Mobile WiFi?
 

For a while now I've been pi55ed off with the idea of paying for line rental and decided to see if there's another option and found mobile WiFi.

I'm with Sky and tbh, I never really have a problem, so I'm reluctant to change without some knowledge first.

Is the following unit any good? Good signal, or is there anything better/similar?

I'm not quite up on the technology

How does this save money?

Personally I wouldn't swap a wired Internet connection (i.e. Sky) for mobile. Even if you have a good signal and access to a HSPA+ enabled network (or better still 4G) it can be subject to congestion if a lot of other people in the area are using it.

No line rental to BT (i.e. get you land line disconnected) and get a SIM deal with unlimited data ~£12 a month.

Ah ok.

I guess it will be possible, sooner or later, depending on your requirements


Calling abroad would be prohibitive expensive!

Ah yes, I can see what you mean.

Will hang fire on changing, thanks.

Not necessarily, just use IP telephony e.g. Skype Out.

Fine as long as the other end has data allowance

Not so, you can call landlines and mobiles with Skype, they charge you to do so but it's very cheap. Obviously Skype to Skype is free.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...lTiffZB0ee_Mhg

I know you can do that, didnt know it was 'cheap' though

Quick glance ( maybe iv read it wrong) that's 62mins for a tenner, to someone with out skype


..or 500 mins for same, with a calling card using landline ( probably actually less than 250 in reality, and that's to landline)

This is to Zim

That can't be a mobile broadband sim, ie allows tethering/vpn usage in its t&c's? There is a big difference between mobile data sims and true mobile broadband sims.

I bought the Huwaei E5151 recently which is an excellent 3g dongle as it is the only one I could find with an ethernet port built in and the best true mobile broadband deal I could find was 3 network's rolling 1 month contract of 10gb data for £15 per month. I had to get this whilst I waited over a month for BT to install phone and broadband at my new house.

Mobile data sims are for tablets or mobile phone use and generally don't allow tethering or vpn usage (for those who work from home like me) and so aren't as good a service as mobile broadband sim deals which allow everything. Sometimes mobile data sims do work, I used my Virgin mobile data through my mobile wifi hotspot and allowed me to tether and vpn but if Virgin had picked up on it whilst I was using it I would have been blocked from their network for going against the t&c's of my contract. Not something I wanted to rely on.

If there was a truely unlimited data mobile broadband sim deal for good money (less than £20 a month) i'd be all over it as would a lot of people. It would kill home broadband offerings stone dead (not including FTTC deals) if you could have unlimited mobile broadband and take it everywhere with you in your pocket and not need a home phone.

Cancel your BT line - I bet your broadband will still work

What about Threes ,The one plan, 12 month sim. - for tethering . Loads minutes, texts

Unlimited data, ( sounds too good to be true )

It's not mobile broadband, it's a mobile phone sim only deal.

I'm not sure I understand the difference

Is it just a lot slower, worse experience ?

Mobile broadband sims aren't for mobile phones or tablets, they are for wifi or usb dongles specifically for use for connecting a pc to the internet. In other words it is broadband via the mobile network and not via your home telephone line. It is a solution for those people who don't want a home telephone line or want broadband they can take with them if away from home.

A mobile sim is for use in a mobile phone or tablet device and the data is generally specified to be only used from those devices and not to be used for tethering a pc to. However although the mobile sim providers state you must not tether it does often work (because android phones have a wifi hotspot option built into them allowing you to tether other devices to them) but if the mobile providers catch you tethering they can block your data usage or slow your connection down for breaching their t&c's.

Mobile broadband sim deals cost a lot more than mobile phone sims because of the different ways they are supposed to be used, for example data usage through a pc would generally be considered a lot higher usage than data used through mobile phone usage.

So you're saying the One plan above won't be any good for laptop use ,tethered?

The One Plan from Three gives you unlimited[1] data, and yes, you can tether laptops/PCs/etc to it all you like.

However, the One Plan is only available for phones, not for dongles/MiFi/tablets. This is a key difference, but ultimately not a big deal, because you can buy a cheap handset that does tethering, slap in a One Plan SIM, and enjoy unlimited data.

[1] It's "limited" to 1000GB/month: http://goo.gl/Gke47y

Interested to know if that officially allows vpn usage because if it does it pretty much makes all mobile broadband sim deals a waste of money as their data limit is tiny in comparison.

I have made extensive (hundreds of GB) use of VPNs over my connection, and there have been no problems.

Looking at Three's T's and C's I see no mention of restriction as to the type of traffic you can send via their tethering, so without it being explicitly mentioned as not permitted I cannot see an issue; they have been pretty clear when things are not permitted (eg tethering on anything other than One Plan packages or when on Euro Pass) so it would appear that VPN traffic is absolutely fine.

That's an exceptionally good deal then as normally only mobile broadband deals officially allow vpn. My Virgin sim is unlimited everything for £15 a month and I can vpn on it but it specifically says you can't tether even though I used nearly 3gb of data on it through tethering in a couple of weeks. Again the risk is there that it could be blocked at any time so not reliable for permant internet use.

The potential is there now for mobile internet to have a noticeable affect on home broadband and landline sales.