Best deal for internet on a mobile?

shakin_2

Help please! i am trying to find the cheapest way of getting internet usage on a mobile either payg or monthly - my oh wants to access the internet to check the football scores at the weekend and wants a new phone that can do this. He only uses a mobile for emergencies so i am not really interested in paying for minutes and texts that aren't needed.
I either want a low internet tariff with a free phone or a cheap phone suitable for browsing with the cheapest internet payg - any advise would be very much appreciated.

jenniewb

Have you checked out Giffgaff? No free handsets but the sim does offer a lot, if you can get an unlocked handset it could work out, the SanFrancisco is below £100 and works well with the internet.

dangerman7uk

GiffGaff might be my next point of call. It's certainly the best sim free deal I've found - they offer the value of 3, but the service quality of O2.

I'd love to find an unlimited sim that allows unlimited tethering and hotspots though.

shakin_2

Thanks for the advice giff gaff looks good. What is the cheapest android phone you can get now - I know t mobile were selling off the pulse mini for £19.99, but they have all gone now - gutted. Anyone seen any other good deals like this?

dangerman7uk

£19.99? That can't have been proper android... Could it?

At the moment the best value android I've seen seems the be the HTC Wildfire S, but the cheapest I've seen that is £99.99.

allan673

giff gaff and good service quality????? maybe good coverage but not good customer service. if i were you i would go to three. the customer service is very good imo, ive never had a problem with them. and the coverage is the best out of all the networks for me in the large area i cover with work. dont knock it untill youve tried it.

rwalton159

allan673 wrote: »

giff gaff and good service quality????? maybe good coverage but not good customer service. if i were you i would go to three. the customer service is very good imo, ive never had a problem with them. and the coverage is the best out of all the networks for me in the large area i cover with work. dont knock it untill youve tried it.

.....yeh and if you don't like 3 try and leave. You'll spend hours on the phone trying!

My daughter has 2 phones and my wife has one using giffgaff sims and they're spot on.

dangerman7uk

allan673 wrote: »

giff gaff and good service quality????? maybe good coverage but not good customer service. if i were you i would go to three. the customer service is very good imo, ive never had a problem with them. and the coverage is the best out of all the networks for me in the large area i cover with work. dont knock it untill youve tried it.

Well most of the time when you need customer services, it's because you need information, or you need to upgrade, cancel your contract or something like that. Because GiffGaff is managed by how much you top up, you don't need an expensive customer service team. You put money on, use it. If you don't like it, stop putting money on. If you have any questions, read their T&Ts. And if you can't be bothered, ask on the forum. It's all very simple and easy.

I'm with 3 at the moment and I really like them. Coverage is very questionable though. Whenever I leave the city signal is instantly gone. And sometimes within the city it's instantly gone. In my home I have five bars of signal, and in my work I have to put my phone on a six foot high shelf and use bluetooth so that I can take calls.

If anyone wants to go to 3, I'd definitely recommend trying a non-committal trial first. Pay as you go or rolling contract.

neil40

Most providers do a £5 per month for a internet add on.Three has the biggest 3g network in the uk so they would be best purely for the internet.

Neil

essexman77

neil40 wrote: »

Most providers do a £5 per month for a internet add on.Three has the biggest 3g network in the uk so they would be best purely for the internet.

Neil

Hmm i sure i posted yesterday lol Tesco do it for 2 pounds week not sure of the how much mb your allowed for per week

Giff Giff do both a paygo internet 20p 20mb etc and they also do 10 pound good bag which costs 10 pounds month unlimted internet and 200 minutes

Also three do unlimted internet now on paygo for 15 pounds a month I think they allow teethering on this not 100% sure I know they allow on the one plan

jenniewb

shakin wrote: »

Thanks for the advice giff gaff looks good. What is the cheapest android phone you can get now - I know t mobile were selling off the pulse mini for £19.99, but they have all gone now - gutted. Anyone seen any other good deals like this?

£20 was a fantastic offer, but if it makes you feel any better I'd personally question any hidden errors with the handset that would give it that price, the pulse is normally much more then this, if it was t-mobile they'd have locked it, you'd have to pay to unlock it....

The HTC Wildfire is below £100 in a few stores now, battery is apparently rubbish on HTC handsets in particular but the phones do look and feel better then all the others IMO!

The SanFrancisco (ZTE Blade) is also below £100 and tends to be cheaper then the Wildfire, it seems to be most people love the phone but do need to do mega amounts of software cleansing to get it to work to its best, having said that, as so many are in the same boat there are lots of people around on this and other sites who can help you out here.

I'm without a phone, I seem to be in a similar position to you: I mainly want a mobile for the internet which itself must be as fast as I can get it, must be easy to use (and must not look like a blackberry as I cannot stand them!!). I am likely to go woth GiffGaff unless mobile phone tarrifs drasticly lower their prices, I was recently told/sold (or tried to) by Phones4u the T-Mobile service which offered me 500MB for £20 a month on the Wildfire, if I went over my 500MB (very likely: I like my music and wifi just isn't on offer in places I visit) they slow your speed down the next month: what kind of service is that?! O2 seem like the best for customer service but charges are just too high to even consider and 3....if I never have to speak to another 3-mobile call center worker it will be too soon!

I'm holding back a little longer, am in no hurry to get a new handset. Am hoping the release of the IPhone5 will cause other companies to produce better handsets and lower the price of current ones.