Frequently asked questions

The pocket wifi is available for the following destinations:

Africa: Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zanzibar

Asia: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand and Vietnam

Europe: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldavia, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the Vatican

Middle East: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan

North America: Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Costa Rica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin and the United States

Oceania: Australia

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guyana, US Virgin Islands and Venezuela

Your pocket wifi is not meant to be used outside its intended destination, and doing so may result in surcharges. Please contact us beforehand if you intend to do so. To test the device, you can turn it on and connect to it, however be cautious that you do not use the internet (i.e. disable emails in background etc.).

Tep's pocket wifi is not locked to one operator - it can connect to up to 5 networks in every country, ensuring that you always have the best and fastest connections available to you. While there will always be great coverage in "populated" areas, (i.e. cities and towns), if you are traveling to exceptionally rural or uninhabited areas (such as the Alps), we recommend you get in touch with us in advance so we can verify the coverage.

Not necessarily - cell phones work off of a different network than the pocket wifi, so the two are not connecting to the same signal. This is because the pocket wifi connects to data networks; 3G or higher. On the other hand, cell phones connect to mobile phone cellular networks. Since mobile phone cellular networks have been around for a lot longer than data networks, coverage is a lot better, especially in rural areas. For this reason, you might be able to make calls in a rural area but cannot connect to the internet.

In the rare event that there is no coverage at your location, and you won’t be traveling to any other location where there may be coverage, you can cancel your Tep rental.

To ensure availability, we recommend placing your order at least 10 days prior to travel departure date - however, you can still place orders closer to your departure date. For last-minute order, your pocket wifi will arrive latest the day before your rental starts.

Your Tep is guaranteed to be delivered 1-3 days before your chosen rental start date. If you need the device earlier, you need to indicate an earlier rental start date.

Tep ships with FedEx guaranteed next-day delivery, so any last-minute orders can be fulfilled. Even better, if you’re in central London, Tep can get you a device on the same day. Please contact us for more details.

Collection (and drop-off) points are located conveniently in London Heathrow Airport (all terminals) and London Padding Station. There are no such locations outside the UK currently.

Heathrow collection points are located just outside the customs & baggage reclaim exit, at the "Excess Baggage Company". To get there, follow the signage towards "Left Luggage". Please note that the pickup point within Heathrow Airport is landside, meaning that if you are transferring flights at Heathrow, you will need to check-out to reach the collection point.
Terminal 1: Arrivals hall, next to lifts for Heathrow Express, open Mon-Sun 06:00 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 3: Arrivals hall, near Car Hire desks, open Mon-Sun 05:00 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 4: Arrivals hall, West end, open Mon-Sun 05:30 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 5: Arrivals hall, UK Arrivals End, open Mon-Sun 05:30 - 23:00 GMT.

The Paddington collection point is located on platform (track) 12, at the "Excess Baggage Company". To get there, follow the signage towards "Left Luggage". Open Mon-Sun 07:00 - 23:00 GMT.

If details in your shipping address prevent your device from being delivered, you will be contacted by the relevant delivery service (e.g. FedEx) upon the first delivery attempt. Any redelivery costs will be charged back to you.

If you would like to request shipment to a country not offered on our website, or have specific delivery requests, please email us before placing your booking so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Drop-off (and collection) points are located conveniently in London Heathrow Airport (all terminals) and London Padding Station. There are no such locations outside the UK currently.

Heathrow drop-off points are located just outside the customs & baggage reclaim exit, at the "Excess Baggage Company". To get there, follow the signage towards "Left Luggage". Please note that the pickup point within Heathrow Airport is landside, meaning that if you are transferring flights at Heathrow, you will need to check-out to reach the drop-off point.
Terminal 1: Arrivals hall, next to lifts for Heathrow Express, open Mon-Sun 06:00 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 3: Arrivals hall, near Car Hire desks, open Mon-Sun 05:00 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 4: Arrivals hall, West end, open Mon-Sun 05:30 - 23:00 GMT.
Terminal 5: Arrivals hall, UK Arrivals End, open Mon-Sun 05:30 - 23:00 GMT.

The Paddington drop-off point is located on platform (track) 12, at the "Excess Baggage Company". To get there, follow the signage towards "Left Luggage". Open Mon-Sun 07:00 - 23:00 GMT.

A few options are available to you; you can drop off the device at London Heathrow Airport (all terminals) or London Paddington Station. Or, you can get a prepaid return label to easily return the device from the UK or the USA via any post office. Alternatively, you can organize your own return. If you are organizing your own return, please ensure the package gets sent to the following address:

Fonmigo Ltd. (Tep)
Unit 208, 326 Kensal Road
W10 5BZ, London
United Kingdom

Please note you cannot drop off the device in person at the above address. If you need further help with the return process, just get in touch with us!

The pocket wifi needs to be postmarked the day after your rental ends, and returned to us no later than 4 days after the end of your rental period. If you believe this might be an issue, contact us beforehand so we can work something out.

You are responsible for the safe and timely return of your pocket wifi. For this reason, we always recommend using a trackable return method.

If you want to change your rental dates, upgrade a data plan etc. after placing your order, you can of course do so. Just contact us and we'll make the necessary arrangements.

Yes, it will always be possible to upgrade the data plan during a rental. To do so, you need to get in touch with us so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Yes, it will always be possible to upgrade your data allowance, even if you did not originally choose to. However, the upgrade cannot be backdated to cover previous consumption.

Yes, you just need to get in touch with us ahead of time, so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Once your order is confirmed, you will receive emails with important information regarding your rental. For this reason, please make sure the email you provide (in the shipping section) is one you check regularly. If necessary, you can contact us and provide an alternate email address after placing an order.

If for any reason you need to cancel your booking, you can do so without penalty 7 days before your rental starts. Otherwise, we will charge a cancellation fee equal to the greater of either 20% of the total rental cost, or $19.00 / £12.00. All delivery costs and the rental fees for the period you had the device will be exempt from the refund. You will need to return the device to us on the day that you cancel your order - days where you are in possession of the device cannot be refunded.

Tep accepts card payments from the following providers; Visa & Mastercard (debit and credit), as well as American Express (Amex) and Discover.

You will be billed immediately upon placing your order. The charge will show up in your bank account from "Mobile Travel, Inc."

The charge will show up in your bank account from "Mobile Travel, Inc."

Tep will not charge a deposit for orders placed using a credit card via the official Tep website.

Yes, all prices indicated on the website include VAT.

Yes, please email support@tepwireless.com to request one.

You can indeed check your data usage in real-time during your rental - the procedure for doing so will vary depending on which pocket wifi you have. Please get in touch with us to get the correct instructions.

All data bundles, even those calculated on a daily basis, roll over to the next day if unused. This means that your data allowance never expires, allowing you to use it at your discretion without a daily restriction.

You will always have the option to add more data to your account, so that you don't run out at an inopportune time.

For European rentals (except the UK), you will receive emails informing you of your usage - at 75%, 90% and 100% usage of your data allowance. Upon receiving the 100% email, 500MB will be added to your account, for which you will be charged $59 / £39. If you want to avoid being charged, you can turn off your pocket wifi upon receiving the 90% email, or upgrade to the "Internet Plus" or "Internet Premium" packages instead, offering an additional 50MB or 150MB per day respectively. You can also opt to disable the automatic recharge feature entirely, by sending an email to support@tepwireless.com, or leaving a note in the "Do you have a special request or question?" field when you place your order.

For UK rentals, you will receive an email when you run out of data, and will be given the offer to buy supplementary data packages - 1GB for $30.00 / £20.00. Or, you can opt to switch to the "Internet Plus" or "Internet Premium" packages instead, offering an additional 50MB or 150MB per day respectively.

For international rentals, surcharges may apply if you exceed your allowance. Please refer to the "Fair Usage" section in this FAQ for more information.

It's always hard to answer this question, because it depends on how you use the internet. On average, laptop users use 200MB per day, tablet users 100MB per day and smartphone users 50MB per day. Activities such as streaming, downloading, teleconferencing and using remote desktops will increase the rate of usage though - for more on this please read the below section on rapid data consumption. By default, we provide enough data with every rental to satisfy average data needs. If you think this might not be enough, you can always opt to upgrade to your data allowance!

A standard web page is likely to download between 200-500KB of data. However, websites with a lot of media content (pictures or videos) such as Facebook may use substantially more data.

A general rule of thumb is that 50MB is enough for 250 emails. However, any attachments can greatly sway this number. A simple text email will only be a few bytes.

A simple voice call via Skype will use around 4KB /second, while a video call will be 650KB /minute. However, this will vary according to coverage, as Skype will automatically increase or decrease call and video quality according to your internet speed. As a reference, a 15 minute audio call could use around 5MB, while a 15 minute video call could use around 10MB.

Online gaming on a PC will use maximum 100MB /hour - usually around 70-80MB /hour. This is regardless of the type of game, because graphics do not factor into data consumption, meaning games like Minecraft and Call of Duty will use the same amount of data. However, one important aspect to consider is ping time - the fastest connection via the pocket wifi is 3G, which is a lot slower than something like a home LAN network. For this reason, users may experience lag while playing simply because the internet speed is insufficient. For games where success depends on reacting quickly (shooters), a 3G connection may be too slow for the game to be playable.

There are a variety of factors that could contribute to rapid data usage.

The main way to use a lot of data quickly is by downloading or streaming audio / video (e.g. Spotify, Netflix, P2P); this can easily result in data usage of over 100MB in 15 minutes. For your reference, a standard-definition movie is usually around 700MB.

In addition, certain programs will consume data in the background without giving any indication of doing so. For example, system updates are usually downloaded and installed automatically without prompt. Backup software (such as iCloud, Dropbox and GoogleDrive) will continuously use data throughout the day - in fact most Mac / iOS devices come pre-configured with a backup feature always enabled. Other programs such as Skype and other chat clients will also contribute to data usage if kept on continuously. Finally, you should be wary of email clients such as Outlook and Entourage, which constantly download both emails and attachments.

Remember that any data usage is amplified when sharing the connection between multiple devices or people, meaning even "normal" activities such as web browsing will consume more data when multiple devices are connected at the same time. For that reason, we recommend you share the above information with anyone who will be using the pocket wifi with you!

All our unlimited internet plans come with a fair usage policy (also known as a bandwidth cap); a limitation on the transfer of a specified amount of data over a period of time. It is something network operators impose on Tep to ensure their mobile network does not get overloaded by excessive usage. Thus Tep has to monitor the consumption of all users, and make sure it does not exceed this level. Tep's unlimited data proposition is based on the average usage of a large sample of customers, and then doubled. While fair usage policies exist with all mobile network operators, you will find Tep’s to be particularly generous - only around 3% of users are affected by it.

Truly unlimited internet would be a very expensive proposition to offer. To make the package more cost-friendly, we set a generous limit on the unlimited package which should only affect a small minority of users. In all cases, proper notice will be given before charging any overage fees.

The fair usage limits are as follows;

UK: This applies to the UK pocket wifi only, not the European pocket wifi. Fair usage of 400MB x total days rented applies, up to 5GB per month. This amount is cumulative, meaning the total amount is available to you at the start of the rental period, and can be consumed at your discretion - i.e. unused data from one day rolls over to the next. If the fair usage amount is exceeded, your data connection will stop, meaning you will no longer be able to access the internet. At that point, we will email you asking if you would like to remain connected - if so, we can top-up your account with another 1GB for $30.00 / £20.00.

European destinations (except the UK): Fair usage of 200MB x total days rented applies, up to 5GB per month. This amount is cumulative, meaning the total amount is available to you at the start of the rental period, and can be consumed at your discretion - i.e. unused data from one day rolls over to the next. If the fair usage amount is exceeded, your data connection will stop, meaning you will no longer be able to access the internet. You will receive an email notifying you of this before it happens. If you would like to remain connected, we can activate auto-recharge so that you are automatically topped up with 500MB if you run out of data. Each recharge is $59 / £39.

All other countries: Fair usage of 300MB x total days rented applies, up to 7GB per month. This amount is cumulative, meaning the total amount is available to you at the start of the rental period, and can be consumed at your discretion - i.e. unused data from one day rolls over to the next. After the fair usage allowance is used, further usage will be billed as follows:
Mexico: £0.05 / $0.09 per MB
USA: £0.09 / $0.15 per MB

The fair usage policy is outlined in the Rental Agreement. Before placing any order with Tep, there is a mandatory checkbox requiring that “you have read and agree” with the terms outlined therein. The note about the fair usage is also displayed prominently in the booking page below the extras section.