So what data sim to go for ?

Jaws

Jaws

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Yep, been asked loads of times but having toiled through the threads no one seems to have a definitive answer

Requirements are:

It is to be used in the iPad

It will only be used perhaps 10 times a year so I do not want to be paying monthly

It will be used rarely so I do not want it to run out of time ( in other words, buy it and have to use any top up on it within 30 days or so is a no no )

What say you guys ?
 
I have three data sims, Vodaphone, Orange and Three. I find Three has the best coverage by a long way, very often I find myself in places and its only Three that works. Last weeks fishing meet was the same. 5bars and 3g on the three, everything else struggled to make a voice call.
 
i agree with jim,3 is the only way to go,and iv tried the lot,but only have 3 now,use it 100% of the time ,as i have no broadband at home,and find it just as fast as my old bt broadband:thumb:
 
Another vote for 3. I use it all the time and have never been anywhere in Scotland or England and been unable to connect. :thumb:
 
chrisgreen said:
i agree with jim,3 is the only way to go,and iv tried the lot,but only have 3 now,use it 100% of the time ,as i have no broadband at home,and find it just as fast as my old bt broadband:thumb:
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I agree:thumb: Unless you live in the coastal regions of Norfolk and Suffolk.:Sad:

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4 reply's and not one answer:Doh:
3 runs out does it not or does it fulfill all the requirments listed
 
Right like everyone else I think 3 has the best coverage, data simms are available on ebay with 3gig that lasts 90 days (various from £12 upwards)and I find that ample, never use it all. However there are from time to time non time expiring Vodaphone simms offered on ebay. I have one that has had £16 on it for nearly 2 years not sure of coverage as that dongle will not run on my netbook (Fine at home and allows me to log in to keep the simm alive), even the vodaphone shop have given up and in the process replaced my unlocked dongle with a brand new locked one. Runs fine on my other laptop but that uses a lot more power.
 
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Geo said:
4 reply's and not one answer:Doh:
3 runs out does it not or does it fulfill all the requirments listed
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there is no data deal that fufill all the requiments listed,if there is i have'nt found one yet,but 3 with a 3gig at £15 top up is the way to go for light user's,i have a contract,15 gig at £15 a month:thumb:
the best mobil broadband is 3 end of:thumb:
 
Couldn't get online with my vodafone dongle whilst away a couple of weeks ago so I played about with my son's old O2 PAYGO that had £20 still on it, surprise surprise, I got a message saying my data usage would cost £1 up to midnight.

Gave me enough to check emails, read the worst of the DM and check out a few campsites as well as FUN before I got another message telling me I was near my limit for the day. Expensive for everyday use maybe but every other day or so while away was fine.
 
Rolfarris said:
Couldn't get online with my vodafone dongle whilst away a couple of weeks ago so I played about with my son's old O2 PAYGO that had £20 still on it, surprise surprise, I got a message saying my data usage would cost £1 up to midnight.

Gave me enough to check emails, read the worst of the DM and check out a few campsites as well as FUN before I got another message telling me I was near my limit for the day. [HI]Expensive for everyday use maybe but every other day or so while away was fine[/HI].
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£1? bargain, £5 a day on CC sites:Laughing:

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I agree with others about "3" coverage.

(Ironically, seeing as Jaws started this thread) the only place I've been where I couldn't get coverage was Thetford Rugby Club - but might well have done if I'd hoisted the MiFi dongle on a flag pole as subsequently suggested by Jim.

Happily for me I have a SIM which uses the old 3pay PAYG tariff so is reasonably economical. I agree with Chris, there is no data deal that fufill all the requirements listed. It's a matter of working out which company supplies the best coverage for the areas likely to be used and then going for the best deal on offer.
 
Gooney said:
£1? bargain, £5 a day on CC sites:Laughing:
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Not strictly accurate. A CC £5 voucher buys 5 hours of usage which expires 6 months after activation. So, if you are only checking/responding to e-mails for half an hour a day (say) it would give 10 days usage within the 6 months.
 
I can only compare 3 and O2.

I mainly use dongles for work purposes, in town's/cities rather than countryside.

I have tried both when out in the motorhome at various places.

Both run out, so do not completely fulfil your requirements.

However, here is my O2 v 3 comparison.

O2 hardly ever gives me a connection in the countryside, if it does its 2G at best. It constantly falls out (if you get 15 minutes constant connection you are lucky), you cannot rely on it. In town's and cities, its the same. I do occasionaly get 3G, but then it falls over reasonably regularly, at least every half hour. If your anywhere the NEC when there is a major event on, forget it (Brimingham Business Park for instance).

However, in the identical locations put the 3 on and bingo, you are in. You do get fall offs, last Saturday I had to re-connect four times in Aus v NZ game in Pooley Bridge, Lake District, but that was not enough to affect viewing experience.

In my experience 3 is far more reliable and more frequently gives access to good connection speeds at 3G.
 
I bought a Vodaphone SIM off ebay, does not time out.

Problem is, just spent time in the highlands and never got broadband where I needed it :Sad:

Good when it works !
 
I have unlimited "3" data on my android phone and used it as wireless dongle for my laptop last 2 months.

August used 5gb data September 6.5gb data with no slow ups.
 
Ok.. so it would seem there is only one option, Vodafone

I will not pay yet another monthly tariff as I already pay for broadband at home, and a data package for the smartfone ..

I know I can tether ok but I prefer not to as that uses a lot of battery power on the fone and sometimes that is simply not convenient


Shame that '3' does not do a suitable package.. I agree with all that they do have really good coverage, and I like dealing with the company. Always found them REALLY helpful with any issue or query I may have ( beats Vodafone in to a cocked hat in that respect )
 
Jaws said:
Ok.. so it would seem there is only one option, Vodafone

I will not pay yet another monthly tariff as I already pay for broadband at home, and a data package for the smartfone ..

I know I can tether ok but I prefer not to as that uses a lot of battery power on the fone and sometimes that is simply not convenient


Shame that '3' does not do a suitable package.. I agree with all that they do have really good coverage, and I like dealing with the company. Always found them REALLY helpful with any issue or query I may have ( beats Vodafone in to a cocked hat in that respect )
Click to expand...

For me its easy as use 12 volt plug to my smartphone.

Obviously not of use in your case though John.
 
i have the 3 mifi and in the top-up options you can top up daily from your credit
so you could put say £15 on but not activate it as a broadband top up but credit then apply the daily amount for the days that you require it though it is something like £2.50 per day.

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just checked and its £2.99 for 500mb per day
 
About the best option in many ways but for extended use that is £90 a month.. Might as well use a CC site LOL !!!
 
ksebruce said:
Another vote for 3. I use it all the time and have never been anywhere in Scotland or England and been unable to connect. :thumb:
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We use 3 and I think we've found the 5% of the UK that they don't cover :Wink:

The Cotton Arms. Wrenbury ( Bring and Buy Meet!). Jim had to put his dongle in a poo bag and hoist it up the flag pole :Rofl1::Rofl1:
Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales.
Between Perth and Crianlarich.
and several other places I can't remember now!

Otherwise we find it very good.
 
We don't have a land line at home so now only have a mobile dongle - we took this decision around 4 years ago now as being in the Kingston Communication area, where no other landline provider is available, we were paying stupid amounts of money for not a brilliant product or service and, as we were wanting to sell our home and move 'over the water' in to Lincolnshire which is outside the KC area, we were in danger of being signed up to an 18 month contract for KC and not then being able to use it!!!:shout: So we changed over to having a 3 mobile broadband dongle and 2 mobile phones, for the same price as a landline and broadband!:thumb:

We have found the broadand service fairly good, although there are times when it has been absolutely abysmal, but as they were carrying out work at the time, and we complained, and ended up with 2 months broadband 'free' so that wasn't too bad. It is a bit 'iffy' at the moment too but they are doing more work in our area until the end of the month so we can live with that. We us a Mifi wifi dongle (old version) with ours so that I can use my laptop and my hubby can use the PC or netbook at the same time and that works very well. There is a new version of the Mifi which is supposed to be a lot better and also a premium dongle which is supposed to be up to 40% faster than a standard dongle.

However, getting back to the point ... :Blush: we also have a Vodaphone dongle (the unexpiring credit one ... at least so long as you use it at least once every 180 days) and it has a very poor for connection where we are, but I put that down to our being in one of their 'worst' reception areas. If we didn't have the 3 mobile dongle and had landline broadband at home I'd go with the Vodaphone unexpiring one for when we're away in the camper as I wouldn't pay a lot of money for something I wouldn't use that much when away from home.

You can pick up the 'unexpiring' Vodaphone dongles up on ebay fairly cheapyly - just make sure it is the right one and that it is still 'live' (ie the seller has kept using it to keep it working) - we bought another one and found that although we'd been told it had some credit on it and still worked, found that it hadn't been used within the 180 days and the credit had expried and the sim had ceased working ... I believe I can get it reactivated so I'll have to give it a try so all is not lost ... at least I only paid £1 for the thing!!!:BigGrin:
 
Minx said:
We don't have a land line at home so now only have a mobile dongle - we took this decision around 4 years ago now as being in the Kingston Communication area, where no other landline provider is available, we were paying stupid amounts of money for not a brilliant product or service and, as we were wanting to sell our home and move 'over the water' in to Lincolnshire which is outside the KC area, we were in danger of being signed up to an 18 month contract for KC and not then being able to use it!!!:shout: So we changed over to having a 3 mobile broadband dongle and 2 mobile phones, for the same price as a landline and broadband!:thumb:

We have found the broadand service fairly good, although there are times when it has been absolutely abysmal, but as they were carrying out work at the time, and we complained, and ended up with 2 months broadband 'free' so that wasn't too bad. It is a bit 'iffy' at the moment too but they are doing more work in our area until the end of the month so we can live with that. We us a Mifi wifi dongle (old version) with ours so that I can use my laptop and my hubby can use the PC or netbook at the same time and that works very well. There is a new version of the Mifi which is supposed to be a lot better and also a premium dongle which is supposed to be up to 40% faster than a standard dongle.

However, getting back to the point ... :Blush: we also have a Vodaphone dongle (the unexpiring credit one ... at least so long as you use it at least once every 180 days) and it has a very poor for connection where we are, but I put that down to our being in one of their 'worst' reception areas. If we didn't have the 3 mobile dongle and had landline broadband at home I'd go with the Vodaphone unexpiring one for when we're away in the camper as I wouldn't pay a lot of money for something I wouldn't use that much when away from home.

[HI]You can pick up the 'unexpiring' Vodaphone dongles up on ebay fairly cheapyly [/HI]- just make sure it is the right one and that it is still 'live' (ie the seller has kept using it to keep it working) - we bought another one and found that although we'd been told it had some credit on it and still worked, found that it hadn't been used within the 180 days and the credit had expried and the sim had ceased working ... I believe I can get it reactivated so I'll have to give it a try so all is not lost ... at least I only paid £1 for the thing!!!:BigGrin:
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Just looked on Ebay, unexpiring dongle with £15 credit £89.95 + £1.65pp:Tongue1::Tongue1:

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Jaws said:
Ok.. so it would seem there is only one option, Vodafone
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The trick is to find a non expiring simm on ebay you cannot get them from a vodaphone shop AFAIK, other than that 3 is great coverage and you can get PAYGO 1 gig for £10 that expires in one month from the 3 site. Or from ebay 3 gig with a 90 day expiry for around £12
 

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