Review: TEP Wireless Device

There’s no denying that we live in a digital age. Not a day goes by without checking our phones, tablets or computers to catch up on emails, surf the internet, watch a movie or check out what friends are up to via social media.

My boys, aged 3 and 5 regularly use the iPad to play games and watch random things on YouTube. They are so used to having these things at the touch of a button (or the press of a screen) they don’t understand that when they are using their tablets when we are in the car why we don’t have internet access.

That is of course until we found out about the TEP Wireless device.

TEP Wireless Device

TEP Wireless
TEP is a handheld rented device that provides you with wireless internet access when you are out and about. Although it’s predominantly used for when you are going on holiday we found that it can also be very useful for long car journeys. The device connects to the mobile network and creates a private Wi-Fi network 15 metres around you, of which you can then connect up to five devices to.

What’s in the box?

  • Soft Carry case
  • TEP Device
  • User guide
  • Charger
  • USB cable
  • Pre-paid return envelope

TEP Wireless Device

How does it work?
The device is really easy to use. You simply switch it on and navigate your way to the WLAN info as per the user guide and then connect your tablet, laptop or phone to the wireless network. It took me less than two minutes to hook up my laptop.

tep-display1
Road Testing
We tested the device out on a weekend trip to Ikea (of all places!). The boys were rather surprised when I told them they were able to access the internet on the iPad. Their faces were a picture! I put Amazon Video on and chose a movie to stream to see what the connection was like. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It did stop and start a few times but other than that the boys managed to watch their movie quite happily. I’d be interested to see what the connection would be like when driving on country roads though as this is always where we usually lose 3G connection.

tep-display2
tep-display5
What does it cost?
The TEP Device can be rented for a set amount of time of your choosing for £6.50 a day and is available for most countries across the globe. This gives you unlimited usage but if you do use more than 300mb a day the speed gets lowered to 512kbps.

Overall the TEP Device is a really handy gadget. I can see it being very useful for holidays when you don’t want to pay for roaming charges and have to pay extra for wi-fi. It’s probably not something that would I would look to use in the UK as it would work out to be £52 for a week. For that,it just makes sense for me to use the data on my phone. Having said that, I wish I had known about this when we travelled to Hong Kong. It would have been very handy for Mr H and I as we were constantly relying on wi-fi hotspots on our trip to check work emails on our phone!

The device was easy to order through their website and arrived in good time before our selected “travel” date (even though we weren’t actually travelling) I had emails from Customer service throughout to check that I had managed to get everything working and I could have easily extended my rental period through them if I needed to too. To return the device after the rental period I simply popped it into the pre-pay envelope and posted it.

I will definitely look to rent one for when we travel abroad next.

What do you think of the TEP Wireless device?

* We were sent the TEP Wireless Device for a two week period in exchange for this review.

11 Comments

  1. As you know I love gadgets and this sound like an interesting one. It is really useful for holidays or long car journeys. The only thing that I’m not sure is the price though. But I will have a look. Thanks for this review. 🙂 xx

  2. Catie: Imperfect Mum

    I am a gadget freak and love the idea of this. I do sometimes connect my iPad through my phone though.

  3. I had not heard of this but it looks really interesting and useful on some occasions. #PicknMix

  4. Never heard of these, but do sound a really good idea for holidays! #KCACOLS

  5. Island Living 365

    Never heard of these, but great ideas for those days where you have to make long journeys with the kids #KCACOLS

  6. Ohh I have never heard of this! Looks like it would definitely be useful on a holiday abroad because data roaming charges can be so expensive. I love that you tested it out on a trip to ikea haha. My son is only 2 and he has already figured out he can watch stuff on my phone. Great review.

    Thanks for linking this up to #KCACOLS. Hope to see you again next Sunday 🙂 x

  7. Jeremy Barnes

    I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this. I would definitely buy one of these for vacations #KCACOLS

  8. Someone's Mum

    This seems like a brilliant idea. I know my husband and I would already use it loads on trips away and as the kids get older I can see it being a lifesaver! Will keep it in mind #KCACOLS

  9. Oh wow how brilliant! We have iPhones and the personal hotspot feature is great so we’ll need to have a look into this because the battery life on the iPhones is rubbish #KCACOLS

  10. What a great invention, really handy if you’re off to the middle of nowhere on holiday 🙂 Thanks for lining up to #PicknMix hon

    Stevie xx

  11. MummyandMonkeys

    Love this idea, Ive heard about them but not seen them. Would be useful when on holiday somewhere with limited signal. Thanks for linking to #PickNMix

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