If you
travel, you know the pain of getting online wherever you go. Either you pay
offensive tethering charges when you really shouldn’t be, or, in some cases,
it’s just impossible to access the Internet unless you’ve got an in-country SIM
card. As we’re increasingly global, this is increasingly annoying, but there’s
one Kickstarter, Anqor, that supposedly has the solution.
Always Online
The Anqor
itself is fairly straightforward, as a device. It’s about the size of a novelty
paperback you get as a gift, and relatively light, although that’s just the
prototype; the end goal device is roughly the size of an iPhone. And it works
relatively simply, as well; it connects to a 3G or 4G network in the area
you’re in, connects to up to ten of the devices you have handy, and we’re off
to the races. It’s how it connects that’s more interesting.
SIMulated Card
As we
all know, to access a local mobile network, you need a SIM card, which is
profoundly annoying. What the Anqor does is determine where you are, riffle
through the company’s library of SIM cards, upload the profile, and you’re
done. The tradeoff, of course, is that this doesn’t come cheap. Global
travelers looking for this convenience will be paying roughly $52 a month for
the library, although you can pause a subscription at any time, and for just
one country, it’ll be a more reasonable $16 a month.
Online Anywhere
If
you’re a world traveler, you know from experience that you’ll be running around
juggling SIM cards anyway, so you may as well clean some of the clutter out of
your life. And, if you never leave the country but your job requires constant
Internet access, this might be worth it as well. The device, without data plan,
will start at around $270 if you get in early on the Kickstarter.
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