Hi all,
I’m looking into purchasing a pocket WiFi for travelling to reduce roaming data costs.
At the moment I’m leaning towards the Skyroam Solis Lite and wondered if anyone has had any dealings with it?
Tia.
How often are you going to be away to make it worth while cost wise? Surely whatever device you buy will still need a sim/subscription of some description so there will be a cost for that, plus the original device.
Have you looked at changing mobile provider?
Cheers Revels,
Yes the one off cost is ‘high’ £120 but savings on a ‘plan’ are substantial.
I am very happy with my provider Smarty both from service level and monthly cost, as I get 60GB data and unlimited calls/texts for £10.
Unfortunately Smarty do not currently have eSIM availability, so outside of Europe roaming costs are a concern and although I could buy a local SIM (as I have tried in the past) I’ve found the faff, setup and local number to be not worth the bother when trying to enjoy the holiday!
My wife and I plan to have 5 ‘big’ holidays over the next 5 years so will be visiting some far away places on our bucket list prior to retirement.
A Quick Look at our first destination of Japan for example, shows roaming cost of £1/MB 
That equates to £100 per GB !
Now I know you could be very careful and monitor roaming and jump between WiFi spots but I really want a bit more freedom than that.
What is particularly attractive on the Skyroam Solis Lite, is the unlimited daily plan which is £7 …… effectively the cost of a coffee each per day, with no SIM to faff around with and easy management from their APP.
£120 for the device and £7 a day, for say 50 days = £470 / 50 = £9.40 a day
It’s a faff changing sim but even if you got a one month unlimited plan for when you’re away, and even if that was £50 a month, you’d nearly half your overall costs.
I cannot argue with the maths but I do appreciate your feedback 
I used the Skyroam when I worked abroad a lot and it was very very decent tbh. Nice little puck!
It’s worse than that: £1000/GB!!!
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What about the Three pay as you go SIM?
In Europe Lebara gives you 30GB in their usual plan. I’ve used that for the last few years, monthly plan so I just take it up to whatever gives me 30GB for the month.
We used it in unlimited for a couple of canal holidays, just switching on the hotspot. Kept us and two kids happy for £25.
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t just use Airalo and their local e-sims?
These are their prices for Japan for example which seem very reasonable.
I did look at that but it seemed quite long-winded it setting up through settings and allocating primary/secondary lines for calls/data etc.
Have you used airalo before?
Yeah I’ve used it quite a few times when travelling beyond Europe.
Mileage will obviously depend on the local network they use, but I’ve always found it easy to use and reliable.
Sure, the first time you use multiple eSIMs there will be a little learning curve to understand how to assign the lines, but once you’re done it’s really simple.
Their cheapest UK plan is 5 USD so maybe it’s worth buying that and seeing how you get on here before you try to use it abroad.
Good shout
What device do you use
Would it not be better to get an app like Ubigi which lets you see eSims available for any country, then buy that eSim whilst at that destination and be able to use your phone on that network without needing to tether it to an external device?
That way you’re not forking out a one off £120 for a device you really only use for the time you’re away!”?
An eSim can be deactivated at any time and you can buy daiky, weekly monthly plans on ubigi specifically for the country you’re in and never relying on a high cost ‘roaming’ plan from your original provider
Effectively you can keep your Smarty physical sim in the phone and activate the eSim simultaneously in the destination country and choose which ‘line’ it uses each time or make it default to the eSim for that time
When home deactivate the eSim and your Smarty physical sim is unaffected
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I’m using Saily eSIM (which is by NordVPN) for a stay in South Africa. 28 day plans at pretty good cost for data.
Works well
can’t you just go to mcdonalds 
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