Travel WiFi, a Paris-based start-up, is bidding to battle expensive data roaming charges suffered by millions of visitors to the French capital and elsewhere across the country. The company is offering access to unlimited, high-speed WiFi at a fraction of the cost via a small, wireless modem that connects devices to 3G/4G internet.
The pocket-sized device has a six-hour battery life and gets reception all over Paris and across most of France, and costs €7.90 a day, or €6 per day for those staying a month or more.
Jonathan Justman, co-founder of Travel Wifi, told Parisian news website The Local: “Millions of passengers who have just arrived in France will see our service, and pretty much all of them need a solution to connect to internet while abroad.”
Francis Navarro, deputy director general of the regional tourism committee of Paris, is a fan of the scheme and helped provide 100 free modems for tourists at Charles de Gaulle airport and the Galeries Lafayette during the scheme’s opening week.