PAYG Mobile Broadband O2 or T Mobile?

Greetings:

I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should post this
to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query relates to mobile
broadband, so have posted to both!)

I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the occasional
week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer similarly priced PAYG
services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).

Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to reliability
and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from home on impromptu
trips I can't really say which parts of the country I'll be using it most,
though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes area with the occasional foray
to London.

Any help much appreciated.

Nigel.

>
>I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the occasional
>week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer similarly priced PAYG
>services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>
>Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to reliability
>and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from home on impromptu
>trips I can't really say which parts of the country I'll be using it most,
>though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes area with the occasional foray
>to London.
>
>Any help much appreciated.
>
>Nigel.
>
I use the Vodafone service which initially cost £39 for the USB dongle
and first Gb which costs £15 a time. My reason being that like you, I
wasn't sure where or when I would need it. Provided you login at
least every 90 days the balance never expires. I have used it for the
last couple of months when touring in my motorhome. Usually I can
only get 2G (in Scotland) with the occasional 3G when I stop in
supermarket car parks in places like Glasgow. For using webmail to
check email and for the occasional weather forecast and
information/news check it has worked very well on my Sony laptop.
After 2 months my balance was still showing over £10.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Nigel
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Greetings:
>
>I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should post this
>to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query relates to mobile
>broadband, so have posted to both!)
>
>I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the occasional
>week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer similarly priced PAYG
>services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>
>Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to reliability
>and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from home on impromptu
>trips I can't really say which parts of the country I'll be using it most,
>though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes area with the occasional foray
>to London.
>
>Any help much appreciated.
>
>Nigel.
>
>
Do you mean "broadband" on the phone or on a laptop?

If its the latter, a good solution for me was the Vodafone PAYG dongle -
cost £39 with £15 worth of usage included. Its £15 per gig, so
expensive if you want to download big files. I use it occasionally when
away and sometimes at home if ADSL goes down for a while as it tends to
round here far from the exchange. It costs between 10p and 20p to check
my e-mails, get the attachments (I use big excel spreadsheets for work)
and look at the odd web page like train times or BBC news. A bargain.
Fast enough on 3G and 'tunes itself down' to GPRS if it can't find 3G:
bit slow but for what I use fine.

One big advantage is that your credit never expires, as long as you use
the thing once every 180 days. The software comes on the stick so you
can use it on any or all of your laptops, and Voda coverage is pretty
good.

Oh - you can send SMS using the laptop keyboard at standard SMS rates
too, and the stick has a micro SD slot so you can use it as a flash
drive.

By default it comes with content blocking: go into a Voda shop with some
over 18 photo ID to get it switched off. Its not that I want to look at
porn, but the blocking is so random it will sometimes cut off entirely
legitimate sites. That was the only annoyance really.

If its on a phone, Voda charge 50p a day for data usage now up to (I
think) 15Mb.


--
Richard C

Nigel wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should
> post this to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query
> relates to mobile broadband, so have posted to both!)
>
> I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the
> occasional week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer
> similarly priced PAYG services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>
> Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to
> reliability and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from
> home on impromptu trips I can't really say which parts of the country
> I'll be using it most, though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes
> area with the occasional foray to London.
>
> Any help much appreciated.
>
> Nigel.

Have you thought about Three? Their payg offers 150meg of internet free
everytime you top up, or you can get 30 days fair use unlimited for £10 (not
sure about their daily rates)

--
John Blessing

"John Blessing" <nospam.lbe@REMOVE_THISgmail.com> wrote in message
news:4a5e2bda$0$2477$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Nigel wrote:
>> Greetings:
>>
>> I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should
>> post this to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query
>> relates to mobile broadband, so have posted to both!)
>>
>> I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the
>> occasional week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer
>> similarly priced PAYG services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>>
>> Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to
>> reliability and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from
>> home on impromptu trips I can't really say which parts of the country
>> I'll be using it most, though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes
>> area with the occasional foray to London.
>> Any help much appreciated.
>> Nigel.
>
> Have you thought about Three? Their payg offers 150meg of internet free
> everytime you top up, or you can get 30 days fair use unlimited for £10
> (not sure about their daily rates)
> John Blessing
>
Or Three Internet for 50p per day, £2.50 per week, £5 per month,
2gb d/l fair use.

Add them when the first 150mb is used up on 3pay

Steve Terry

Thanks for the suggestions so far - I'm now even more confused with
suggestions for Three and Vodafone being thrown into the hat!

It's unlikely that I'll be using the connection for more than a day or two a
month - similar to ChrisW I'll be using the laptop when away for week-ends
in the motorhome (the Camping Club seem to charge outrageous amounts to
connect to their wifi for a day!).

What steers me towards O2 and T Mobile is that the daily usage is generous
(subject to fair use) so I wound be having to 'watch the clock' so to speak.

I'm now even more confused.

Nigel.

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:44:07 +0100, Nigel wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestions so far - I'm now even more confused with
> suggestions for Three and Vodafone being thrown into the hat!
>
> It's unlikely that I'll be using the connection for more than a day or
> two a month - similar to ChrisW I'll be using the laptop when away for
> week-ends in the motorhome (the Camping Club seem to charge outrageous
> amounts to connect to their wifi for a day!).
>
> What steers me towards O2 and T Mobile is that the daily usage is
> generous (subject to fair use) so I wound be having to 'watch the clock'
> so to speak.
>
> I'm now even more confused.
>
> Nigel.

This may be interesting if you want a 'cheap' 3 dongle;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?
p=23301717#post23301717

"Nigel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Thanks for the suggestions so far - I'm now even more confused with
> suggestions for Three and Vodafone being thrown into the hat!
>
> It's unlikely that I'll be using the connection for more than a day or two
> a month - similar to ChrisW I'll be using the laptop when away for
> week-ends in the motorhome (the Camping Club seem to charge outrageous
> amounts to connect to their wifi for a day!).
>
> What steers me towards O2 and T Mobile is that the daily usage is generous
> (subject to fair use) so I wound be having to 'watch the clock' so to
> speak.
>
> I'm now even more confused.
> Nigel.
>
Obviously go for 2 or 3 different network PAYG 3g sims, to improve your
chances of getting coverage.

I would go for in order of preference:
Three (3pay sim and tariff)
T Mobile
O2
Voda

Steve Terry

"Nigel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Greetings:
>
> I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should post
> this to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query relates to
> mobile broadband, so have posted to both!)
>
> I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the
> occasional week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer similarly
> priced PAYG services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>
> Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to reliability
> and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from home on impromptu
> trips I can't really say which parts of the country I'll be using it most,
> though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes area with the occasional
> foray to London.
>
> Any help much appreciated.

Hello
No, I'm not hijacking this thread, but I'm now looking for a SIM only PAYG
mobile broadband with no expiry after 30 days (too much to ask?).
I've been to the web sites of 3, O2, T-mobile and Vodaphone. To be honest, I
can't find didly that fits my requirements.
But I am now getting confused! The 3 site says
http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/i...adband_mpu.gif
So, 1GB (that is bytes, yes?) allows you to send 1000 emails. Is that for
real?
Download 32 music tracks. This is where it starts to seem that 1GB is 1G
bits.
Can anyone jumpstart my brain and tell me what am I missing?
Ta.

"Grumps" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Nigel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Greetings:
>>
>> I seek the help and advice of the newsgroup (not sure if I should
>> post this to uk.telecom.broadband or uk.telecom.mobile as my query
>> relates to mobile broadband, so have posted to both!)
>>
>> I'm looking to get a PAYG mobile broadband service for use on the
>> occasional week-ends away from home. Both O2 and T Mobile offer
>> similarly priced PAYG services (£2/day £7/week £15/month).
>>
>> Is one preferable to the other? I guess it will come down to
>> reliability and coverage - but as I'll be using this for away from
>> home on impromptu trips I can't really say which parts of the country
>> I'll be using it most, though its likely to be the Yorks/Lancs/Lakes
>> area with the occasional foray to London.
>>
>> Any help much appreciated.
>
> Hello
> No, I'm not hijacking this thread, but I'm now looking for a SIM only
> PAYG mobile broadband with no expiry after 30 days (too much to ask?).
> I've been to the web sites of 3, O2, T-mobile and Vodaphone. To be
> honest, I can't find didly that fits my requirements.
> But I am now getting confused! The 3 site says
> http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/i...adband_mpu.gif
> So, 1GB (that is bytes, yes?) allows you to send 1000 emails. Is that
> for real?
> Download 32 music tracks. This is where it starts to seem that 1GB is
> 1G bits.
> Can anyone jumpstart my brain and tell me what am I missing?
> Ta.
>
>

says it doesn't run out after 30 days
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatc...pageID=MB_0012

I agree with you about the 3 site data - those figures are way out if it
is 1GigaByte. They do sat 1GB and elsewhere 3.6Mbps, implying they
mean't bytes.