My Abroadband SIM is rocking

By on March 16, 2011 in News
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I activated my Abroadband SIM yesterday. It was very simple indeed. I placed the SIM in my MiFi unit, switched it on, configured the APN details and connected on my laptop.

I was immediately redirected to abroadband.com and asked to activate my SIM. I did that, confirmed my account details (remembered from when I placed my order online) and added in my PayPal details. And that was me. Done!

Now I have roaming mobile data anywhere in the 50+ supported countries for just €0.59 per meg. Absolutely ideal when you just want to check email or look something up without paying through the nose. Since I’m using the MiFi, my laptop, iPhone and other devices automatically use it. Very simple indeed.

The Abroadband rate is half the price of the standard Vodafone roaming cost — and paying by PayPal (or credit card if you prefer) seems… Cheaper. I think because it’s not on the same bill, it *feels* cheaper. I reckon it will feel cheaper next month too. I like the fact this will work in the States too.

Posted via email from MIR Live

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VT7EB2J3JHJXPBEBLXM66LUZXQ James

    I looked into this, but at 59c a MB it’s still very expensive! Vodafone’s europe rate is much cheaper now (opt in and get 25MB for £2 a day). Truphone are under half the price in the US as well.

  • Linda

    I bought my Abroadband thinking I would get a better deal using this method rather than paying hotel WiFi prices. I was very wrong…. I used it 4 times while in Switzerland just to check my e.mails. I didn’t send any e.mails or open any attachments. I couldn’t beleive my eyes when I got the bill. I had been on the internet for a total of 20 mins and my bill was 41.23 Euro. It would have been much cheaper to have gone through the hotel. Needless to say I will not be using it until the the price goes from 59cents to around 20cents per MG.So those of you out there surfing right now BEWARE!!!!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Hi Linda, you make a very good point — I use Abroadband for quick stints of
    connectivity. It seems like you downloaded at least 70mb in that 20 minutes
    and … yeah, it’s 59c a meg, so no wonder it became quite expensive. :|

  • Moto

    can someone give me the APN settings….. they are gone since the update… thanks

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    They’re on the sim documentation!

  • http://seviourbooks.com RobertSeviour

    I bought one, but I can’t use it because the registration process fails to complete. I emailed abroadband.com about this and have not had a reply in over a week. I phoned them in Austria 3 days ago, spoke to a pleasant help line man who told me to clear my internet cache. I did this but it didn’t fix the problem. He said he had no further suggestions and would pass my problem on to someone else. That was 3 days ago and I have heard nothing more from them since. Disappointing to say the least.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SRL6AD76ZZFPJF3M6X6IORQQSQ Bernd Sonneck

    like other speaker said the registration is not very good an the data price of 59 Cent per MB is too expansive.

    I prefer an isolated application for spain or italy. Prepaid-Global (http://www.prepaid-global.de/) offers data sims with rate from 3 cent per mb in italy (Italy Prepaid Data SIM) – the specialist for mobile internet in europe

    no one is cheaper than they are…

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Did you do the registration via their connection?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I need the utility of being able to roam across multiple countries myself

  • http://seviourbooks.com RobertSeviour

    Ewan, perhaps you can give me an idea of what I could expect to pay for just looking at my gmail account say 3 times a day and only reading probably no more than 2 or 3 important emails. I haven’t used a device like this before and have been surprised by the high costs figuring in the messages here.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    For *just* that purpose, I reckon you’d use about a megabyte per day. Provided you didn’t allow your phone to do anything else. So that’d be roughly 59 euro cents a day.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Did you buy the sim online? During registration it remembered my details from when I purchased it.

  • http://benjam.in Ben Smith

    Just ordered one for that reason too. Cheaper options available, but this is the cheapest I know of that gives me something reasonably affordable (well better than my home operator) for short-notice trips.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I hope you find it as useful as I have, Frank!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m sure there is an explanation!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Yes Joe, it still works perfectly fine on 3. I had to add a separate
    ‘network profile’ through the control panel for Abroadband. That was very
    easy — all the APN settings are sent with the sim.

    The only thing I need to do is activate the Abroadband profile on the MiFi
    unit when I want to use the Abroadband sim. When I put the 3 sim back in, I
    then swap the profile to the 3 one.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I forgot to say — it’s not quite PAYG — instead you give them your payment
    details (in my case, PayPal) and then they bill you based on usage across
    the month.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    That’s not good however I think one of the big issues with Abroadband is that customers aren’t necessarily evaluating the product in the correct manner.

  • GLR

    I agree with Frank that the customer service of abroadband is absolutely shocking. 

    I have purchased the sim + modem combination and cannot use it on HSDPA/USMT. I have emailed customer services with no reply and the helpline said I need to wait for a response to the email as they cannot help me. When settings are changed to GPRS/EDGE  only it works on my Mac and on a friends PC it all worked fine which leaves me to believe they need to update their Mac software.

    Combined with no customer service so far I the amount of time I have spent reinstalling the program several times this has truly been the best “plug and play” device yet.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m sorry to hear you’re having a bad time with it — it’s working perfectly
    for me with my MiFi unit!

  • Peteinbelgium

    lucky you – at least all of you have your cards !! I tried to get a card with them and so far it hasn’t arrived … it took three payment attempts, lots of calls and now on friday I’m leaving on vacation and that was the whole point of getting the card in the first place !! I’m sorry I didn’t find this review before buying, but I will be pointing other people to it so that they don’t make the same mistake !! 

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    It’s a shame you can’t easily buy them at an airport for example

  • Roger

    Can just put the abroadband sim card into my THREE ZTE MF627 dongle or do I need to do something technical and clever?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Disqus generic email template Roger you might need to unlock the mifi
    *From*: Disqus [mailto:]
    *Sent*: Saturday, July 30, 2011 06:54 AM
    *To*: em@mobileindustryreview.com *Subject*: [smstextnews] Re: My Abroadband SIM is rocking

    [image: DISQUS]

    NOTE: This comment is waiting for your approval. It is not yet published on your site.
    ======

  • Krum Manasiev

    Install this NetWorx – Free Bandwidth Monitoring or something similar, so you can monitor net usage. Disable anti-virus, windows and all kind of software updates. Quit skype, even on idle it eats bandwidth, use pidgin instead as a IM client. Set up mail reader client, web pages can generate a lot of traffic (flash animations, pictures). 

  • Anna

    Dont’ buy it. (1) It is very expensive to use (15 minutes browsing news on internet = €5 bill in my case!). (2) Abroadband is not able to register business users (problem with VAT number validation) however when I offered to re-register as a private person they were unable to do so as their system does not allow it (computer says no).  Instead you are supposed to return it and wait for another gadget to be sent to you. Given I bought this when on holiday and already travelling it was not a viable option. After a lenghty correspondence Abroadband offered to refund the money – that was in July 2011 and now it is September and I am still waiting for this refund.  I sent several reminders to Mr. Goran Zupanic of Abroadband (who promised the refund) but after a while he just stopped answering my emails. So now I have a useless gadget and no refund. I am going to complain to Rundfunk- und Telekomregulierungs-GmbH – let’s hope this will help. 

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m sorry to hear that!

  • http://benjam.in Ben Smith

    As I said in my response to your other post on Wireless Worker… Abroadband don’t bill by time.  If they charged you €5 it’s because you used 8 meg. Their per megabyte pricing is some of the lowest available for pre-pay.
    That doesn’t excuse the customer service issues you’ve had, but your pricing comment is wrong.

  • http://benjam.in Ben Smith

    As I said in my response to your other post on Wireless Worker… Abroadband don’t bill by time.  If they charged you €5 it’s because you used 8 meg. Their per megabyte pricing is some of the lowest available for pre-pay.
    That doesn’t excuse the customer service issues you’ve had, but your pricing comment is wrong.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    How do you know you didn’t use 100mb whilst your device downloaded updates in the background? (for example)

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    It’s my experience — I’m rather amazed at all the trouble folk appear to be having

  • Henry Mason

    Ewan,

    I have a question – I have a 3 Mifi (looks like the one in your picture above)

    If I get a abroadband sim can I just plug it in and expect it to work? Or do I need to unlock the mifi? 

    If unlocking is required, are there any *reputable* places that will do this? Carphone Warehouse etc? 

    Many thanks,

    Henry

  • http://benjam.in Ben Smith

    It will need to be unlocked, but Three will do this for you if it’s pre-pay or out of contract. You’ll then need to configure the Abroadband APN into it (but that’s simple to do).

  • http://twitter.com/monkeynut monkeynut

    Avoid this company.

    Tried to get a confirmation for an order, but haven’t heard anything. Customer service, as mentioned below, is pitiful.

  • http://twitter.com/monkeynut monkeynut

    How about this company giving advice, on their site and with every order, on avoiding unexpected bills due to updates?

  • Pingback: MAXROAM gets in on the global roaming game, cheaper than Abraodband

  • ben

    Blimey. Based on the site authors review I was a single step from buying this…having just read the first 6 or 7 comments, almost universally saying BEWARE, Im going elsewhere.
    To the author (Ewan?), if you can no longer stand by your glowing review perhaps a quick note at the top of the article so readers can make up their own mind?
    Shame, it sounded like Id found my roaming solution. Im looking for a solution that allows me to get connect in Spain, where I am working for a month and need to check emails daily. Suggestions welcomed.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m totally fine with my abroad and sim. It’s the people who are expecting to be able to download a gigabyte each day in France that are getting it wrong. Abroadband is a tactical solution that works fantastically for me when I’m abroad an wanting to avoid paying lots for my data.
    To be clear I am ONLY using Abroadband to send or receive perhaps 2-3mb a day.

  • Pete

    I have had abroadband for over a year now, and travel quite a bit to different countries. It has worked very well for me on my galaxy tab (android) but I have never been able to get it working on my nokia n-97. Sometimes it takes a while to get the connection for the first time in a country, but generally I’m very happy and it has saved me lots on roaming charges !

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