USB 3G PAYGO Dongles

[DimPrawn]

Who has the best deal on a 3G dongle? don't want a contract, just top up and use?

[AtW]

I bought Three 3G PAYG from Carphone Warehouse: 12 GB but it can last 12 months (sneaky small print suggests it may expire after 120 hours of use also) for £80.

Best PAYG deal IMHO - the rest are tulip as they expiry too quickly.

[DimPrawn]

No one else got any suggestions on the best Pay as You Go 3G dongle?

[TroubleAtMill]

Every so often I look for cheaper alternatives to the £10/1Gb per month PAYG from Three that I've had since August 08. I've still yet to find it.

T@M.

[downsouth]

if your with NTL/Virgin or whatever they call themselves for other products then give them a bell and see if the £5 pm dongle offer still on, for the sake a fiver a month defo worth it and saves messing about topping up etc

[RichardCranium]

I got a T-Mobile 3G dongle earlier this year. The financial deal was excellent - they had an offer on that meant they paid me £2 to take it away. We got one for the Missus too.

The installation software applied some clever stuff that compresses all downloaded images and makes them lossy. This was in effect even when I was on broadband. Removing it was a nightmare.

Life was also made hard by my laptop not supporting USB 2.0 when I thought it did.

[ee61re]

Don't just consider the cost - consider which network has best coverage where you are going to be using it.

[AtW]

Don't just consider the cost - consider which network has best coverage where you are going to be using it.

Shhhhhhhhh! He was planning to use it on the go to continue post tulip on here using miriads of his sockies - let him buy on cost grounds, after all all that NI increase will require more to pay his buttler maintaining his Swindon's mansion

[Spacecadet]

I've been using Three, no real complaints so far
Contract runs out soon, I'll probably switch to a cheaper tariff and keep the modem.

[NickFitz]

They vary between sucking donkey balls and being the best thing since sliced bread.

Unfortunately this applies to the same "dongle" (it's a modem FFS, why don't they call it that?) with the same provider on the same tariff during the same hour at the same location.

A friend who lives in the next street to me has just bought a Vodafone one on the basis that they offer some PAYG tariff which doesn't expire what you've paid for after thirty days, unlike most. He's found it to be OK when it works, and not so good when it doesn't. However it's worked for him most of the time over the last two days.

I gave up on 3 in the end and got an O2 one (both PAYG). The O2 one doesn't seem to suffer the endemic fail of the 3 one, which was unusable about 80% of the time.

I offer no conclusions or recommendations because it seems that they either work or they don't, you can never predict which it will be, and just at the point where you've developed enough faith to rely on them they will let you down.

EDIT: Oh, and 3's "my3" web application is one of the most useless piles of fail the world has ever witnessed. Seriously, it sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks (that's not enough instances of the word "sucks" to adequately encompass the awesome level of fail that 3 have devised for their hapless customers, but I couldn't be bothered holding down Command-V any longer).