Best option for short term?

JennyR68

I have friend who has moved into rented accomodation for 4 months before she moves back home to New Zealand.

She would like internet access for that time and I've been trying to look at the options for her.

Orange seems to have the best mobile broadband coverage for the area at a cost of £29 for the dongle (I have an unused orange dongle sat in by cupboard, any way this could be activated for her or would she need to buy another?) and a 30 day contract at £15 for 3gb. She would have to use her mobile to phone home. How good is mobile broadband?

The Post Office do a no contract, no minimum tie in land line deal for £12 a month for the phone which would give her free calls on a weekend to New Zealand and Plus Net do a no contract monthly broadband at £4.99 for 3 months, 5gb plus £40 set up and £20 wired router. Would any wired router do as I have an old tiscali one lying around? How long would all that take to set up?

Any advice on which route to take, or other ideas very welcome.

JennyR68

Bumping

dylanuk

The Post Office / Plusnet route sounds good. There is a list of short contract broadband providers here http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/.../broadband/no-contract.asp - I think Plusnet is definitely going to be the cheapest option.

The mobile broadband dongle - Orange only do rolling 30-day contracts though, rather than actual PAYG. So she'd need to be-approved and take out a contract - I don't think they do SIM only deals though.

The Tiscali wired router might be locked to Tiscali. I think it would depend how old the router was and if you can reset it to factory settings and then put the new ISP login details in. It is possible - but you would need to route around online for the right FAQ to walk you through it. You can pick up wired ADSL routers for not much more than £10 on Amazon though (and probably cheaper still if you have a look around).