We're off for half term and Mrs F keeps on about getting a mobile broadband dongle for the laptop. I don't really care as the break away from the screen makes a change but I admit sometimes we need to arrange stuff and not having the net slows things down.
We would only use it for 1-2wks about 4 times a year plus 4/5 weekends so I guess a PAYG would be best.
Any thoughts??
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 18 Feb 11 at 22:36
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I have one for infrequent use - it's an O2 as the signal is a known quantity for me. They're all much of a muchness - try and get a deal from your mobile supplier.
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Unlike phone top ups only last 30 days so can be quite costly.
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There's almost as many dongle tariffs as mobile ones, so making a selection is not easy.
Unlike PAYG mobiles, dongle data purchases tend to expire after 30 or 60 days, which has obvious limitations.
I'm with Orange for my mobile and have a 'linked offer' dongle which is £5 a month.
It's on contract, so no messing around buying packets of data.
The cost is £60 a year, but I reckon you could easily spend that on buying data each time you want to use your dongle, which is about nine times a year.
Handy to have a contract dongle as a home standby.
All the above assumes moderate use - emails, surfing etc.
Downloading films via a dongle will be expensive, whatever tariff you choose.
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 18 Feb 11 at 22:59
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Fenlander - I have a Vodafone K3570 mobile broadband dongle which I can post to you for a tenner if you can find a suitable Vodafone SIM-only deal.
tinyurl.com/64lntdo although I've lost the cap off mine that fits over the USB connector - not vital IMO. Installation software is on the dongle.
I bought it with a 3GB 30 day SIM towards the end of last year to tide us over while waiting for a landline in our new house; Vodafone were the cheapest I could find at the time for that package. It seemed to work pretty well on the whole.
Of course I won't be offended if you find a good deal elsewhere :)
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I don't think any SIM-only deal will work because they are for voice calls in a mobile.
Think I tried a mobile SIM in my previous dongle and it was no go.
I'm guessing the networks have 'dongle only' numbers.
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Firstly thanks for the offer Focus but Mrs F wants this for when we go away this weekend so it will have to be a local shop purchase tomorrow.
I had no idea the deals would be so complicated. I want to stick with PAYG for simplicity. Self and Mrs F have Tesco PAYG phones so no contracts to piggy back a dongle on. We don't use mobiles at all for business.
I've looked at the coverage maps and a place we visit several times a year for holiday when it must work is only OK for O2 and Orange with 3 just a possibility.
Annoys me the pre-pay data expires after 30 days with most.
Seems the best deal might be the O2 dongle only where you then buy data by the day/week/month. It's £7 a week so for example that would be the cost for next week... better than getting one with £15 of data included which has to be used in 30 days which we wouldn't.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 18 Feb 11 at 23:53
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>> Unlike phone top ups only last 30 days so can be quite costly.
I have a Vodafone data SIM used in a USB dongle. It has not been used in over a year and still has over £5 credit. So I assume it's an issue for new contracts.
The Vodafone SIM is currently in an unlocked 3 MiFi wireless device.... also hardly used. I now have a phone with a mobile hotspot on it.
Edit: My Vodafone SIM is PAYG and is not affected by a 30 day timeout. Are new ones different? Coverage was good too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 19 Feb 11 at 00:01
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I can't claim to have looked at every PAYG but most do seem to have a 30 or 90 day limit on saving paid for data amounts.
Actually just spotted another O2 deal that is an alternative... Buy the dongle for £10 and sign up to just £5/mth for 500GB a month. Wonder if that is enough data for probably no more than a week or two at most general surfing/mails + the odd Youtube??
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...Wonder if that is enough data for probably no more than a week or two at most general surfing/mails + the odd Youtube??...
Should be plenty.
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>>Buy the dongle for £10 and sign up to just £5/mth for 500GB a month. >>
I think I just might last about three years on that figure.....:-)
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I have one PAYG on O2 for infrequent use.
£10 for a 1gig with a month to use it.
See if you can find out the expected coverage where you want to use it - I find it patchy, and the map is over optimistic in the sticks - and it isn't the same for all providers.
Consider a USB extension lead ( 1 metre minimum) and a few clothes pegs to have the dongle in the middle of the window off the curtains, otherwise the data-rate maybe GPRS instead of 3G, or not even working at all.
Even working properly it seems slow compared to my 1meg ADSL at home.
I think the figures above are a few orders of magnitude out - more like 500meg for £5
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Sat 19 Feb 11 at 04:39
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Having an Iphone does away with the need for a dongle.
Found it invaluable in the states, linked to free wifi in coffee shops and hotels. I was tempted to pack a netbook, but glad I didn't.
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>> Firstly thanks for the offer Focus but Mrs F wants this for when we go
>> away this weekend so it will have to be a local shop purchase tomorrow.
Ah yes - missed that. Ebay it is then :)
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>> I don't think any SIM-only deal will work because they are for voice calls in
>> a mobile.
I meant a broadband SIM - you can get them without the dongle, or you could last time I looked.
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... meant a broadband SIM - you can get them without the dongle, or you could last time I looked...
I'd not looked for ages, thanks.
Another John H is right about speed and coverage.
Dongles work better away from the laptop, some come with a USB extension lead, but some don't.
The lead also works as an aerial.
Top speed third generation coverage is patchy outside major towns and cities, particularly in the frozen North.
Having said that, second gen is OK for playing on here, and limited surfing.
But anything which requires a lot of data is hard work - even Google Maps is painfully slow.
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It's Mrs F's idea so it's on her shopping list today to pop in the O2 shop and get a PAYG with the starter offer of 2mths worth of data use and 3mths to use it in for the price 1mths would normally be (if that makes sense).
I do have at least one USB extn lead somewhere. Will try and find it to avoid a local PC World purchase as no doubt a 50p lead will be £9.
Fully appreciate the limits on data speeds.. it really will only be for shop website, MSN, mails, forums etc... and facebook of course once negotiations are complete. No feature film streaming or such stuff though.
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Vodafone has best overall coverage, there are exceptions such as my mother-in-laws house where son's O2 has signal and my Vodafone doesnt though elsewhere Vodafone almost always has a signal where as O2 less so.
That being said I would not rule out changing to 02 because they have some great pay monthly deals.
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...Vodafone has best overall coverage...
Also my experience.
I was on £15 a month with Vodafone, so £5 a month with Orange was a worthwhile saving.
But the coverage is inferior.
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We tend to have just a handful of regular locations where signal will be important. Some of those I know are OK for O2 and others come up OK on the maps as far as I can see. However it's not business crucial with us so anywhere that's a bit weak from time to time isn't the end of the world.
Oddly Vodaphone show no mobile broadband coverage at all in the most crucial regular village holiday location for us.
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>> Oddly Vodaphone show no mobile broadband coverage at all in the most crucial regular village holiday location for us. >>
Perhaps try Vodafone instead ;-)
Seriously its probably an error.
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Don't trust the maps - trust your phone's service provider.
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>> Don't trust the maps - trust your phone's service provider.
Don't trust your service provider OR the maps.
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What I meant was trust the bars on the phone ! (Again Zero is right !)
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All this homage is getting tiresome PU.
You are ejected from the sect.
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No No No No No - ok then see ya !
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No No No No No - Dont Go! come back!
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Of course it might have been better if I'd been looking at the O2 mobile broadband coverage page rather than that of their mobile phone network when I made my assumptions!
Oh well at least the O2 dongle came with a 30 day happiness (their phrase) return agreement.
Already been out and bought one on another network after more careful checks by house postcode as well as the maps. In a Stu type way I'm not telling you what network that is until I'm in the land of mellow stone later and know it works.... just in case I've been fooled twice!
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Well finally sorted...but the Stu effect had gripped us. Yesterday up to PCWorld and bought a 3 dongle with the 3GB pre-pay. Arrived here last night and the dongle didn't install. 20 mins on the 3 helpline and it was obvious my new dongle either had no software or corrupted software.
So off to a local Carphone Warehouse and bought another 3 dongle that worked straight away.
So it's all good now.
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...So it's all good now...
Pleased about that.
Brother had no end of software problems with his 3 dongle.
The cure was switch to Orange.
I've had no problems with Vodafone and lately Orange.
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Orange were on my shortlist with good coverage but they seem to favour monthly contracts as far as i could see.
Positioning seems very crucial as folks mentioned. I'm working in a big bay window but even so it's very glitchy with the dongle in the laptop with 3/5 signal. Add the short usb extn I have here and with the dongle vertical 400mm above the table tied to a cut glass sherry decanter it goes up to 4/5 and performance is reliable.
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You could always plug it into a USB hub and then have a longer cable from the USB hub to the laptop.
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A powered USB hub please.
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Broadband dongle - PAYG - R.P.
