unlimited internet?

downshifted

I'm about to get my first smart phone - I've decided on a Samsung Galaxy SII

I've been with 3 for years - but since I couldn't decide on what phone to get when my contract ran out I am just paying £15 per month at the moment.

They won't offer me any better deal than the one on their site - £33 for 500 mins (I use less than 300) loads of text and unlimited internet - no retention incentive at all.

They say they are the only ones offering unlimited internet - and it seems they are - other providers offer 1GB per month

I will do a bit of browsing, maybe some facebook - nothing mega - especially as I've never had a smart phone before. Will 1GB be enough?

Does everyone else pay extra on top of their allowance?

Thanks for your help

TimBear

I've had my iPhone since October 2010 and the usage counter which hasn't been reset since then says I've used 1.7GB in that whole time! And I use my phone A LOT. Constantly on facebook and I read the newspaper online about five times a day - lots of pictures etc.

1GB should be plenty for browsing etc, it's when you're downloading music or streaming films etc where it'll push it up a lot.

RosieBee_2

Hello,

Have a look at GiffGaff https://www.giffgaff.co.uk

They offer unlimited internet on a £10 a month top up. No contract either.

Hope this helps

Idiophreak

...remember everything you browse in the house etc is likely to be over wifi, not 3G, so won't count out of your 1GB...

TimBear

Idiophreak wrote: »

...remember everything you browse in the house etc is likely to be over wifi, not 3G, so won't count out of your 1GB...

I was just coming back to make that point!

bengalknights

If your not going to tether and have decent o2 coverage then i would also recommend Giffgaff for £10 you get unlimited net use on any mobile device.

JJ_Egan

GiffGaff and with the SGS 2 i have data turned off except when required . Mostly use WiFi and tend to download weather and news over WiFi to read later .


Android/SGS2 apps can download data in the background and may be the cause of a surprise large bill .

jje

property.advert

In 6 months I've used about 2.7gb wi-fi and each month I use less than 100mb on the network.

The S2 was / is my first smartphone and I was terrified of the seemingly low 1gb allowance. It isn't. In practice, the networks even in HSPDA mode are just not fast enough to pacify you into downloading large files. Now if they could do it 10 x faster it would be a different matter.

Just what will 3 call themselves if the UK ever gets 4G or 5G ? Redundant ?

daleski75

It depends on your usage I use rss feeds, read web pages, push email and hit around 450-600mb per month out of my 1gb allowance, however if you stream, watch youtube then you can quite easily reach a lot of data in no time at all.

Android phones such as the GS2 which I also own use negligible data if just left to their own devices (pardon the pun!) so to reach 1gb plus with normal usage is pretty hard.

downshifted

Thank you all - this is really helpful. Tesco have the Galaxy S2 with the mins and texts I need and 1Gb for £27.50. I phoned 3 for my PAC and they offered £27 - unfortunately they took so long doing it that the battery on my current phone ran out! My contract is up in January so I will try again on Monday if they don't call me back - but to be honest, I am unhappy with the way they have treated me as a long standing customer, their network coverage is not as good as Tesco locally and I think it's time I made a move. I'm not sure I am clever enough to sort out Giff Gaff and thier bags etc?

Richard_T_

Im currently with three on a £15 per month 30 day contract, and form that i get 2GB of data, of which i typicaly use 1.5GB per month with a smart phone.
if you are thinking of switching netowrks, and using a smartphone make sure that you have a decent 3G signal.
I was with O2 ( the network behind giff gaff, and tesco) and their 3g network coverage in almost all the places i went was abysmal and that was at its best, most, if not all of the time there was absolutly no 3g what so ever.

O2 do hwoever have a good 2g signal, and where you can find a 3g signal it does penetrate buildings better than the 3 signal as its at a lower frequency.

What i would suggest that you do is to look at the deals, and then see what provider gives you the best 3G signal, if your looking at a MVNO such as tesco, asda, giff gaff and so on then see what network they piggy back on and then try a pay as you go sim to see just how good, or bad their 3g signal is.

another thing to look at is goign sim only, where you buy a phone outright and then just sign up to a 30 day sim only deal - this menas that if there are any problems you are free to move wherever you like, and search out the best sim only deals.