choosing an internet dongle - which one please?

Aura

Hi my mum wants to get a laptop dongle, can you advise me what the best deal is at the moment. I thought 02 might be good but I am not sure. She is a pentioner so I wouldnt want her confused by too much jargon etc.

She only wants the net for Skype, emailing and occasional things she would buy off Amazon.

Thanks very much.

egrescrimp

With mobile internet, the cheapest deals aren't always the best deals so be very careful when selecting a provider. You need to check which providers can give you a strong indoor signal, go on the various mobile provider sites and put your postcode into their network coverage checkers.

Once you know who can give you a good signal, come back and people can then recommend a dongle/deal

Last thing you want is to buy a vodafone dongle to then find out you can't get higher than dialup speeds, yet if you selected 02 you could of got 7mbps down.

Aura

Thanks for your reply. Wgere can I go to check internet speed please?

james_smitha

Is there some sort of barrie to her having broadband from her phone provider?

Im_just_careful

I would consider MiFi type devices rather than dongles as they can be positioned remotely from the device using the signal and also serve multiple devices.


I also would suggest that conventional broadband is explored first unless you have a good reason why not to as it is likely to be better value in the long run.


Is the plan to use a laptop/desktop or a tablet type device ?

Aura

james_smitha wrote: »

Is there some sort of barrie to her having broadband from her phone provider?

She doesn't have a landline

Aura

Im_just_careful wrote: »

I would consider MiFi type devices rather than dongles as they can be positioned remotely from the device using the signal and also serve multiple devices.


I also would suggest that conventional broadband is explored first unless you have a good reason why not to as it is likely to be better value in the long run.


Is the plan to use a laptop/desktop or a tablet type device ?

Mum doesn't have a landline and says she wouldnt use it very often

james_smitha

Some land line providers are a lot cheaper than BT. The improvement in ADSL and lower over all cost may be a good reason. No one is saying that a phone must be plugged in

Aura

Has anyone us3d an 02 dongle please?

egrescrimp

I have used the 02 dongle, it's the only provider who actually provide semi decent speeds for 3G around here.

We can get 2mbps down and 2mbps up, fairly solid connection too but you'd need to check that they service you properly o2.co.uk/coveragechecker

Im_just_careful

All other things being equal I would look at "3" and a MiFi if landline based Internet is impractical.


If network coverage is patchy and o2 is known good (tested using a speedtest application on a smartphone on o2) then buying a dongle or MiFi (ideally unlocked) and looking at giffgaff might be the way to go (giffgaff uses the o2 network and is owned by the same company as o2)


Their gigabags last 1 month ( see http://giffgaff.com/gigabags ) and are a bit cheaper than o2 ( https://mobilebroadbandaccess.o2.co.uk/Services/AllPackages )


On "3" the most appropriate PAYG offer is probably "Broadband - Pay As You Go + 3" which gives 3GB and 3 months to use it for £20.49. Assuming an average usage of somewhere between 1 & 2 GB a month the data will be all used up in the 3 months.


at 500MB a month or less (light use perhaps) then giffgaff seems the best/least bad option.


Assuming your mother has a mobile phone, one economic option for light use might be getting a phone capable of producing a WiFi hotspot and using that on a giffgaff goodybag (which includes calls and texts) see http://giffgaff.com/gigabags#phone


The more expensive ones allow unlimited Internet but you aren't allowed to connect a laptop using the unlimited Internet (it is just for phones).


What ever you choose, try Pay As You Go so if it doesn't work out you are not stuck with something expensive.