Which Dongle?

poshchatterbox

hi there

'
I have a friend who wants a dongle so she can go on internet, but she doesnt want a contract, she has heard you can have a pay as you go dongle.
is this right
and what is the name of it,?
where can you get them from, ?
and how do you top up?

I have not heard of this but can anyone give me some advice . or has some-one got this and if so is it any good ?

thanks:)

bengalknights

I presume you mean a 3g mobile data dongle?

These can be picked up from ebay or your local mobile store all you need to do is put in a sim or use the sim already provided.

3/Vodafone and T mobile all do payg mobile data plans.

buglawton

All the currently available ones are not strictly pay as you go, the operators ensure that you pay a minimum amount each month whether you use up the data or not. But there need be no contract. Hopefully one day in the future the true PAYG dongle will reappear.

nickcardwell

also to add, go onto each of the operators (vodafone, 3, o2 etc..) and check out the coverage. (post code lookup)

some will be better than others.

buglawton

espresso wrote: »

Not true, you can pay for access by the day, week or month.

For a while there was a Voda dongle where you could pay for exactly the data you used. Perfect if you don't want to pay £2 to check if there are any new emails and the weather page then close the laptop for the day.

Let's hope this real pay as you go type re-appears.

bengalknights

3 charge £15 a month for 3gb of data that you can use although it expires after 3 months if not used.You can get it for half the price though by just buying a new sim already topped up off ebay and replacing existing one.

buglawton

espresso wrote: »

You still can! You can put any mobile operators SIM in a dongle and pay for exactly what you use e.g. Virgin Mobile charge 30p for up to 25MB of usage per day.

I know, I tether my VM phone occasionally. But 25MB is so little it will trip over if any program decides to update itself or some twit emails a bunch of large jpegs to you - then VM charges a punitive rate per MB till your balance is zero.

buglawton

Competition may one day bring the the return of the dongle tariff where you pay exactly for the MB that you use with no auto expiry of your top-up (like some mobile tariffs that are currently available). I think OP and many other people really wants the simplicity of a dongle even though tethering is often mentioned in the forum as a option.