MiFi or an old phone? (1 Viewer)

[AlanandMayya]

Whats the advantage of buying a MiFi box as opposed to using an old phone? Ive got an old iPhone from 2013 that wont run the current iOS so I replaced it, but it works fine as a hotspot provider. I read somewhere that the presence of an external antenna didnt give any benefits when tested back-to-back without one. I suspect MiFi boxes are harder to set up (a phone has a great interface). Anyone tried both together and compared? (I can see you dont want to use your normal phone as a hotspot, as you have to use a local SIM card, and so miss any calls to your normal UK number).

 

[Bobby-gg]

I never found any difference between a phone and a mifi.
But, I've never had any bother setting up a mifi either!
Then a bought a proper 5g/4g enabled router, the Huawei B535, and it doubled the speed compared to the phone/mifi unit

 

[Figaro]

Your old phone will work ok, I often found the mifi got a signal where my phone couldn't, but they were on different networks so that could explain it.
The external antenna do definately make an big improvement to signal strength and download speed.
It probably comes down to where you mostly go, if you like remote places a decent mifi or router and antenna will pay dividends.
I use a Netgear Nighthawk M1 and find it excellent

 

[L' Hobo]

In February, I bought a smartphone and coupled it to a Tesco, 'SIM only' 60gb deal for £13 a month.
Before, I was paying Plusnet £23 a month for my landline and a very poor internet service.

Because, at their last contract renewal, they had not furnished me with the T & C's, they offered to let me cancel, at no cost to myself.
I immediately took up this offer (much to their disgust) but after a bit of haggling and threats from me about legal action, they cancelled.

I now only have one payment of £13 per month and one smartphone (no landline ) that I use as a WiFi hotspot for my tablet & laptop and phone, of course.

For me, it's working at home and away.

If I can make it work, anyone can!

PS. I very rarely do any streaming or this other technical stuff, so that might make a difference?

 

[AlanandMayya]

So, do all SIM cards work in all devices? Would a data-only SIM work in my phone (for data only)? And are there any restrictions buying a SIM deal in EU as a Brit?

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[Mikeco]

I am out of contract with my Tesco sim but still pay £8.50 monthly for unlimited calls but only 2gb of data but I can get unlimited data for £22 on a month by month basis. Last year it worked in Spain and was not restricted so I am hoping for the same when we are there in January for 3 months. I have a HUAWEI 5577 but the phone works just as well.

 

[Figaro]

So, do all SIM cards work in all devices? Would a data-only SIM work in my phone (for data only)? And are there any restrictions buying a SIM deal in EU as a Brit?

Phone / SMS / Data sims will work in a mifi, not certain if a data only sim works in a phone, never tried it.
You can buy a local sim in the EU, they ask to see your passport but otherwise no problems.
Just remember you can't stream UK tv with a EU sim unless you use a VPN

 

[AlanandMayya]

Yes our situation is a bit non-standard : we don't need UK streaming, nor any TV channels from anywhere. Mayya's English isn't very good, so all the films we watch are dubbed into Russian. You can watch anything you like, for free, on the Internet if you want it dubbed into Russian. But we're not interested in Russian TV; not to our taste. So, we just need good Internet access. Does anyone know roughly how many Gb it takes to watch the average film? Just trying to estimate how many Gb / month we will need.

 

[AlanandMayya]

Anyone on this forum know how the international telecoms business works (I dont)? I just feel it needs shaking up. Like banking has been. In my youth, banks didn't open on Saturdays; I remember well-padded senior Banking figures gravely explaining on the telly that it was just technically impossible and would not happen. I remember transfers taking days on end. Cheques getting lost in the post, or sent back because the sender had spelled "Januery" wrong. Exchanging Sterling for Dutch Florins cost you 6% and took days. And look at us now! I just sense the telecoms business is still in that era when it comes to data roaming. Isn't anyone about to disrupt it? (Actually, I say all that, but the Bad Old Days are alive and well at the Bureaux de Change at airports).

 

[garry55]

We used an old Samsung phone fitted with a Popit sim card (£18 per month) as a mobile hot spot and toured France, Spain and Portugal and never had an issue.
Although we only use mobile phones, tablets and lap tops - no TV.

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[Minxy]

My main phone is all I normally have for connecting my laptop to the internet, no problem at all and done it for years. My phone is dual sim so I have my main phone number on a PAYG RWG sim and my back-up number on a Vodafone contract sim which is the one I use for most stuff.

As I've had a Three phone sim for a week or so in addition to my other sims I needed something to put it in so I've been using an old OneTouch Y800 MIFI for it with no problem other than every time I had to get a code to log-in to my Three account I needed to use my laptop to go to the MIFI interface to retrieve the text with the code in, just a nuisance but not needed very often.

As you've got the phone already just try it and see how you get on and to find a sim only contract or PAYG sim have a look at Hotukdeals which has loads of info on what sim deals there are at present: https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/sim-only