Dongle or mobile handset?

The 3G/mobile broadband offerings seem to come as packages with a dongle.

A lot of handsets also come with 3G capability and the ability to act as
'modems' for PCs.

It it practical to use a 3G handset instead of a dongle, and are the tarrifs
similar?

Or is the real deal that the tarrifs for data use are bundled with dongles?

Cheers

LGC

--

David W.E. Roberts wrote:
> The 3G/mobile broadband offerings seem to come as packages with a dongle.
>
> A lot of handsets also come with 3G capability and the ability to act as
> 'modems' for PCs.
>
> It it practical to use a 3G handset instead of a dongle, and are the tarrifs
> similar?
>
> Or is the real deal that the tarrifs for data use are bundled with dongles?

I checked this out a few days ago. Beware the small print; the data
bundles on 3 handset tariffs did not include using the phone as a modem.
So it was browsing/email on the phone *only*...

Abo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> David W.E. Roberts wrote:
> > The 3G/mobile broadband offerings seem to come as packages with a dongle.
> >
> > A lot of handsets also come with 3G capability and the ability to act as
> > 'modems' for PCs.
> >
> > It it practical to use a 3G handset instead of a dongle, and are the
> > tarrifs similar?
> >
> > Or is the real deal that the tarrifs for data use are bundled with
> > dongles?
>
> I checked this out a few days ago. Beware the small print; the data
> bundles on 3 handset tariffs did not include using the phone as a modem.
> So it was browsing/email on the phone *only*...

There are two 'addons' you can buy on Three:
Internet addon: 5 pounds per month. This is only intended for data on your
phone.
Mobile broadband: minimum 10 pounds per month (for 1GB). This can be used for
browsing on your phone, using your phone as a modem, or with a dongle.

You can buy either addon from mobile.three.co.uk using either a phone or
dongle.

As far as I know, the dongles are on the standard Flat12 PAYG tariff.
There's no difference in tariff between using your Three SIM in a dongle and
on a phone: a dongle is just a phone without a screen or voice facilities.

Other networks may be similar, I don't know. Some seem to offer xxGB/year
(or whatever) packages with their dongles (ie dongle comes with a data
package and your bandwidth allowance doesn't disappear at the end of each
month) which might not be available to handset users.

There /may/ be a difference in speed in that the SIMs supplied with dongles
support HSPA, but I've yet to have a definitive answer as to whether HSPA
requires a different SIM from plain 3G/UMTS (I have a hunch it doesn't, but
don't know for sure).

You can use a phone as a modem just fine. In fact, if you're in anywhere
like a bad signal area I'd recommend it: put your phone in the optimal
position, and connect to it by Bluetooth from wherever you want to be.
Bluetooth is only 921kbps max so will limit the speed of HSPA connections,
but it's easier than a long USB cable.

In fact it's a good way to test out the likely speed you'll get before
signing up to a data contract. (Free dongle or not - given there's very
little inside a dongle I suspect they'll be dirt cheap before too long)

Theo

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:37:26 UTC, Theo Markettos
<theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> There are two 'addons' you can buy on Three:
> Internet addon: 5 pounds per month. This is only intended for data on your
> phone.

Also, unless it's been withdrawn....2.50 a month with a 10 GB limit.
Quite enough for me!

> Mobile broadband: minimum 10 pounds per month (for 1GB). This can be used for
> browsing on your phone, using your phone as a modem, or with a dongle.
--
Bob Eager
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

On 2009-01-24, Theo Markettos <theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> There /may/ be a difference in speed in that the SIMs supplied with dongles
> support HSPA, but I've yet to have a definitive answer as to whether HSPA
> requires a different SIM from plain 3G/UMTS (I have a hunch it doesn't, but
> don't know for sure).

I don't think there is a difference. My phone supports HSPA and, with
a perfectly ordinary payg SIM I bought for voice service, I often get
data rates above 1 Mbps to my laptop when tethered to the phone.

Dennis Ferguson

On 21 Jan, 15:05, "David W.E. Roberts" <nos...@talk21.com> wrote:
> The 3G/mobile broadband offerings seem to come as packages with a dongle.
>
> A lot of handsets also come with 3G capability and the ability to act as
> 'modems' for PCs.
>
> It it practical to use a 3G handset instead of a dongle, and are the tarrifs
> similar?
>
> Or is the real deal that the tarrifs for data use are bundled with dongles?
>
> Cheers
>
> LGC
>
> --


Beware

O2 will quite happily sell you 3 G Blackberries 8707 which they
promise will work as thethered modems

Of course they dont on Dells top of the range d430 latitudes either
on XP nor on Vista

I would check carefully before comitting yourself

HTH Phil