In Reply to: mifi modem posted by lynp on Sunday, 8. April 2012 at 13:48 Bali Time:
I just saw one for sale in Indomaret or Alfamart last week in northern Bali.
price IDR880,000 but dunno if its locked or not, dunno what frequencies it supports...
Currently the best one to buy is the Australian Vodafone PocketWifi2.
It is the only one that supports 2100MHz, 900Mhz, and 850Mhz which covers you for all carriers in Australia which are also the 3 main frequencies used globally for 3G modems.
On VF website, its listed as $71 but by entering OZBARGAIN at the discount code before checkout, its reduced to $35.50!
It comes with a VF Sim including 3GB data for 1 month. This modem is still locked at this stage to VF.
To Unlock:
Step 1. Try to unlock the modem on the VF site... sometimes gives it free for prepaid but usually quotes a high price.. if not free go to step 2.
Step 2. if not free from VF, find someone on ebay to supply you an unlock code for around $12 (I used a UK ebay seller called littlecube2010 3 separate times with no problems)
Once in Bali: I used both XL and Telkomsel Simpati while I was there (stayed in 2 different locations with different coverage).
As long as you get the correct APN details configured in the modem it should work smoothly.
Tip #1 Get the APN details from the websites before you leave AU.
Tip #2 If you find that your MiFi is not connecting properly (like I did on XL - it kept saying connecting then disconnected), try putting the sim into a phone and accessing internet from your phone successfully first, then putting back into the MiFi and it seemed to work perfectly. I had no problems with Telkomsel (apart from initially I didn't follow tip #1)
Mark.