PAYG mobile internet that doesn't expire???

G6JPG · 2 May 2013 at 5:15PM

I can have a PAYG mobile 'phone, on which I can load say £10 of credit, and keep it (e. g. in car glovebox) for emergencies, and it doesn't expire. (OK, maybe I have to make a call every few months.)

Is there ANY mobile internet equivalent? One where I can buy some credit, and then use it as and when I want? Maybe using it (send the odd email, or just look at a web page) once a month, if necessary, to keep it "alive".

I'd be happy to buy a "dongle", and wouldn't consider the price of the dongle part of the price of the service; I want this just for, say, when visiting friends who don't have the internet, to use with my netbook (which doesn't have a mobile module [though does have wifi of course]). (Yes, I know I could "tether" it via wifi to a fancy mobile 'phone - but only if that was on some contract, not PAYG.)

But all the offerings I've looked at seem to either expire once you've started using them, or be pay-per-day/week/month rather than true PAYG (i. e. pay per gigabyte). And the websites - and staff in shops - are very coy about admitting these facts: I have to spell it out in words of few syllables ("If I send one email, will the rest of what I've bought still be there a month later").

Does anyone know otherwise? If (as I believe) there is no such offering, why not, if they can do it with 'phones?

Inner_Zone · 2 May 2013 at 5:19PM

Have a look at Ovivomobile, one off payment of £15 for the SIM card which gets credited to your account. 500Mb on data plan, free every month, must use at least once in every 60 days. Apart from a dongle no other costs ongoing or otherwise.

Have a look at post #5 for a possible cheap Mi-Fi.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4580309

G6JPG · 2 May 2013 at 10:05PM

Inner_Zone wrote: »

Have a look a Oviomobile, one off payment of £15 for the SIM card which gets credited to your account. 500Mb on data plan, free every month, must use at least once in every 60 days. Apart from a dongle no other costs ongoing or otherwise.

Have a look at post #5 for a possible cheap Mi-Fi.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4580309

Hmm. Nearest I could find to Ovio mobile was, of all things, a French blog from April 2012, suggesting that they're actually free, 300 Mb/month, and advertisement-funded. I really want a normal service and am happy to pay for it, but I'd have looked into this one - but I can't find it, so I suspect it might have folded.

By Mi-Fi, I take it you mean the hardware: looks as if that's a locked one (plus a suggestion to get an unlock code from ebay).

But thanks for answering, anyway!

aerostar · 3 May 2013 at 6:36AM

Incorrect spelling here is the correct website http://ovivomobile.com/offer/

G6JPG · 3 May 2013 at 7:41AM

aerostar wrote: »

Incorrect spelling here is the correct website http://ovivomobile.com/offer/

Ah, thanks. I'll try to look into them further (as usual, they give no email address), but at first glance all their offerings include "p/m" - for example,
"1000MB £5p/m For tablet or dongle, no contract and no minimum topup."And the "p/m" is in faint grey too, as if they're trying to hide it

. (In other words, for that example, does £5 get me 1000MB, or a month, or both limits?)

avantra · 3 May 2013 at 4:18PM

I am using Ovivo for a while now on their Freedom pack.
I initially paid the £15 (or was it £10 can't remember) and another £3 was added as I moved my old number as well.

So here I am after four month with a smart phone that I use for browsing email text and calls, never had to top it up again as the free allowance get renewed every month. The account show the original balance minus 40p for calls made to 0845 numbers.

This deal beats hands down my wife's EE deal of £10.5/month for a 100 minutes 100 meg and a 100 text (phone was free tho).

G6JPG · 3 May 2013 at 8:07PM

avantra wrote: »

I am using Ovivo for a while now on their Freedom pack.
I initially paid the £15 [snip].

So here I am after four month with a smart phone that I use for browsing email text and calls, never had to top it up again as the free allowance get renewed every month. The account show the original balance minus 40p for calls made to 0845 numbers.

Is that the 500 MB shown on the page below?

This deal beats hands down my wife's EE deal of £10.5/month for a 100 minutes 100 meg and a 100 text (phone was free tho).

I can't see how they can work like this - indefintiely free data!

Thanks for that information. I rang them today and got through to a human who could only give me an email address, so I sent it an email saying I didn't understand http://ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-data/ (i. e. if I pay £5 am I getting a GB or a month or what), and later I got an automatic "has been deleted without being read".

avantra · 3 May 2013 at 11:14PM

Ovivo has several price plans but only one is of interest to me or you depending on your needs.

Their Freedom plan is the only one with free allowance every month

It is not too complicated:

1. Get a free sim from their site for £15 and open an account.
2.insert in unlocked phone (smart or feature phone)
3.Start using

So for your initial layout of £15 you get:

1.150 minutes voice
2. 200 text messages
3. 400 mb data

If you consume more than the above it's starting to go out of your £15.
Every month your allowance get renewed if you used it or not.

The deal involve having an advert showing wen you make a call.
As the phone is near my ear when I talk I can't see the ad so it is not a big deal.

You get another £3 if you bring your old number as well.

G6JPG · 4 May 2013 at 3:11PM

avantra wrote: »

Ovivo has several price plans but only one is of interest to me or you depending on your needs.

Well, http://ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-data/ seems to suggest there's a free data-only one, which would suit me - I think.

Their Freedom plan is the only one with free allowance every month

It is not too complicated:

1. Get a free sim from their site for £15 and open an account.

"Free" for £15:). (Yes, I know it's credit really.)

2.insert in unlocked phone (smart or feature phone)
3.Start using

So for your initial layout of £15 you get:

1.150 minutes voice
2. 200 text messages
3. 400 mb data

Well, as I'd be using it in a dongle (mobile broadband modem), assuming they support those, then the minutes and text wouldn't be of interest.

If you consume more than the above it's starting to go out of your £15.

At £160 a gigabyte!

Every month your allowance get renewed if you used it or not.

The deal involve having an advert showing wen you make a call.
As the phone is near my ear when I talk I can't see the ad so it is not a big deal.[snip]

Well, I'd see it when browsing, but OK if it's free. Not sure if I could use email though (apart from webmail which I hate), or newsgroups. I've tried again to ask some of these questions of their email address - we'll see what they answer, if they do at all. (Can't say I'm over impressed with their customer service so far, but we'll see.)

ioscorpio · 21 May 2013 at 2:06PM

The Ovivo data sim gives you 500mb free every month, if you want 1gb it cost £5 a month.

http://ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-data/

If you don't want to buy a dongle, you can buy a phone sim and get 150 mins 200 texts and 500mb data free every month. You can use any phone, not just a smart phone.

http://ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-phones/

You can use email, CS is usually excellent, sorry you are having problems. There is a lot of help on Twitter, Facebook and Hotukdeals.com

You do not get adverts whilst making phone calls or texting, only whilst browsing the internet.

avantra · 21 May 2013 at 2:55PM

[QUOTE=

You do not get adverts whilst making phone calls or texting, only whilst browsing the internet.[/QUOTE]

Strange, I am on the freedom pack and do get adverts while making calls and sending texts. Are you sure about this?

PAYG mobile internet that doesn't expire???

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