Mobile Broadband and Laptop Deals

Spritzy

A friend at work, wants to get on the net at home (she has no telephone line, so dongle seems the best option) and get a laptop at the same time, trying to find a good deal for her.

I can only really see deals with '3' and I've heard some not so great things about their customer serivces and coverage.

Has anybody spotted any other deals?

Donnie

There are no good laptop and broadband deals. Do you know her likely usage pattern in GBs per month? If you don't, hot can you know what is a 'good deal'?
She needs to use Site Finder in order to check in there are UMTS masts within 500 meters of her home. If none, she will be wasting her money.

Avoid contracts when it comes to mobile broadband.

Spritzy

I thought you may say that.

Shes a very light user, mainly wants to use it to apply for jobs in the evening. I would say 1-2GB per month.

So, I've entered her postal code, zoomed out to 500m and the following comes up:

Base stations displayed in this square
Single operator GSM technology0 Single operator UMTS technology3Single operator TETRA technology 0Shared base stations with more than one operator or more than one technology 4

Now, i dont know what any of this means, is this so she can check whther she can ACTUALLY use a dongle? And if so, do the results show that she can?

Donnie

Yes, it shows that she has a choice of three networks.
This is the one of interest to you: Single operator UMTS technology 3. Who are the three networks and which is the closest? If you click on the individual triangles, a box will appear with the information.

PlutoinCapricorn

If it is really for a very light user, than a little netbook with a prepaid 3 dongle (bought separately) might be the answer.

I have an ACER Apire One basic model (£179 from Amazon a while back) and have used a lot of 3 network prepaid ready to go kits. You can get a 1gb, 3gb or 12 gb allowance: just plug in and go. Prices change all the time, and different sellers charge different prices, but £39.99 can get 3gb which lasts up to 90 days and £69.99 can get 12gb, which lasts up to one year.

Stuart_W

I'd very much go with PlutoinCapricorn's advice for a low user.

And if paying upfront is an issue, then consider using someone like additions.co.uk, who currently offer 10% off your first credit order and interest free until September 2011, so you could buy an emachines 350 netbook (£197) and dongle (£71) and pay under £22.50 per month for the first year's net access (if 12GB lasts that long) and then just buy replacement dongles - using the next intererst free deal that additions offer (they constantly do).

Just a thought if otherwise paying up front isn't an option. There's also 8% cashback going begging via quidco and similar such cashback sites if you order online.