WIFI Dongles

54aardvark · Post by **54aardvark** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:24 am

Keep seeing these advertised, has anyone had any experience of them, are they any good and any recommendations re the best operators?

Thinking of scrapping our landline as the only thing it gets used for is Broadband (via a WIFI router).

scot-canuck · Post by **scot-canuck** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:00 am

depends on what your trying to use it for and where you want to use it?

I ask as the amount of information you can transfer with it before getting hit with heavy overage charges are relatively tiny compared to ADSL broadband.

Three I can't stand - call centres anywhere but britain, promises reneged on, Byzantine tariffs....shame as they have a good network, just terrible policies and intent on ripping people off.

O2 - are ok, better to buy online, better deals and no ned salesmen to deal with

Voda and orange I havent dealt with.

Maybe see if you can get a cheaper ADSL deal elsewhere?
Who are you with at the moment?

scot-canuck · Post by **scot-canuck** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:01 am

And they're not Wi-fi, they're 3G mobile dongles, similar but different and explains the insane amount of money they want per Gigabyte. (the mobile companies paid a fortune for 3G licences which they are still trying to make money from)

54aardvark · Post by **54aardvark** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:19 am

Thanks Scot, currently with TalkTalk at about £20/month including line rental - OK unless you have to talk to their "Help" Desk, but thats pretty much par for the course with most of the operators nowadays!

We're running a Toshiba laptop on WiFi through a router into the landline, as I said this is pretty much all we use the landline for and wondered if there is any benefit by going down the mobile dongle route (obviously well handy if we're away).

Just wanted to know if I can expect similar broadband speed and could I get it cheaper than at present.

lamntile · Post by **lamntile** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:34 pm

If you went the usb dongle route it would be very expensive if you used it abroad just as it is with a normal mobile call.

Speed wise dongles wont match the landlines the 3g system was designed for 1.8Mbps some suppliers are however offering upto 7.2Mbps but only in airports and major areas also and even then its by no mean guaranteed the likes of vodaphone will charge you £15/month and also limit you to a 3gb download limit

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:53 pm

no guarantee you will ever see this post as i am using a dongle....

speed is very variable , from slow, to slower to stop...
£10 + vat for 1gb...10p per mb after that. certainly would not recommend as your main 'net connection

54aardvark · Post by **54aardvark** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:52 am

Thanks for all your comments - looks like its a non-starter from my point of view!