Internet Dongle - Manchester

[jukebox333]

I have a work colleague who is travelling to the UK in September, and wanted to pick up a USB Wireless Prepaid Internet dongle on arrival in Manchester. Can anyone advise the availability of these at the airport concessions on arrival, or is he better off getting something off the high street after he arrives?

He's there for a month, but is a low volume user - just needs to keep SWMBO connected to emails and pictures of new grandson back home!

 

[KateMayo]

I don’t believe you can buy a dongle at Manchester airport.

I’ve just returned from the UK and used a dongle from Three whilst there. Dongle, 30 days access plus 1GB of data for 20.99GBP. They are available from the Three shop in Manchester’s Arndale Centre.

They do offer a mail-order service but you may need a UK credit card for this.

 

[spudwa]

I got a SIM from TMobile while I was recently in the UK and I was thinking it would be a cool thing if our group could share these things. I've thought about this for at least 2 minutes so it may be badly thought out. What I'm suggesting is that anyone bringing back a current SIM/Dongle can put it in a pool and the the next user can pick it up before leaving OZ. For the few quid left on mine I'd be happy to give it away. Then people could arrive in the UK/USA with an already activated SIM

Comments please?

Paul

 

[thegurio]

I don’t believe you can buy a dongle at Manchester airport. I’ve just returned from the UK and used a dongle from Three whilst there. Dongle, 30 days access plus 1GB of data for 20.99GBP. They are available from the Three shop in Manchester’s Arndale Centre. They do offer a mail-order service but you may need a UK credit card for this.

Is this usable all over Europe? We are going to London, France, Greece, Spain, Monaco, Cyprus and a few others and want/need access to email(need), twitter(want), fb(want), Internet(need) whilst I'm there. I could almost make do without phone but I do need email/Internet. Can you pick these things up before you go? Is there a link one can click?

 

[drewbles]

Is there a link one can click?

Short of getting a SIM in every place you visit, this will be your best bet:

Using the Internet Abroad – Vodafone

Note that you'll need to purchase this in the UK, unless you a) have access to a UK address to get the free PAYG SIM's delivered and b) you have access to a UK credit card to do the recharge (recharge or "TopUp" Vouchers and be obtained in Boots, WH Smith and the like, so they're everywhere, and applied via the Vodafone UK website).

There's a thread here about it.

 

[markis10]

Sharing SIMs could be an issue, I am sure a few of us remember a certain Dr Haneef: Muhamed Haneef - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You also dont need to really use a different dongle, its not hard to unlock a prepaid one these days and they start at $24.50, so its not a great expense, in fact with the startup data bundles on offer at the moment its cheaper to buy a new dongle than recharge, take for instance the Telstra 3G WiFi device for $49 at Officeworks, you get 5Gb of data usable in Australia for 3 months!

 

[KateMayo]

Is this usable all over Europe?

I believe you can globally roam with it but the costs are prohibitive. For example, roaming in France costs £1.28 / MB.

There are places in the UK (for example, McDonalds, Starbucks) which offer free wi-fi. It might be worthwhile investigating if this is also available in the countries you plan to visit.

 

[markis10]

I believe you can globally roam with it but the costs are prohibitive.

Funny you should mention roaming:

Australians are being slugged global roaming rates of up to $20 per megabyte with no way of monitoring usage costs charged by the telco until they receive their bill.

A new OECD report released this month analysed pricing plans for 68 operators in 34 OECD countries and found Australia was the third most expensive country in the world when it comes to data roaming, with Aussie travellers paying an average of just under $US12 per MB.
Only Japanese and Chilean travellers pay more for data roaming than Australians.

Read more: Global roaming rorts: Australia third worst ​

​

 

[KateMayo]

You also dont need to really use a different dongle, its not hard to unlock a prepaid one these days...

I tried doing this - unlocked my Australian dongle and took it with me - but when trying to buy a SIM only was told by mobile broadband resellers in the UK that their dongle was also required as the software to operate the SIM was located on the dongle. (Don't know how true this is!)

 

[markis10]

I tried doing this - unlocked my Australian dongle and took it with me - but when trying to buy a SIM only was told by mobile broadband resellers in the UK that their dongle was also required as the software to operate the SIM was located on the dongle. (Don't know how true this is!)

Most of the hardware makers have a generic software version, you just need to know the setting details of the carrier you are trying to use, which will be problematic for those that might be considered technically challenged. I must admit I have not kept track of pricing overseas, if you can pickup a dongle as cheap OS then why fiddle/experiment with settings, but if you like a challenge....International APN Settings for Mobile Broadband Network Operators | Settings

 

[KateMayo]

but if you like a challenge....

Always up for a challenge... I think I might try this on my next trip to the UK - take my unlocked Australian dongle with me; insert my UK Three SIM; fiddle with the settings and... break both of them :shock:

Seriously - thanks for the link - should prove very useful!

 

[markis10]

Just make sure you have the generic software as the telco specific software often wont load the changed access details, here are some but not all of the suppliers sites/software:

Microsoft Windows PC mobile broadband software

 

[KateMayo]

Just make sure you have the generic software as the telco specific software often wont load the changed access details, here are some but not all of the suppliers sites/software:

Microsoft Windows PC mobile broadband software

Thanks, once again, Markis10... that link also saved!

 

[drewbles]

USB Dongles/Modems are in effect the same as chipsets used in phones, just not with the voice stack.

They still have an IMEI, and work on the same principles as a standard GSM/HSDPA chipset in a usual phone.

They can be easily locked to a specific MCC/MNC and will require PIN's to unlock.

As stated, they can be picked up for next-to-nothing these days, so it's probably not worth arguing with your current one, and just getting a new one.

As for the roaming prices, they exist for a reason. The carriers don't make as much as you think on roaming data (they make substantially more on roaming voice than they do from data, on a pure percentage basis not dollar basis), and it's extremely difficult to work with (real-time updates just don't happen, it's a side effect in the way GSM has been designed - GSM/UMTS works great as an autonomous system, and great for roaming, but integrating real-time billing updates is extremely difficult, and where mobile data can be downloaded in extremely high speeds, it's very easy to use 5-10mb in the space of 60 seconds, and get whacked for it in your bill).

There's a reason very few people do pre-paid roaming data.... It's not easy (nor cheap).

It sucks, but dem's da breaks as they say!

(The Vodafone UK one is the cheapest you'll find for roaming within the UK and Europe, and unlike AU, Vodafone there is actually pretty decent, I use it whenever I'm there, and also roamed around Europe with it; £2/day for 20mb or 5mb, depending on your country, with an SMS indicating when you've started to use it, what your allowance is, and SMS's when you approach and reach your allowance; it's quite good).

FWIW, probably 90%+ of dongles are manufactured by Huawei, with software they call 'Mobile Partner' being used to manage connection and associated profiles for the device. I use the generic version of it (as I get it OEM as we sell dongles) but the rest are just re-badged versions of this (albeit some of them very pretty re-badges like the 3 UK one for Mac). They can all be used, providing you can change the APN settings. You shouldn't need the generic version specifically, unless the carrier has branded it to the point they have a 'connect' button, and that's about all!