Occasional Use Dongle Whats Best (1 Viewer)

[Geo]

Bro In law
Over from Canada has been borrowing my Contract dongle to keep in touch with e-mail and family back home during this flight fiasco,he would like to purchase his own PAYG when he's over again in Sept
As you will appreciate it will only get occasional use for about 6 weeks a year
Whats his best options
Thanks
Geo

 

[dave jm]

T mobile are doing half price on dongles..they also do a sim @ £2 a day....or he could buy an unlocked dongle on ebay and use any providor...Dave

 

[ehuplad]

Vodafone i believe you do not lose your remaining credit at the end of the month

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[gazz]

i use a t-mobile payg dongle,

you just put credit on it, and use it as you need to, £2 a day if you just use it as and when, or you can buy a weeks worth for £7.50, or a months worth for £15,

this is time related, so if you buy a months worth and only check on e-mail, you loose out, but it's very handy for me as i only use the ongle when out in the van, will be buying aweeks worth of usage tommorow for peterborough show,

you need to log on once in a 6 month period to keep it active, so he'd have to leave it with you to do that once a year, but credit left on it stays there, as it's not credit for usage, it's credit to buy usage in advance so to speak, i will be using up the last of the credit i put on last august tommorow.

 

[lunarman]

The vodafone sim available on ebay hereLink Removed

Costs £15 for 1gb but there is no expiry so it lasts until it is all used. The only proviso is that you must log on at least once every 3 months.

Vodafone donot sell these themselves any more they are all time limited and any unused allowance is lost after 30 days. So grab one while you can.

 

[Larrynwin]

I prefer the Vodafone payg

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[GJH]

When my T-Mobile contract ended I had the dongle unlocked and obtained two free SIMS from "3". When you put credit on your account it doesn't expire - much as Gazz described for T-Mobile.

With "3" though:
1) you get 150 MB allowance (plus texts) which lasts 3 months every time you top up your account. I did that on January 13th and it expired last week. I only used about half in our trips away in the van (including Newark) and other trips away from home.
2) you can buy a 1 day add on for 50p, a 7 day add-on for £2.50 and a 1 month add-on for £5 which gives you "fair usage". I've just bought a 1 month add-on today to cover our 15 day trip which starts with Peterborough tomorrow. These are different add-ons from the ones which "3" have for working with their dongles but they work and are much cheaper.

One important factor not mentioned previously is network coverage. As a backup to the "3" SIM if I can't get a "3" signal I can use the one in my Vodafone mobile phone (or just link the phone to the netbook by cable or Bluetooth and use it as a modem) for 50p per day.

I'm hoping that the combination of "3" and Vodafone SIMs will ensure I have coverage wherever we go.

Graham

 

[vindiboy]

I have a three pay and go Dongle, I can let it die for up to a year and just top up again as and when I want to use it and as we travel Europe for up to 6 months every year it is the best option for us, top ups are £10 £15 or £20 pounds, I use £15 top ups and that is more than adequate for my use, 3 gig, I don't know what the Dongle costs to buy currently but they were available on the net recently for free.:thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

[vindiboy]

I forgot to say that top ups on the 3 Dongle last for thirty days or sooner if you use up the quota :thumb::thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[haganap]

Ive got a 3 one he can have for free if you want it Geo?

Don't use it as I have an Orange contract dongle that during Easter cost me a fortune!! bloody computer games.

Its PAYG. use it or lose it so whatever you put on you use with in 30 days or lose it.

Just let me know.

Paul

 

[Geo]

Ive got a 3 one he can have for free if you want it Geo?

Don't use it as I have an Orange contract dongle that during Easter cost me a fortune!! bloody computer games.

Its PAYG. use it or lose it so whatever you put on you use with in 30 days or lose it.

Just let me know.

Paul

Any discount See you at Peterborough chat then :thumb:
Geo

 

[gazz]

one thing to note about using a dongle in a motorhome,

if you have an alli bodied van, and seitz windows with the metalic blinds, then you have a pretty good fariday cage, i.e. radio signals will find it very hard to get in and out,

i deffo find that, during the day i can get a 3G signal, but at night i can barely get a gprs signal,

so i ran a 5 meter long usb extension cable from the roof vent, along the overhead lockers and the excess is coiled up in the end locker, i pull the cable down and plug it into the latop where i usually sit on the pooter in the van, the dongle is plugged into the other end of the usb cable, and thus is outside the metal of the van,

i do find i can get the best signal by pointing the dongle about a bit,
the dongle can take an external antenna, but i'd prolly loose more signal in the coax than by placing the dongle on the end of a usb extension cable.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[carl65]

I think they are all of a muchness these days 3 is a bit patchy with signal i use vodaphone never had a problem with it ,

see you this weekend ,

ps any chance you can bring a sparkplug spanner problems with genni again ?