Can you access internet on a laptop/smartphone without landline and wi-fi?

kuepper

I have a friend who's basically housebound but can't afford a landline and just has a payg mobile phone. I was thinking of getting him an old laptop or smartphone as i'm sure he'd get into surfing the www. Is there any way you can surf the net without a landline and wi-fi?

matttye

Yes, but it involves more money I'm afraid - you need to buy a dongle that allows you to connect to 3G/4G networks from someone like O2, Three, etc. The dongle itself should be given free but there will be a monthly bill to pay.

grumpycrab

What is the exact model of his payg mobile phone? If a mobile phone is the minimum requirement (obvious I guess) then he needs a mobile with a data package. Then you can browse on the phone OR get a mobile+laptop and use the mobile as the internet connection (called "tethering").

matttye

grumpycrab wrote: »

What is the exact model of his payg mobile phone? If a mobile phone is the minimum requirement (obvious I guess) then he needs a mobile with a data package. Then you can browse on the phone OR get a mobile+laptop and use the mobile as the internet connection (called "tethering").

Bear in mind that tethering usually incurs extra fees on top of the data you're already paying for. Might be better off just getting a dongle and keeping the allowances separate.

grumpycrab

Sounds good, a dongle+cheapo netbook and keep separate from existing payg mobile phone. (would be interesting to know if existing payg mobile phone is data capable).

kuepper

grumpycrab wrote: »

What is the exact model of his payg mobile phone?

it's an old nokia but no screen, only for txt and phoning

NiftyDigits

kuepper wrote: »

I have a friend who's basically housebound but can't afford a landline and just has a payg mobile phone. I was thinking of getting him an old laptop or smartphone as i'm sure he'd get into surfing the www. Is there any way you can surf the net without a landline and wi-fi?

If surfing from a Smartphone, look here

If used separately with a USB modem with a laptop, here

If a low user, no monthly costs and just £15 for the SIM(containing £15 of mobile credit).

bluesnake

another way is an understanding neighbour. A friend pays his £100 a year for use of fibre + wifi and both are happy.

vaio

if you are in an area where 3 works they are doing a 30 day/ 1 gb sim on payg for £10.

Go through quidco and you get £12.50 cash back so effectively you make a profit of £2.50 for every 30 days or 1 gb you use.

Obviously you still need a dongle but they are < £10 on ebay

sb44

If you have a phone that can use a 3 network sim card, get a samba mobile sim.

You have to watch videos to earn credit on the sim for sufing, most of the vids are less than a couple of mins long, some less than a minute.

I have a Skypephone 2 which has the sim in and I accrue surfing time to that.

When we go on holiday, if we don't have wifi access, we can use the skypephone as a dongle to get free surfing.

So, if you activate the sim on your pc, you can just watch a handful of vids and your friend will get the credit on their sim at their address.

I have 6GB of surfing time on my sim now, it is just sitting there in case we ever lose our internet connection for any reason.

You get 3.5MB of credit added to your sim for every ad that you watch.

You do need to buy the sim, it is normally £5 or you could buy the dongle for £25 and £5 for the sim.

It does say you can get a discounted sim if rec by a friend but I am not sure how much discount you get.

http://www.sambamobile.com/Home/Samba

unsure

Hi,
I've just being going through this as we have to get internet access to my mother's house quickly for her recently arrived carer.

The solution I came up with is tmobile 90 day usb wifi dongle. It's £25 from Carphone Warehouse and gives 3 months access at 1 gb per month: not a huge amount but tmobile will let you go over that without charge. However, heavy usage (downloading movies?)will involve internet access being throttled but will still allow browsing and emails. It's nominally a pay as you go dongle but top up costs £15 for a month so you're better off getting a new dongle after 3 months and starting again!

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/broadband/mobile-broadband/buy/TMOBILE-MOBILE-BROADBAND-DONGLE-E3131-TM6G-USBPP

We'll be getting broadband and phone package installed but this will serve a purpose in the interim.