# Current data usage options for Europe?



## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

My wife and I are doing our third Euro Delivery in July and wondering what others are doing for cellular data while in Europe. We'll be in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France, for a total of three weeks. In 2011 we rented a Verizon flip-phone to use for emergencies, had to use it, and it ended up costing us about twice what we anticipated. In 2016, I bought a couple of Ortel all-Europe SIM cards and used them in our Samsung 7 Edge phones. Those worked great until we ran out of data, even before we left Munich, and then couldn't decipher the message telling us how to refill. Now we've got the Samsung 8.

Initially I was looking at buy/renting a portable WiFi hotspot. These are some of the companies I looked at:


GlocalMe - rental only
Hippocket WiFi - rental only
My Webspot - rental only
Roaming Man - rental only
Skyroam Solis - purchase or rent
Travel WiFi - rental only

The first four are essentially all the same, offering 1GB of 4G data per day for about $10/day. You can connect up to 5 devices. Unfortunately, they all throttle once you reach 500MB, down to 3G/2G. Hippocket WiFi offers 1GB of 4G data per day, but the total amount for the rental period is available immediately. Use 3GB the second day if you need it, the balance is available over the length of the rental. They all have a flat fee per day, making it more expensive for more than a week or two. Costs for these providers range from $180-200.

For Skyroam, you can buy the Solis on Amazon for $150. A monthly data plan is $99 offering 1GB of 4G data per day, but throttled after 500MB. Their rental plan is a flat $10/day. Reviews indicate that their device is finicky and unreliable.

Travel WiFi offers 5GB of 4GB per day in Europe and unlimited 4GB in France (our last six days will be in France, five of those in Paris). They have a sliding scale that lowers the per day price the longer you rent for, making it more appealing for our three-week trip. Total cost is about $210 for our trip.

Most of these will ship directly to your home and/or your hotel in Europe. Some won't ship to the US requiring a hotel or other address to ship to. All offer a pre-paid return mailer, with costs varying depending on which country you mail the device from. Some have free drop-off in French locations, with a lot of locations in Paris. Most of them have deals offering discounts of 10%-20% and some deals are for free shipping.

Travel WiFi was looking to be the best plan until I found this SIM card available on Amazon, the Orange Holiday Europe pre-paid SIM card. This SIM offers 10GB of 4G data for a 14-day period in Europe, including 120 calling minutes and 1000 texts. Top-ups are available for 20€ for another 14 days and include an additional 5GB data, 60 calling minutes, and 500 texts, and are added to your remaining credits. Top-ups appear to be pretty simple to do on an English website. Tethering is allowed, so if your phone has this feature, you can connect additional devices, like your spouse's phone, or your tablets. This option would cost less than $75 for our trip, including the initial SIM purchase and one top-up, and would give us 15GB over 20 days.

I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone that has used these or any other options.

P.S. I'm aware that iPhone users on T-Mobile can use their phones in Europe just as if they were home, but that's not an option for us)


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## Eagle11 (Oct 6, 2013)

SD ///M4 said:


> My wife and I are doing our third Euro Delivery in July and wondering what others are doing for cellular data while in Europe.


We have Verizon and when we were over there we used an app called VIBER that uses wifi to make calls. While we were in China I got a message that would allow me to use my mobile data plan for an extra $10/d I was able to use facebook which in China without problems. I even received a couple of calls while we were over there, no extra fee except for the $10/d. There are plenty of wifi spots all over Europe and we never had a huge bill.


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## frank325 (Dec 29, 2005)

We only ever used wifi at our hotels. You can download offline google maps and never really felt like we needed service when we were out and about doing tourist things.


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## Ibiza (Jun 15, 2007)

What type of phone do you have? If it's a iPhone by law it's unlocked. Cheapest option would be to purchase a local sim chip, but then you lose access to your US number. Based on your projected usage, add on one of the monthly international plans.

Prior to T-Mobile providing free international edge (2G) service, I had a collection of SIM cards from Europe, Asia and Australia, with a activate Vodafone Italia






account able to reload via the iPhone app).


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

I know you mentioned the TMO situation, but whom is your wireless provider?

The big shift in the last 3-4 years is updated roaming agreements are a lot more conducive to using your stateside provider. Both AT&T and Verizon offer "$10/day, use your own bucket" that's a heck of a lot more convenient than the old options of grabbing a sim card, etc. While you can still find cheaper by picking up a Euro-sim and using one of the locals, it's not the huge delta that it used to be.

On a recent trip to Barbados, my wife and I used my cell as a hotspot for the entirety of the trip for $50 in total.


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## Gluhwein (Aug 21, 2011)

frank325 said:


> We only ever used wifi at our hotels. You can download offline google maps and never really felt like we needed service when we were out and about doing tourist things.


You beat me to it. I also recommend only using hotel WiFi. Most big cities also have free public WiFi. In Munich we sat outside the Apple store and had terrific internet. Access in the Welt is also awesome. Even in the Czech Republic we were able to find free hotspots. Almost every tourist site we visited also had some WIFi. Why pay? I only went out of airplane mode once to make a phone call. But then again, I'm a cheap SOB.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

SD ///M4 said:


> Now we've got the Samsung 8.





Ibiza said:


> What type of phone do you have? If it's a iPhone by law it's unlocked. Cheapest option would be to purchase a local sim chip, but then you lose access to your US number. Based on your projected usage, add on one of the monthly international plans.


After I posted this I found this SIM card on Amazon: Orange Holiday Europe is a pre-paid SIM card that offers 10GB of 4G data for 14 days, including 2 hours of calls from Europe to the world, and 1000 texts from Europe to the world. A 14-day top-up is available for 20€, about $24, that offers another 5GB, 60 minutes of calls, and 500 texts, and is cumulative with the initial credits, kind of like topping up a parking meter.

Tethering is allowed, so if your phone has this feature, you can create your own hotspot and connect other devices, like your spouse's phone, and your tablets.

We bought an Ortel SIM when we did our 2016 Euro Delivery and it worked great until we ran out of data and couldn't figure out how to do a top-up because the texts were in German. Logistics of doing a group Euro Delivery didn't allow us the time to figure that out before we left Munich and we never were able to do a top-up.

I'm not concerned about not being able to use our US number as we would only give the Orange phone number to people who would need to contact us in case of an emergency.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

AggieKnight said:


> I know you mentioned the TMO situation, but whom is your wireless provider?
> 
> The big shift in the last 3-4 years is updated roaming agreements are a lot more conducive to using your stateside provider. Both AT&T and Verizon offer "$10/day, use your own bucket" that's a heck of a lot more convenient than the old options of grabbing a sim card, etc. While you can still find cheaper by picking up a Euro-sim and using one of the locals, it's not the huge delta that it used to be.
> 
> On a recent trip to Barbados, my wife and I used my cell as a hotspot for the entirety of the trip for $50 in total.


We have Verizon. Their International travel plans are ridiculously overpriced. TravelPass is a pay-as-you-go plan, at $10/day. This is the only Verizon plan that allows you to use your domestic data limits. If I activate both my phone and my wife's phone on the Travel Pass plan, then it's $10/day x 2 x 20 days, or $400, assuming that we both use it each day. But unfortunately, they do speed throttling:

"4G LTE World Devices are capable of roaming at 4G LTE speeds where available. In other countries, data service is on our roaming partner's GSM network at 3G/2G speeds.
If you're using TravelPass in one of the 130+ countries...then high speed data applies for the first 512 MB/day with 2G reduced speeds thereafter."​
2G is really, really slow (<0.1Mbit/s compared to 4G at 15Mbit/s typical speeds) so this is not at all like using your phone at home! This makes your phone virtually unusable for data! They also have a 30 day plan for $25, but data is capped at 100MB/day, and it only uses 3G/2G.

Euro SIMS are generally cheaper than $10/day, allow 4G speed with no speed throttling, and still have all the advantages of using your own phone. If I bought two Orange SIMS for $50 each for 14 days and paid the additional ~$24 for another 14 days and 5GB more, the total cost is only about $150. Or I could just buy one for my phone and set it up as a personal hotspot (allowed on the Orange card) and tether my wife's phone and our tablets. 4G speed, and 15GB for 30 days.

We used an Ortel SIM in 2016 and it worked great, until we ran out of data and couldn't figure out how to do a top-up. Orange offers English support.

I'm still not seeing anything that offers the speed, data, and relative ease of use of the Orange SIM.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

Gluhwein said:


> You beat me to it. I also recommend only using hotel WiFi. Most big cities also have free public WiFi. In Munich we sat outside the Apple store and had terrific internet. Access in the Welt is also awesome. Even in the Czech Republic we were able to find free hotspots. Almost every tourist site we visited also had some WIFi. Why pay? I only went out of airplane mode once to make a phone call. But then again, I'm a cheap SOB.


Yes, your frugality is well known to me (and probably everyone else in this forum!). However, I'm not a cheap SOB, and I don't mind paying extra to use my phone in Europe just like I use it at home. I want to be able to post to social media each day if I want, access my Google calendar and the TripIt app, use Google maps for walking navigation if necessary, find restaurants using Yelp, use the Rick Steves app while touring an attraction, be able to call restaurants and hotels while on the go, and call and text people if necessary, none of which you can do using hotel WiFi. Sure, we'll use the hotel WiFi when we're at our hotels to save on our data allocation, but my experience from 2016, especially in Italy, is that WiFi in Europe is not what we're used to in the US.


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## Gary J (Dec 18, 2013)

SD ///M4 said:


> Yes, your frugality is well known to me (and probably everyone else in this forum!). However, I'm not a cheap SOB, and I don't mind paying extra to use my phone in Europe just like I use it at home. I want to be able to post to social media each day if I want, access my Google calendar and the TripIt app, use Google maps for walking navigation if necessary, find restaurants using Yelp, use the Rick Steves app while touring an attraction, be able to call restaurants and hotels while on the go, and call and text people if necessary, none of which you can do using hotel WiFi. Sure, we'll use the hotel WiFi when we're at our hotels to save on our data allocation, but my experience from 2016, especially in Italy, is that WiFi in Europe is not what we're used to in the US.


Also with some Euro Sims you can use data everywhere but phone calls only in the country where you bought it.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

Gary J said:


> Also with some Euro Sims you can use data everywhere but phone calls only in the country where you bought it.


Not a problem with the Orange Holiday SIM:

2 hours of calls from Europe to the world
1000 texts from Europe to the world​


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## Wildblue (Dec 31, 2012)

Good topic here.


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## mconley3 (Jun 24, 2015)

We travel out of country 1 to 2 times a year and got very tired of Verizon's international plans. I know you are not looking to switch you phone or carrier right now, but at some point take a look at GoogleFI. We've been on it for a year and are very happy with the service and the straight forward billing. In the meantime, seems like the Orange card may work well.



SD ///M4 said:


> We have Verizon. Their International travel plans are ridiculously overpriced. TravelPass is a pay-as-you-go plan, at $10/day. This is the only Verizon plan that allows you to use your domestic data limits. If I activate both my phone and my wife's phone on the Travel Pass plan, then it's $10/day x 2 x 20 days, or $400, assuming that we both use it each day. But unfortunately, they do speed throttling:


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## Trinitony (Feb 10, 2010)

We have a Sprint plan for text, phone and data use in the US. Sprint offers a Global Roaming plan with free texting, lower cost (20 cents per minute) local phone calls - but I am not sure about the data plan as we used our AirBnB wifi. There is no extra charge for the Global Roaming plan and I think it works in most EU countries..Other cell phone services providers may well have a similar program.


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## Gluhwein (Aug 21, 2011)

SD ///M4 said:


> Yes, your frugality is well known to me (and probably everyone else in this forum!). However, I'm not a cheap SOB, and I don't mind paying extra to use my phone in Europe just like I use it at home. I want to be able to post to social media each day if I want, access my Google calendar and the TripIt app, use Google maps for walking navigation if necessary, find restaurants using Yelp, use the Rick Steves app while touring an attraction, be able to call restaurants and hotels while on the go, and call and text people if necessary, none of which you can do using hotel WiFi. Sure, we'll use the hotel WiFi when we're at our hotels to save on our data allocation, but my experience from 2016, especially in Italy, is that WiFi in Europe is not what we're used to in the US.


Burned. 

But I was able to do most of those things you mentioned using public WiFi. I just hate to see folks making those Europeans even richer.


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## fg9ze (Feb 28, 2014)

You could try using Google's Project Fi service. You have unlimited texts and can use your data plan in over 170 countries (at no extra charge), but they charge $0.20 per minute for phone calls made while outside the U.S. The only caveat (a major one) is that you need to have one of their supported devices to use the service. There are workarounds if you have an iPhone, but you still need access to one of the supported devices to activate the sim card (i.e. borrow one from a friend or buy an old cheap model).


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## Fun MiLes (Jun 8, 2011)

fg9ze said:


> You could try using Google's Project Fi service. You have unlimited texts and can use your data plan in over 170 countries (at no extra charge), but they charge $0.20 per minute for phone calls made while outside the U.S. The only caveat (a major one) is that you need to have one of their supported devices to use the service. There are workarounds if you have an iPhone, but you still need access to one of the supported devices to activate the sim card (i.e. borrow one from a friend or buy an old cheap model).


I second this recommendation. WiFi calls are free to the US. The data charge is $10/GB but capped at $60 and you get full speed up to 15GB. You can also get a few extra data SIMs at no additional cost if you have a tablet with LTE for example.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

fg9ze said:


> You could try using Google's Project Fi service. You have unlimited texts and can use your data plan in over 170 countries (at no extra charge), but they charge $0.20 per minute for phone calls made while outside the U.S. The only caveat (a major one) is that you need to have one of their supported devices to use the service. There are workarounds if you have an iPhone, but you still need access to one of the supported devices to activate the sim card (i.e. borrow one from a friend or buy an old cheap model).





Fun MiLes said:


> I second this recommendation. WiFi calls are free to the US. The data charge is $10/GB but capped at $60 and you get full speed up to 15GB. You can also get a few extra data SIMs at no additional cost if you have a tablet with LTE for example.


I checked into Google Fi. Their list of supported phones is extremely short (mostly Google phones). Our Samsung S8s are not on it. We would also have to switch plans and that's not an option at this point.

I ended up renting a pocket WiFi (MiFi) device from Travel WiFi. 5GB/day of 4G for 20 days, connect up to 10 devices, delivery to my hotel in Munich before our arrival (15€), pre-paid postal drop-off in Paris (3.5€), all for 8€/day. I contacted them directly asking for discounts/free shipping based on competitor's offerings and got a 15% discount. VAT however, is high, at 25.7€. Travel WiFi was a PC Magazine Editor's Choice in their March review.

This will allow us to use Google Maps on either phone to navigate on foot in cities, use Yelp/TripAdvisor while sightseeing, supplement the Nav with Google Maps on a tablet while driving, upload photos to cloud services from my Wi-Fi enabled Canon 80D, and browse and post to social media during our trip. We'll be in Munich for four days, so my backup plan is to buy a SIM in Munich if necessary.

We leave in just over two weeks, arriving in Munich on Sunday, July 15 and we end our trip in Paris, returning on Saturday, August 4. In between we'll travel in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France. I'll report back at the end of the trip on how well this worked for us.


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## Ibiza (Jun 15, 2007)

SD ///M4 said:


> We leave in just over two weeks, arriving in Munich on Sunday, July 15 and we end our trip in Paris, returning on Saturday, August 4. In between we'll travel in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France. I'll report back at the end of the trip on how well this worked for us.


I depart in 11 days for the Puglia region of southern Italy and then Milano for the Summer Sales- looking forward to my Enterprise 6MT rental in southern Italy (tough for a ED trip as the drive is 14 hrs from the Welt to Gallipoli, IT).

Notice that you will be in Italy, as the Spring/Summer 2018 sale season starts in 8 days, on July 6, 2018. Your Tax Free will be at CDG, as I was last at the CDG VAT back in February and its now automated. Be prepared for lines for the LV Paris stores. Not so much at the Christian Louboutin or Herme's.


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## chrischeung (Sep 1, 2002)

For those with a US Corporate phone plan:

Call your phone company to see if they offer a roaming plan that you can temporarily switch to. My provider does. It was only a few dollars extra per month (pro-rated) for unlimited data and texts (not calls, but can use wifi calling). You just change onto and off the plan when you go an come.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

As promised, here's my report on the Travel WiFi hotspot that I rented for our trip. This turned out to be an excellent choice and I'm extremely satisfied the device and with their service.

To recap, their Euro Premium plan allows you to pick the number of days that you need the hotspot which can be used in any EU country plus Switzerland. The more days you rent, the cheaper the cost is per day. You can connect up to 10 devices at 4G speeds, up to 5GB/day in all countries except France, where the data is unlimited. You can pick up for free at CDG and several other locations in Paris, or for 15€, they will ship the device to any European hotel where you have a confirmed reservation. They also supply a pre-paid mailer and that cost depends on where you intend to return the device. You can drop off the device for free at their office in Paris or, for 3.5€, drop it in any mailbox in France. Returns outside France cost 15€. Since our trip was ending in Paris, this was an additional bonus.

The device comes with a European AC/USB adapter, Type F, usable in most EU countries except Italy and Switzerland, a USB charging cable that can be used with the AC adapter or any USB charger, a cute blue and white striped, very French looking zippered storage pouch, instructions, and a pre-paid mailer if you've opted for that.

The device was at our Munich hotel when we arrived on Sunday, July 15. We turned it on and connected all of our device, including our two phones, two tablets, a Canon EOS 80D DSLR, and a GoPro HERO6. Our trip included Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France, and we got 4G speeds in all major cities we traveled to or through, only occasionally dropping to 3G speeds when we were in the middle of the boonies, where it really didn't matter.

We used the hotel's WiFi whenever we were at a hotel, but used the hotspot whenever we were walking, taking the U-Bahn and trams in Munich before our delivery, the train from Mannheim to Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix, and the Metro in Paris. We also used it while driving.

We took several 12V/dual USB adapters to use in the car, my wife's M3. There's a 12V port at the rear of the center console, in the back seat, and we just plugged the hotspot into the 12V/USB adapter we used in that port, so it was out of the way. This allowed us to use Google Maps on one of the WiFi-only tablets for navigation. When in Europe, the US-spec Nav system can't receive real-time traffic data, so whenever Google Maps suggested a faster alternate route, we took that route. With the glove box open, our 10" Samsung Tab S3s would stay propped up and stay in place for all but the most spirited driving (Stelvio pass, for example). We plugged it into the "hidden" 12V port under the glove box using another 12V/USB adapter. I plugged my phone into the other USB port on the same adapter and I was able to post to Facebook and send/receive e-mail while my wife was driving.

Google Maps is also surprisingly good for public transportation in Europe. In Munich and Paris it would show us where the nearest subway station was, walking directions to get there, which lines to take and in which direction, how many stops, where to transfer, and navigate us from the final stop to our destination with walking directions.

For the German Grand Prix we stayed in Heidelburg using Marriott points. To avoid traffic to/from the Grand Prix, we drove from Heidelberg to Mannheim each day, and then took the train from Mannheim to Hockenheimring. We had access to up-to-date train schedules and when the queues for the shuttle bus from Hockenheimring back to the Hockenheim Hbf got too long, we walked, using Google Maps for navigation.

Having constant Internet connectivity with such a huge data allowance allowed us to check in at every location we visited, and upload lots of pictures. We had lots of friends and family following our trip and they really appreciated the documentation of our trip that I was able to do. We also were able to use Skype to make phone calls back to the US, which became necessary when not one, but two of our credit cards were compromised and we had to call the credit card companies. We also used Skype to talk with family during the trip.

This was our third Euro Delivery and the data connectivity on the two previous trips was disappointing. I was thrilled at how well this worked with my Verizon phone, who's European data plan is slow and expensive.

On Friday night, August 3, our last night in Paris, when we got back to our hotel, we just packed up the device, adapter, and cable in the striped bag, put it in the pre-paid mailer, and dropped it in the yellow mailbox in front of the hotel. It couldn't have been easier.

Our rental was for 20 days at an initial cost of 8€/day. I had contacted them by e-mail several weeks before our trip and asked about a discount, since SkyRoam and other competitors were offering discounts and/or free shipping, so they gave me a 15% discount. The total cost was 154.50€, far less than it would have cost for just one phone on Verizon's plan, with far more data and much faster speed.

As I said, I am extremely pleased with how simple and easy a solution that this was, and would highly recommend this service if you need/want constant connectivity with a large data allowance at 4G speed.


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## Ibiza (Jun 15, 2007)

Great write up for the 'Festers who have a Verizon plan.

Regarding Google Maps, one can download a selected area map to use offline, but will not have real-time traffic info. Personally, I prefer Waze for traffic information, as I will be heading to Scotland in a month and run Waze that alerts me to the speed cameras.

All your adaptors you were running gave me a headache, as I assume that your wife's M didn't have wireless charging? As with the glovebox USB and center console USB thats 3 charge locations. In lieu of all the cables, the Anker PowerCore+ 26800 portable charger is a great option.

Now your wait for West coast delivery:thumbdwn:


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

Ibiza said:


> Great write up for the 'Festers who have a Verizon plan.
> 
> Regarding Google Maps, one can download a selected area map to use offline, but will not have real-time traffic info. Personally, I prefer Waze for traffic information, as I will be heading to Scotland in a month and run Waze that alerts me to the speed cameras.
> 
> All your adaptors you were running gave me a headache, as I assume that your wife's M didn't have wireless charging? As with the glovebox USB and center console USB thats 3 charge locations. In lieu of all the cables, the Anker PowerCore+ 26800 portable charger is a great option.


When I've used Waze on my Samsung S8 while plugged into a 12V/USB port I have run the battery down to nothing. Not sure why that app uses more juice than all other apps combined, but for longer trips I avoid it.

From all the feedback that I've read, wireless charging in a BMW is a waste of money, takes up too much space in the already limited center console compartment, is slow, and it's only going to work for one phone at a time anyway. I only ran two dual port USB adapters, one for the hotspot on the rear 12V port, and one in the 12V port under the dash for both my phone and my tablet. You must get headaches easily.  Those two adapters are much smaller and lighter than an Anker Powercore+ 26800 power bank and the 26800 only has two ports. Why you'd run USB devices from a power bank in a car when you have multiple sources of live power baffles me. :dunno: And you still need all the cables, as many cables as you have devices, regardless of what you use for power. In my M4 I have a 12V/dual port USB adapter plugged into all of my 12V ports to make it easier for passengers who need to charge their devices. I also have a small pouch in the glove box with micro-USB, USB-C, and lightning cables if needed.

As for power banks, I do have two Anker power banks, a smaller PowerCore II Slim 10000 Ultra Slim which I always carry in my backpack as backup for my phone, and a larger PowerCore II 2000, if I think I'm going to need more juice for multiple devices. We carried either one of these while sightseeing to keep our phones topped up, or the occasional day when the hotspot was going all day and needed topping up. And we could recharge those from one of my multiple USB ports while we're driving!


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## Ibiza (Jun 15, 2007)

SD ///M4 said:


> From all the feedback that I've read, wireless charging in a BMW is a waste of money, takes up too much space in the already limited center console compartment, is slow, and it's only going to work for one phone at a time anyway.)


Wireless charging in the M3/M4 is tight in the center console, as I often forget the iPhone X in the console, but my 'burner phone' iPhone 7+ stays in a cup holder. The X5M wireless charging is is a vertical charge slot, as that doesn't take up much room.

To date the new M850 (G15) has wireless charging included (6NW), but for the X5 (G05) is an option for 6NW. Significance is the ConnectedDrive app remote software update and wireless key comfort access/start-stop requires 6NW so the phone can rest in the center cradle- these are 1st two models announced with this ConnectedDrive app feature, as its is expected that the G20 will also have this feature so wireless charging will be embraced.

There has to be an issue with your Waze android app that it is draining the battery, probably a software bug that is stressing the phone CPU.


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