Use Wi-Fi in your car
Want reliable internet on the road? Jonathan Parkyn explains how to add Wi-Fi to any car – and avoid being taken for a ride by overpriced data plans
Wi-Fi is everywhere, from your local café to airport lounges. Yet inside your car it’s often missing unless you have a recent or expensive model (see box opposite). That’s a real drawback. In-car Wi-Fi lets you share internet access with passengers, stream music without draining your phone’s data, use maps and live traffic updates even with your phone off and keep tablets connected to entertain passengers during long trips.
But even if your car didn’t come with built-in Wi-Fi, that doesn’t mean you can’t add it yourself. Here we’ll explain how to turn almost any car into a rolling hotspot – from tethering your phone to installing a mobile router – as well as how to secure the best data deals.
Turn your phone into a hotspot
Tethering (using your phone as a mobile hotspot) is the simplest way to get Wi-Fi in your car. It shares your phone’s data connection with other devices nearby, such as laptops, tablets or other phones. The UK’s big four networks (EE, O2, Vodafone and Three) allow tethering, but some cheaper or older plans may limit hotspot use or cap how much data you can share. Giffgaff’s fair-use policy, for example, warns against “regularly tethering to 12 or more devices” and caps usage at “around 650GB twice within a six-month period” (www.snipca. com/55751). Check your plan’s terms to avoid unexpected charges or throttling.