Wifi Television and data usage when abroad

[Hugoman]

Everone to their own.
I'm glad that we don't do much TV abroad as it forces us to do ther things, like walk, BBQ, sit out with a drink, play scrabble, read, do cryptic crosswords together and would you believe even talk to each other. we seem to feel a lot closer when touring (and it's not just due to the size of the van).

We have a large collection of DVDs (remember them?) and I record a lot of stuff onto a SSD drive before we travel just incase the weather isn't so good but we don't use them much.

The down side is that when we get home she has all those Corrie recordings to catch up on.

I totally agree with you….we walk…just finished the Santiago De Compostella Pilgrims route across top of Spain…BBQ…a lot…sit out and drink…even more…scrabble…nope…too boring…crosswords ….only The Times and can’t get that overseas…talk to each other…are you kidding…. If we do however watch TV I prefer not to do it by paying €39 for 20GB.

As for Corrie…I assume you mean Coronation Street…never watched a single episode in my life……and never would…. living ones life vicariously through soap opera characters..now that IS a waste of life !

 

[dash300]

I totally agree with you….we walk…just finished the Santiago De Compostella Pilgrims route across top of Spain…BBQ…a lot…sit out and drink…even more…scrabble…nope…too boring…crosswords ….only The Times and can’t get that overseas…talk to each other…are you kidding…. If we do however watch TV I prefer not to do it by paying €39 for 20GB.

As for Corrie…I assume you mean Coronation Street…never watched a single episode in my life……and never would…. living ones life vicariously through soap opera characters..now that IS a waste of life !

I reckon you have insulted a considerable number of people by your last comment!

 

[Hugoman]

I reckon you have insulted a considerable number of people by your last comment!

As the OP said Everyone to their own.. or each to their own as I would have said never watched an episode of East Enders either…there we go insulted even more

 

[dash300]

As the OP said Everyone to their own.. or each to their own as I would have said never watched an episode of East Enders either…there we go insulted even more

Neither do I but I wouldn't condemn those that do as wasting their life!

 

[Folkranger]

Neither do I but I wouldn't condemn those that do as wasting their life!

Don't forget, you're talking to a man who would ONLY do The Times Crossword.

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[AllesP]

Would it not be better to purchase plugin hard drive and record a load at home and watch those whilst away?
Hope you sort and have a nice holiday

 

[AllesP]

Would it not be better to purchase plugin hard drive and record a load at home and watch those whilst away?
Hope you sort and have a nice holiday.

Thank you. It's an idea but not sure where to download the films from or how to do it. I've read that it's difficult from Prime and very time consuming. Now thinking of buying a Firestick or a Roku

 

[AllesP]

You are probably better off buying a SIM from Popit in the UK but activate it and set your router up correctly before you leave. A 100gb SIM is £25 per 30 days but there are some smaller Popit units and comparatively more expensive per gb. Works off the EE network and its partners with little roaming restrictions (no more than 180 days). We used ours in France and Spain. One downside was that my wife could not pick up Facebook posts on her phone - but I could...
Or when in France you can buy 'My European SIM' from Bouygues Telecom shops - 20gb for €39.90 but only valid for 14 days and iPlayer doesn't work through it.

That's great, thank you. Yes, I think I will definitely get a Popit. It sounds perfect for our needs. Thanks very much

 

[AllesP]

We’ve just come back from our 3month trip over the winter in Spain using Poppit for the first time. We found it excellent. 100gb roaming was great for us with streaming the TV on a FireStick. As long as you are not silly with your usage 100gb is just fine for us.

A Firestick and Popit seem a good idea although I don't think it supports YouTube

 

[PaulandChrissy]

A Firestick and Popit seem a good idea although I don't think it supports YouTube

I’ve watched endless YouTube on an iPad using Poppit, but as you say, not sure if YouTube works on a FireStick. Will have a look

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[Just smiffy]

YouTube works fine on a fire stick, in fact I think it might already be installed on it when you buy the firestick…

 

[Manic]

No problem with YouTube on Firestick
Check out RWG mobile they do 100gb (200gb at the moment) for £20 and it can be used in eu

 

[jongood]

A Firestick and Popit seem a good idea although I don't think it supports YouTube

I think you can get youtube just about everywhere. I've watched it in lots of countries, its frequently embedded ( if thats the correct term?) in companies websites

 

[SSILVO]

No problem with YouTube on Firestick
Check out RWG mobile they do 100gb (200gb at the moment) for £20 and it can be used in eu

Someone recently said the roaming fair usage policy allows far less than 200gb ..

 

[Manic]

Someone recently said the roaming fair usage policy allows far less than 200gb ..

This is the email I got from them

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your email. Yes it would work in a router. The SIM needs to be activated in the UK before leaving for the EU but once this is done via a single call or SMS it will work fine when roaming. There is no cap or restriction.

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[AllesP]

No problem with YouTube on Firestick
Check out RWG mobile they do 100gb (200gb at the moment) for £20 and it can be used in eu

Thank you!

 

[AllesP]

I have spent the last 4 weeks in Spain with a 140gb Yoigo sim in a 4g mifi unit. The sim was 34 euros. I have express vpn which costs £84 per year.
We watch our oldish Avtex tv most nights for an hour or two through a firestick. Definition is set to the lowest = ’good’. It works with all tv channels if the sim signal is good enough. Amazon and Netflix have some programs / films that are only available in the US, or UK etc. If we want to watch something only available in - e.g. the US. I just tell the vpn, which I installed onto the firestick, to use a server in the US. Simples.

I just looked and we are up to 73.25 gb used. With two weeks before we go home, it should have some left for when we come back in September!!

I should add that both of our phones and ipads are using the mifi as well. Unless out of range of course, when the phones use the 12gb eu use free per month on our UK 3 sims.

 

[Engineer999]

No you can’t change on iPad….think I posted this before but can’t remember Might be a bit out of date…also there was t ITVX before…

Firestick

Channel 5…..Yes
iTVX ….Yes
BBC …Yes
Channel 4 ?
Netflix yes
Amazon Prime yes

iPad

Streaming speed

ITV/C4/ITV/C5 640MB an hour. Can’t change.
BBC on firestick 750mb per hour
BBC 640MB. Set at time of watching on firestick. Can’t change on iPad.
Netflix Medium 700MB. High up to 3GB. Ultra HD 7GB ! Change settings in account sign on

Amazon
Medium 600MB. High 900MB.
Change in Settings/playback on iPad.

Thank you - very detailed, has given me a much greater understanding.

 

[SSILVO]

This is the email I got from them

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your email. Yes it would work in a router. The SIM needs to be activated in the UK before leaving for the EU but once this is done via a single call or SMS it will work fine when roaming. There is no cap or restriction.

Sounds like things have changed ...Good stuff

 

[AllesP]

Hi All, Well I've just bought my Firestick and now have another question, please. Can I use it on a home TV first just to find out how it works and get used to it, and then having got it set up, plug it in the motorhome TV before we go away?
I presume it can be used in any TV, so this is probably a dumb question!

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[Hugoman]

Hi All, Well I've just bought my Firestick and now have another question, please. Can I use it on a home TV first just to find out how it works and get used to it, and then having got it set up, plug it in the motorhome TV before we go away?
I presume it can be used in any TV, so this is probably a dumb question!

Yes you can

 

[AllesP]

Yes you can

Thank you Hugoman!

 

[kevenh]

Do you use the same internet/WiFi provider at home and in your Motorhome?
Usually users have a different WiFi setup at home to the Motorhome’s setup.
But that was before decent cellular data options

TL;DR you may have to connect the Fire TV Stick to the WiFi used in the Motorhome but other than that you can do a lot of setup at home before heading off

 

[AllesP]

Do you use the same internet/WiFi provider at home and in your Motorhome?
Usually users have a different WiFi setup at home to the Motorhome’s setup.
But that was before decent cellular data options

TL;DR you may have to connect the Fire TV Stick to the WiFi used in the Motorhome but other than that you can do a lot of setup at home before heading off

No we have an Avtex wifi system in the motorhome and Sky at home.

 

[555 FRY]

Hi there, we have been using a fire stick in our camper van for 4 years now, using the data from our phones both here and in Europe. Tried a Wi-Fi unit fixed in the camper and no way was it any better than using an iPhone. We are with EE and when abroad pay an additional £10 for each month we are there to be able to use all our data with no cut off. Hope this helps in some way.

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[kevenh]

Hi there, we have been using a fire stick in our camper van for 4 years now, using the data from our phones both here and in Europe. Tried a Wi-Fi unit fixed in the camper and no way was it any better than using an iPhone. We are with EE and when abroad pay an additional £10 for each month we are there to be able to use all our data with no cut off. Hope this helps in some way.

Interesting feedback.
A different result to mine

Is it an EE sim in both devices?
Was your iPhone getting 5G & your Wifi router just 4G?
Were they located in the same place in the motorhome?

I often get different results at either end of the MH or low v high

 

[PaulandChrissy]

Interesting feedback.
A different result to mine

Is it an EE sim in both devices?
Was your iPhone getting 5G & your Wifi router just 4G?
Were they located in the same place in the motorhome?

I often get different results at either end of the MH or low v high

Works far better with an external antenna.

 

[Landy Andy]

We have two iPhones both on EE, and Wi-Fi with a roof mounted antenna and find often we need to use the Wi-Fi as is better signal than our phones.

 

[AllesP]

Hi there, we have been using a fire stick in our camper van for 4 years now, using the data from our phones both here and in Europe. Tried a Wi-Fi unit fixed in the camper and no way was it any better than using an iPhone. We are with EE and when abroad pay an additional £10 for each month we are there to be able to use all our data with no cut off. Hope this helps in some way.

Thank you for your information. Can you tell me how you connect your firestick to your telephone SIMs please. As we both have 25gb in our phone plans, that would work well for us in France but I dont know how to do it.
Thanks

 

[kevenh]

Thank you for your information. Can you tell me how you connect your firestick to your telephone SIMs please. As we both have 25gb in our phone plans, that would work well for us in France but I dont know how to do it.
Thanks

With your phone model you’ll get specific instructions.

But in a nutshell, you need to tether your Fire stick via a personal hotspot created on your phone.

On an iPhone, Personal Hotspot is the 5th choice down in settings.

How to set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad

A Personal Hotspot lets you share the mobile data connection of your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) when you don’t have access to a Wi-Fi network.

support.apple.com

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