back to the hotel and connect to their WiFi. I definitely will not be using a mobile hot spot service ever again unless they can come up with a device that doesn't churn away and use data even when nothing is connected to it, and then have the gall to come back to me and say that I was using all of this data. read more

Update to my bad review on May 2015 rental. TEP agreed to refund the "unlimited" portion of the rental which seemed fair considering that I had one good day and a couple of instances of getting email. read more

An advise from an owner of a Tep device: do NOT use their service. All I've been hearing from them during the past 4 days are "We are sorry" and "Our network team is working on this issue and update you ASAP." You know what, they have been radio silent. The wifi device malfunctions very frequently (close to once per day), and I need to rely heavily on their customer service team to stay connected. Imagine you are travelling with your family and are forced to spend 30+ minutes per day speaking to their support team just to get connected to internet. If this is the kind of experience you hate, then don't use Tep Wireless. read more

Do not rent from tep wireless, their data cap is unattainable with modern sites and apps. I have a family of 4 sharing the hotspot without doing any heavy usage other than checking maps, replying text. We are over the data cap in half a day. There is no option to upgrade or adjust data cap. There are better options out there in this day and age with basically all major carrier offering truely unlimited data. Also they are very sneaky about this policy, you really have to dig through their site to find the disclaimer , though they are supposedly selling you a unlimited data plan! read more

In the Caribbean it worked maybe 10% of the time. Was disappointing and frustrating considering I'm a solo traveler who depends on wifi for google maps. The device it self worked fine but it was constantly blinking- indicating it was searching for signal, but could hardly ever find it. No issues with the company, just didn't get service in the caribbean. Buy something else. read more