The GoodSpeed from Uros is a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot that works in up to nine European countries at one time, and is supported in up to 13 countries. This flexibility is achieved via 10 SIM card slots, to be populated by your own SIMs, or international cards purchased for your account from Uros. See all Wi-Fi and networking reviews.
GoodSpeed: international coverage, price
Pay attention, because this is complicated. First of all, you need to pay £219 to purchase the GoodSpeed device. You then need to register it (and your bank details) with Uros online to activate the master SIM. You'll be charged €9.90 a month simply to keep your GoodSpeed active.
Once it is up and running you need to select the countries in which you will use your hotspot. Using a day's worth of internet will cost you €5.90 a day... unless you are in France when it costs €16.90. Oh, and you have to pay 'a shipping and handling charge of €4.90' every time you order a new SIM. Confused? Us too.
But we suspect that in most cases the GoodSpeed will be purchased for use in two or three countries, by professionals who have to regularly visit said countries for work. It would make a sensible purchase for a business that has sales people regularly traveling to multiple countries and charging hotel Wi-Fi bills back to the firm. In that case after the initial £219 outlay you will be able to budget for a one-off €4.90 to get the SIMs delivered, €9.90 every month, and each day of internet wherever you are as an additional €5.90. (Unless you are in France. Maybe just don't go to France?)
There are 13 countries covered by the GoodSpeed, they are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. You can choose up to nine of these and know that every time you visit them you'll be able to get online. You can also populate each slot with a SIM you purchased elsewhere, although that would negate the point of paying GoodSpeed €9.90 a month.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to ascertain what sort of coverage you get in each country because with the exception of DNA in Finland Uros won't reveal which operaters it employs in each country. There is nothing sinister in this: it's protecting its competitive advantage and reserving the right to change operators. But it does mean you are buying a pig in a poke.
When you purchase a rival product such as the Globalgig Hotspot you know what it is going to cost you, and you know what networks will be used in the countries you visit. This way you can roughly ascertain how good the coverage will be. You have no such knowledge with the GoodSpeed. When we put this to Uros a spokesman told us: "our purpose is to cover our service with the best network in each country".
You can see the network operator's ID when you are using the GoodSpeed, but in the UK that 'best network' was called'Angel'. Nope, us either.
Again, there is nothing wrong or dodgy about this setup. Angel is simply the operator on behalf of Uros. It will have its own range of SIMs, associated with its own local number range and IMSIs, but purchasing network space from one of the better known telcos that has its own masts. (In the UK this is usually Three, but to suggest that the GoodSpeed runs on Three is pure speculation.)
So we can tell you that in and around London we were regularly achieving download speeds of around 4.5Mbps down, and 2Mbps up. That's pretty decent, but unless you are living elsewher in Europe and want to purchase this device to travel to central London this will be meaningless to you.
(I'll test the GoodSpeed as I travel around over the next few weeks, including trips to Spain and Germany, but even then you can't judge nationawide performance on such a narrow test.)
GoodSpeed: data limit
Similarly, there is no clarity on what your data limit is in each territory. There's no mention of a data limit on the documentation. Indeed, you have to dig into the online FAQs to find this:
"The data transfer limit depends on the destination country. For example in UK, Luxembourg, Italy and Ireland the maximum data transfer limit is 500MB/day. In Finland, Germany and Switzerland the limit is 1GB/day. When you reach the maximum data limit, which rarely happens, your connection slows down significantly."
It's unlikely you'll bust these limits too often, and it is good to know that you won't be charged even if you do go over the limit. But it is disappointing that it differs from territory to territory. And why not be upfront about the limits in each country?
GoodSpeed: setup process
Getting online with the GoodSpeed is simple. You power up the device from the small power button on the back. Then create an account online at uros.com. This requires you to input your details and bank info, and the details of the your GoodSpeed dongle. Then you select the level of service you require. Now your GoodSpeed device is good to go.
When you switch it on it will appear as a Wi-Fi network - its password displayed on the GoodSpeed's display. Simply select the GoodSpeed network as you would any other, and type in the passcode displayed on the front of the device in order to get online.
The GoodSpeed lets you connect up to five devices at one time. The device screen shows you the number of devices currently connected. You can also check your current network, how strong the connection is and how much battery you have left. See all Wi-Fi and networking reviews.
