Which mobile BB deal ?

talkalot

As I have been a Vodafone customer for a very long time I was offered today by business sales either of the following deals.
5GB mobile broadband with a Acer 4741 laptop for £40.00pm instead of £45.00 incl VAT
or a HP Probook 320S with 5GB of allowance priced at £45.00pm. The laptop should have cost a extra £135.00 on top of the line rental but I have been offered it free.
Both deals are 24 months. I know its Vodafone and the laptops may not be the best but they will suit my needs.

Full details of the laptops here.

http://www.vodafonebusinessshop.co.uk/Laptopswelcome.html

Snakeeyes21

I would avoid any contract with the 'free laptop' I got a perfectly fine refurb from the dell outlet shop for £300, and get 15gb of internet usage from 3 for £15 a month

JasonLVC

£45 per month x 24 months = £1,080

Get a more update to date Acer/similar brand from Tesco at £399
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-1342.aspx plus extra clubcard points.

£1,080 less £399 = £681 for the real cost of 24 months broadband = £28.37 p/month.

Three Broadband do a 5gb for £15 p/month on an 18 month contract with free dongle http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobile-phones/Mobile-Broadband/3-USB-MF112-Modem-Black/91,37173

£15 x 18 = £270 over 18 months, plus laptop for £399 = £669 for a laptop of your choice and a shorter mobile contract leaving you £411 to blow on an iPad or other gizmo.

Only benefit I suppose of the combo deal you were offered is you get to pay it out in monthly payments over two years, rather than having to stump up £400 for a laptop out of your own pocket today....but in answer to your question, I think it can be done for much cheaper but if it is between what you've been offered, I'd go for the Acer deal as lower monthly costs overall.

Edit. Snakeeyes beat me to it, but the free laptop deals usually work out very expensive and as this is a moneysaving site, they are not the best route to go.

bubblesmoney

2.2 android smartphones allow wifi hotspot feature, it is just a matter of time before all smartphones allow wifi hotspot feature. so data plans need to move with the times and technology. it is not just android 2.2 that allows wifi hotspot feature. there are loads of free android apps for lower android versions too that allow wifi tethering / bluetooth tethering available on loads of websites. networks will waste more resources trying to police something that is not worth the effort. developments in technology make the ‘no tethering’ policy redundant. As long as a customer pays for the data and stays within the data limits, it should be no ones business on what device the customer uses the data on or what device he/she tethers the phone with.

if i buy home broadband (via telephone line or cable), say for example i get a15gb home broadband package , I can use the data on any device, computer / phone / gaming device etc etc and no difference in charges for using any device for the data which the customer pays for. How is data that the customer pays for on mobile broadband any different. Just some feed back on the data and dongles issues and different packages and i hope that things move with the times and technology and archaic data plans are modernised.

regarding the ipad data allowance being different to mifi data allowance on three network …. it is a misconception that the sim can only be used with an ipad. ipad data plan is a data only monthly rolling contract supposedly for ipad but canny money savers are using ipad microsims on other devices, there are loads of threads on the net and many forums on this issue. many people are using the microsim with sim adapters freely available very cheaply (or for free from many networks) on the net and using the same sim in other devices and dongles.

many three shops themselves are selling the device and the ipad microsim and adapter for use in mifi and other devices and dongles as that data plan is cheaper.

the ipad data plan is available from many networks with microsims or regular sims and people have got that plan from three shops as well, see loads of such posts on hotukdeals website where people are raving about three networks data plans using the microsim in other devices. too bad three network are not themselves trying to sell the plan actively to all customers as they could wipe the floor with the competition if they did do so.

another deal available from loads of three shops (but not some ignorant three shops) who ‘know’ how to get the best deal for customers is by using the ’sim zero’ plan monthly rolling contract and add a 2gb data bundle for 5£ to it and only use the sim for data. some shops dont know how to configure the deal so dont go and ask for a data sim card, just go and ask the shop for a ’sim zero’ (which costs zero pounds yes ZERO POUNDS!) monthly rolling contract sim card and ask them to add a 2gb internet for an extra 5£ a month. it is not any ones business what you use the data you paid for on what device, so just say you want the sim as described above and use it in any device you wish. chose which ever option i described above and you can get the three deal that suits you.

or if you look a bit on the net for three network ‘hot deals on three network’ then there are ‘other’ ways to get three network deals on data bundles which are not exactly advertised on three website but available all the same from three network.

buying a broadband deal with a 'free' laptop is a bad idea in almost all cases as it is much costlier buying like that.