Mobile Internet Access

March 14, 2006 9:26 AM

Is there a mobile international dial-up service for laptop users to get on the net?

My friend travels abroad alot and wants to take a laptop to plug in to telephone lines and connect to the net. Looking for low cost and something that will work from a number of different countries. He is based in Canada so anything witha contract would probably need to be from there.
(not sure if there is a package that can allow b/band access where available?)

posted by Frasermoo to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Yes.
posted by Wild_Eep at 9:37 AM on March 14, 2006

I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but I know world travelers who use AOL. They apparently have local phone numbers practically everywhere.
posted by SteveInMaine at 9:59 AM on March 14, 2006

iPass. Though it's not cheap. It's not crazy, but it's not cheap either. Find a local reseller - these seem to be several in Canada. Their billing handles both dialup and several different WiFi providers.
posted by GuyZero at 10:00 AM on March 14, 2006

I can second Wild_Eep's recommendation of MaGlobe. The only thing that sucks about them is that your credit is only good for one year before they expire it, unless you recharge your account. I have used MaGlobe to access the internet in Europe, Mexico, Austrialia and Japan with no problems.
posted by jduckles at 10:39 AM on March 14, 2006

Sadly, I have to second SteveInMaine's comment about AOL; I used to travel abroad a fair bit, and you can find AOL numbers in pretty much any country you're likely to visit.

Of course, I wouldn't dream of using them for any other reason. (And the preponderance of WiFi hotspots these days make it much less necessary to have dial-up anyway.)
posted by littleme at 11:35 AM on March 14, 2006

A client of mine has used ATTGlobal for a long time for mobile dialup, even though she's based out of Canada. She's often in .au, .uk, and more far-flung places. Never heard a complaint.
posted by chuma at 12:25 PM on March 14, 2006

I use TMobile hotspot access internationally. It ties you to a specific hotel or coffee shop, but they have suprisingly good coverage and it moves faster than a dialup.
posted by joelr at 12:34 PM on March 14, 2006

I've used the ATT Global network while traveling in Europe and around the US. It's always worked for me.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time in one country, sign up in that country. It's cheaper.
posted by Caviar at 2:45 PM on March 14, 2006

AOL is great-- fairly cheap, local numbers *everywhere*, good email and friendly service. if people think they are being cool by hating aol, theyre not trying hard enough
posted by petsounds at 3:44 PM on March 14, 2006

ATT Global Dialer is common for corporate users.
posted by k8t at 4:44 PM on March 14, 2006

IBM definitely has an international network of dialup access numbers although for the life of me I can't find it on their impenetrable website.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:40 PM on March 14, 2006

We use ATT Global as well. Easy in the EU and in NA; outside those regions, one needs to call ahead and "book" a number. Doing that, we've had good modem/56k connectivity from most places on the globe.
posted by bonehead at 5:55 PM on March 14, 2006

The package that my company had for AT&T, no one ever had to book ahead of time.
posted by k8t at 11:54 PM on March 15, 2006