3 internet dongles?

[Harry Bloomfield]

I can't seem to find much information on there terms of usage...

It seems to be a case of paying £15 and getting 3Gb of download.

Is it a case of paying £15 a month and if you haven't used the 3Gb within that month - tough? Or Are you paying £15 and can use up the 3Gb when it suits you.

Really, I need something I can use like the latter. I have wired broadband access most of the time, but something to provide access for the odd few days/weeks away per year would be useful, without paying for what would go unused.

[Rob]

I just bought a Vodaphone PAYG USB dongle. Seems to work fine, but i'd mention:

You pay £15 for every 1GB of data. The £35 dongle comes with 1GB, which is nice, but you have to connect at least once every 180 days. I think if you forget you lose whatever credit you have.

80% coverage is nothing like - I suspect it's a reference to population, so much of the countryside appears to be out.

The nice Mac application doesn't work with Snow Leopard.

HTH, Rob

[dennis]

Yes tough.

They do several pre pay packages which may be more to your liking. I bought a 12G 12 month one for £99 (less some discount you can't get). You can use what you want for the 12 months as long as you don't exceed 12G.

[Owain]

If it's the PAYG then (AFAICS from the three useless website) you get

3 months to use whatever Top-Up you put on it, then it expires. So the minimum appears to be =A360 and 12GB per annum if you time it right.

But there are so many deals out there ...

Owain

[Harry Bloomfield]

Still excessive for my occasional needs, but thanks.

[RubberBiker]

Do you really need a dongle for occasional use?

I'm on Orange and have a 3G phone (SonyEricsson w980). This came with a usb cable, minimal set up on my laptop (because I run Ubuntu linux!)

- and a little search about on online forums to figure out how to configure the phone.

Now I just plug phone into computer, press one button on the phone, and I'm connected - charges around =A31 to =A32 in the months I use a mobile connection.

And don't forget free wifi hotspots are fairly common now - you can usually park up close to a mcdonalds and get connected.

[Tim Downie]

Actually, I there's been some debate about this. Whatever, apparently a quick call to Vodafone will get your credit restored.

Argos have got it on offer at present for £29.99.

also need to remember that you can *only* top this one up in £15 increments.

Tim

[Dave Liquorice]

Beat me to it, I was going to suggest that Harry looks at Vodafone (note spolling...)

I'm also looking for a real PAYG mobile data solution that doesn't require you to pay =A3x every month for gigabytes of data. I expect 1GB would do me for a year...

I can live with that. I currently live with =A32.55/Megabyte on GPRS... What I can't live with is =A310/month for far more data than I'll ever use in most months.

As a side issue is the nice little WiFi to Broadband USB dongle adapter(*) that 3 do locked to 3 dongles or can you plug a vodafone dongle into it?

Almost certainly, I want it for mobile use and mostly in cities/densely populated areas rather than a backup at home (way out in the sticks).

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:32:41 +0100 someone who may be "Tim Downie" wrote this:-

When I looked, earlier this year, the situation was:

Vodafone, more expensive per MB but the top-up doesn't expire (except in the most unusual circumstances of not being used for 6 months account superseded, not being used for a year account exterminated).

Three, cheaper per MB, but the top-up vanishes after a month no matter how much is left.

Conclusion, light data users should use the Vodafone one, heavy data users should use the Three one. Where is the dividing line between them? People should get off their backsides and not expect spoon- feeding. People can work this out themselves for their anticipated use.

T-Mobile also did one, though the pricing for this was too complicated for my pretty little head. Pay per day, week or month IIRC. Payment involved sending text messages IIRC, how old fashioned and primitive.

[Harry Bloomfield]

TMobile offer one at £29.35, with 3Gb of use for a £2 topup limited to being used within 24 hours. Fine if you can plan to use it, but I have never found TMobile to be much use for anything, even their phone network is poor.

I checked out Argos, for the Voda offer at £29.99 - but none in stock and it doesn't say whether it included £15 of top up.

Everywhere else seems to do the Voda at £34.99 including a £15 top up, so I collected one from Maplin, plugged it and it is now set up - just wondering now what the options might be for topping it up?

I notice the sim is removable, does that mean it can be replaced with that from another provider? Or can the expired 1Gb of sim be transferred into a phone, to allow it to be topped up?

I don't know if it usual, but the Voda I got includes software and the facility to send SMS messages.

It also connects to which ever is the fastest of the Voda networks between 3G, GPRS or the normal broadband phone network.

Cheers....

[OG]

Afraid not - you have 90 days to register the top up from the day you buy it, then it lasts for 30 days.

However, you can get 1Gb /30 days for £10.

The other issue is the coverage. 3 does seem to have the edge over other networks.

[Bob Minchin]

Anyone got any experience of the charging rate for these dongles when roaming in Western Europe particularly France?

I'd want a pay as you go as I'd only need it for a couple of 1 week sessions per year.

Bob

[Andy Burns]

I think you'd need nasal passages as wide as your wallet, might be cheaper to buy a local PAYG dongle when you get there, certainly the case in Spain.

[Pete Zahut]

Harry, I can't see the original post (so if this has been suggested already, or I make a silly suggestion, sorry) but why not get one of these:

it with the software and instructions from here:

'd take a look at 3 themselves (better using the Telstra software after unlocking the dongle) - get a free SIM from their website here:

and add internet daily for 50p, internet weekly for £2.50 or internet monthly for £5. These bundles are meant to be used for internet on your phone but for low usage they (hopefully) won't complain.

[R D S]

I was getting 3Gb per month for £15pm DD with a USB dongle, it was flaky at best, when it came to not renewing their retention dept gave me a proper modem and upped me to 15Gb per month.

The modem rocks, I get better speed than on wired (up to) 8Mb BB from BT.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Pete Zahut presented the following explanation :

since when each time I retry it has complained that 'email address already exists'. I have tried other email addresses with the same data, but still get the same complaint, so I am stumped.

[Derek Geldard]

Well god help the rest of them then.

IME utterly useless on trains. I managed less than 2 minutes connection with never more than 2 bars on a 4.5 hour trip Exeter >

Leeds, and ditto Glasgow > Leeds. (Cross Country trains HST pufferware

- No wifi).

In city centre hotels you are invariably better off looking for an unencrypted WIFI connection leaking from a nearby restaurant / Night Club (Yes !) / Wetherspoons etc.

Derek

[John Stumbles]

What do you mean by 'modem'? I thought modems were (generally) wired gizmos

- aren't we talking about wireless kit here?

[Bambleweeny57]

"Modem" is shorthand for MOdulator-DEModulator. It really just means transmitting one type of signal on top of another, e.g. data over phone lines or data over a wireless signal. The term is used less for wireless devices because the modem bit is just a small part of what the device as a whole does.

BW

[Roger Mills]

A dongle *is* a modem. It connects your computer to the internet via the mobile phone network in a similar way to that in which a 'conventional' modem works over a wired phone network.