Thank you to Richard who sent me a note asking me to check out MifiClub, a service that will send you a MiFi next-day in the United Kingdom.
The service is obviously aimed at people traveling to the UK and staying for a few days or a week or so. It’s a smart concept.
Here’s how it works:
The site explains thus:
We’ll make sure your mifi is charged, loaded, and waiting for you at your hotel or friend’s address. You’ll get the small device and USB charger, along with a pre-paid return envelope. Simply drop it off at a postbox or hand it to a member of staff at the hotel on or before your last day.
Now a lot of you, I’m sure, will immediately point out that for £49.99 plus a tenner (i.e. just under £60) you walk into any 3 shop in London (or across the UK) and pick up a MiFi unit on a PAYG basis.
But — and this is a big but — that’s a total hassle.
It is. It seems easy to me, because I’m ‘local’. I know where the 3 shops are. There’s one on most High Streets. But that’s not flipping use if you’re working on site for 3 days in an industrial estate outside Basildon and staying in the hotel next door, is it?
Making a trip to the 3 Shop, or any other mobile shop, is a very expensive, time consuming arse.
So I think there’s definitely a market for MifiClub. And it makes a heck of a lot of sense renting a MiFi unit rather than a dongle or sim card, since you can share the data nicely.
The service is priced pretty reasonably, especially when you take into account the postage and faff costs (e.g. all devices arrive fully charged, ready for use — when I bought my impulse-purchase MiFi unit this morning, I was told to charge it for ‘6-8 hours before use’. It was more or less empty. I had to plug it into the wall to get it to work).
£69.99 will get you a MiFi unit for 4 weeks from MifiClub. I think that’s pretty reasonable. Especially if you get it sent to your hotel. It’ll get you 1GB a week of data too.
Yes you’re paying a premium. But you haven’t had to mess around at all. Order it online a day or so before you fly and boom, it’ll be waiting at your hotel or office for you.
I like this a lot.
It’s at: http://www.mificlub.com/