Mobile data access at home and away

[Derekoak]

For 5 years now we have had free but slow wifi internet access at home through piggy backing off a friendly neighbour's fibre internet through a fon router of ours in his house and motorhome wifi antenna aimed at it. We have no landline as being away in our camper a lot it was not worth it. When away we exist on internet access for surfing and emails of prepaid 3 24gb sim cards in our tablets and payg 3 sim cards in the phones. 200mb reward cards. We found it too much trouble finding fon wifi signals whilst away, much easier to pay 2£ per gb for mobile data.
We need to re organise all this as the neighbour is moving house. We need a system that works at home and away. Perhaps a mifi to take with us to use all the time with external antennas fitted to the house and the camper to improve speed? If that were the case we would need to pay for more gb per year (at the moment estimated at 12 gb per year plus our existing wifi use where we do larger down loads of software updates mapping and some netflix and i player videos) our wifi is too slow for streaming. If mobile data was fast enough for streaming it might (if cheap enough) increase gb per year even more, so I guess perhaps 60gb per year through the mifi used as a hotspot by all our devices.
If the real cost per gb is less than £2 then a contract is possible but contracts seem to never allow the use of the theoretical gb on offer
Has anyone any experience or advice?

 

[Nabsim]

Mobile data has been fast enough to stream fir quite some time now. I now just use a 3 home WiFi setup at home or in the van. Got a voltage regulator for £7 to make sure it only gets 12v and has worked fine so far wherever we have been.

I got the unlimited download offer for £20 p.m same as a couple of others on here. Not needed to use an aerial with it to date and has worked when phone has no signal. The last couple of days 4 iPhones have updated plus tablets and watches and two laptops so probable used 15Gb this weekend just updating.

 

[witzend]

Huawei B311 Wireless Router | Mobile Broadband | Three
I been using this for 3 mths in place of home BB and have not had any problems 5 wks in France exsisting 3 customers 1£ less also router work direct off 12 v when in van

Tru this lead

 

[Canalsman]

As mentioned above Three offer a SIM only contract for £20 per month which allows unlimited data, texts and voice calls.

This is what I use in my phone and tether other devices to it as required. Tethering whilst abroad is permitted but data usage is limited to 19Gb per month.

 

[jagmanx]

I have used various providers

Mainly payg.
As contracts and reliability go..I agree that 3 are probably the best.

 

[Deleted member 9849]

I'm using a mifi unit with a vodafone sim card in France at the moment.I took it out in the UK before I came over to France.50Gb p/m for £30 on a monthly rolling contract.I just wanted it for a month so took out the contract and cancelled the next day so I only pay for 1 month....perfect.

It's 4G and has been good enough for streaming live TV wherever I've been in Normandy and Brittany in the last 3 weeks.

 

[shaunr68]

I believe that if you're in a country for more than a week or so, you get the best value for money by picking up a local data SIM.

For the UK (currently in Scotland) I use a Voxi (Vodafone) SIM, £20 for 45GB over 1 month

VOXI – Endless possibilities.

In Spain I bought a Lycamobile Ilimitado XXL Sim offering 25GB over 30 days for €15 National & International Prepaid SIM | Bundle | SIM only Deals

Spain | Prepaid Data SIM Card Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

In Portugal I use a MEO SIM offering 30GB over 15 days for €15 Cartao Enjoy – Cartoes SIM – Loja Online | MEO

Portugal | Prepaid Data SIM Card Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia

You can buy SIM cards in supermarkets, mobile phone shops etc and don't need a local address. For the Spanish Lycamobile service, topping up and managing the account is easy through an online portal in English. With MEO, I couldn't work out how to top up online but any post office will recharge the SIM card.

 

[alcam]

As mentioned above Three offer a SIM only contract for £20 per month which allows unlimited data, texts and voice calls.

This is what I use in my phone and tether other devices to it as required. Tethering whilst abroad is permitted but data usage is limited to 19Gb per month.

Two separate.occasions 3 have told me data is limited to 19Gb abroad by all companies .
Staff obviously been told this by the company .

 

[Derekoak]

Thank you all, more questions:
We go to mountainous out of the way places where even in Europe there sometimes is no signal. Has anyone needed to solve this problem with an external aerial?
I believe that involves a mifi? Do these calls texts and data sims go in mifi?
We only need about 100-125gb per year for our use. Are there cheaper contracts than the unlimited contracts for that sort of amount more like 10- 15gb /month?

 

[GeoffL]

As mentioned above Three offer a SIM only contract for £20 per month which allows unlimited data, texts and voice calls.

This is what I use in my phone and tether other devices to it as required. Tethering whilst abroad is permitted but data usage is limited to 19Gb per month.

I have a 'Three' contract. Until recently, this was a 12-month, SIM-only contract that cost £15 a month for 12GB data plus unlimited voice and text to include roaming in EU (except Andorra AFAICT) and lots of 'Go Roam World' countries. You can tether in Europe but not in Go Roam World countries, so we had to buy a local SIM to connect our laptop ect. when we recently visited Australia. FWIW, we didn't use 19GB per month in Aus even though we downloaded/streamed a few hours of Netflix and Amazon Prime content.

FWIW, Three have a handy app that lets you check your usage (or you can check this on the "MyThree" website). If you have a few months to go before your next foreign trip, you can check whether you'll have enough with a lower-priced plan (e.g. £13 per month for 12GB data with unlimited voice and texts on a SIM-only, 24 month contract) and move to a 'bigger' plan if needs be.

HTH, Geoff

 

[V1nny]

Thank you all, more questions:
We go to mountainous out of the way places where even in Europe there sometimes is no signal. Has anyone needed to solve this problem with an external aerial?
I believe that involves a mifi? Do these calls texts and data sims go in mifi?
We only need about 100-125gb per year for our use. Are there cheaper contracts than the unlimited contracts for that sort of amount more like 10- 15gb /month?

Take a look at the SIM Only deals on the moneysavingexpert website. They have an Vodafone offer of 100GB per month, plus unlimited calls & texts, for the equivalent of about £15 per month on a twelve month contract (normally £24 per month)

 

[highlandron]

I'm watching this thread with interest. Will have to weigh up coverage and costs but currently paying almost £60 per month for our BT line at home and out of contract. We're fairly high usage but I reckon the scissors will be getting sharpened.

 

[Biggarmac]

No longer have a BT line and broadband at home. The vodaphone 100 gb a month works well for me in European countries but the singnal is not good where I live. I have had a "Free.fr" sim for over 2 years which gives me up to 20gb a month in the UK. As this is then roaming it picks up the best signal at my house. I can use it to tether laptop etc. Free sims are sold at bournes in the larger tabacs in France. ( I am in France just now and in the opposite situation to home. The Free signal is bad, but vodaphone is good)

 

[harrow]

I'm watching this thread with interest. Will have to weigh up coverage and costs but currently paying almost £60 per month for our BT line at home and out of contract. We're fairly high usage but I reckon the scissors will be getting sharpened.

Well you can get adsl broadband at home for about £13 a month but if you away with the van you will have to have mobile broadband. or tether to a mobile phone.

 

[ricc]

weve given bt the elbow and transferred the house landline to plusnet for a fraction of what we were paying bt.

we wanted to put a landline into our workshop , a couple of years ago bt /openreach quoted 3k to run about 30 metres of cable and install one pole. were using a tp link router with a three sim card, hardwired to a couple of laptops. along with our mobile phones. we could just have used a mobile as a hotspot but dont want to use wifi . were using approx 10gb a month in the router during the summer months, drops considerably in the winter so dont really want a monthly contract.

the 3 sim in the router actually gives faster net access than our neighbours get on their landlines.

 

[mickymost]

I'm watching this thread with interest. Will have to weigh up coverage and costs but currently paying almost £60 per month for our BT line at home and out of contract. We're fairly high usage but I reckon the scissors will be getting sharpened.

Im watching too ,about time maybe to cancel extortianate BT monthly bill,if this is a viable alternative.We are on the damn internet daily but dont download.Only surfing and the odd Netflix so hopefully this could save some money?

 

[Wooie1958]

I'm watching this thread with interest. Will have to weigh up coverage and costs but currently paying almost £60 per month for our BT line at home and out of contract. We're fairly high usage but I reckon the scissors will be getting sharpened.

Contact the BT Loyalty Team and see what they can do for you.

A couple of years back i started the process of leaving BT when they got involved and offered me a contract that was too good to miss IMHO.

I didn`t ask for anything extra, i just wanted to keep the speeds and usage limits i already had ..............................

BT Infinity ( Fibre ) we average 50MB download, unlimited usage and BT home phone with unlimited anytime calls for just over £30 a month.

 

[linkshouse]

Contact the BT Loyalty Team and see what they can do for you.

A couple of years back i started the process of leaving BT when they got involved and offered me a contract that was too good to miss IMHO.

I didn`t ask for anything extra, i just wanted to keep the speeds and usage limits i already had ..............................

BT Infinity ( Fibre ) we average 50MB download, unlimited usage and BT home phone with unlimited anytime calls for just over £30 a month.

I had the same experience with BT a few years back and the chap I was talking to at the time actually advised me to make a note in my diary to ring them back in twelve months and bargain for another deal.

I can't help but think it shouldn't have to be like that, but maybe I'm being naive.

 

[REC]

Take a look at the SIM Only deals on the moneysavingexpert website. They have an Vodafone offer of 100GB per month, plus unlimited calls & texts, for the equivalent of about £15 per month on a twelve month contract (normally £24 per month)

We have this on my mobile phone and tether it to tablets and laptop when abroad. Have had a good signal most places and Vodafone allow use of all the contract( data, minutes and texts) when abroad. As a backup I use a mifi with a three 12 mth SIM only contract 40 GB month which I use at home & when in uk. I negotiated a £15 contract with them after telling them we are only at home half the year so we went worth renewing my £20 mth contract. This is limited to 19gb and two months abroad. Signal for both was useable even in Pyrenees without an aerial.

 

[ricc]

the whole telecoms business is a con. start the leave process and your existing provider will offer deals that arnt on their website.

we decided to leave ee and changed to plusnet for a better deal on our mobiles. we left bt and went to plusnet on our landline and broadband. both ee and bt suddenly found they could offer better deals. ludicrous part is plusnet is owned by ee. in turn ee is owned by bt.