Van and home MIFI

[Fisherman]

I just screen cast anything on the phone direct to the TV if we want a bigger screen than the tablets on wifi. We've never had a need for a firestick or such like. But an external aerial connection would be useful sometimes, some older phones did have that ability!

The problem with that is where we go we don’t get sufficient signal strength on our phones to do this, but with the mifi we do. We don’t have to use the mifi that often with our directional aerial, we can normally get a tv signal.

 

[Deleted member 87025]

I am looking to get an aerial and a router to go in the van AND that I could use at home, I am fed up paying Virgine £56 a month for TV phone line and broadband, the only one I use is the broadband. I would like a good set up that could be indoors and in the van when away. I can hotspot but it runs the phone down quickly. The iPad has its own chip but the receiver is not that hot with some places. Anybody have a suggestion, that might do me? I have 105 gigabyte monthly allowance.

We live on a narrowboat and have a 4x4 over lander. We have just upgraded our mifi device on the boat to a TP-Link M7850 (£150) which we use with 3 sim with unlimited everything £20 a month. Never required an extra aerial to get a good signal. We stream all our tv and my husband works from home 7 hours a day on his laptop! My daughter has just gone for the same mifi unit in her house so she can then take it with her in the campervan she is currently building.

 

[5andy]

We use a MIFI at home and abroad with a Vodaphone SIM card. It generally works very well. Watching Netflix, BBC iPlayer etc is fine if you don’t mind the occasional freezing of the screen. Can I ask what the problem with Smarty sim is, as I too have been looking at this. I thought it was 3 who were the provider And am not aware of any widespread problems.

 

[Tezza33]

I have just cancelled my data sim contract with ‘3’ that I use in my Huawei mifi in the motorhome. Great service and coverage but they wanted to drastically increase the monthly charge regardless of my threat to cancel.
So I’m open to suggestions of who to go with, monthly contract, payg, not bothered as long as it’s a good deal. Going off my last years usage I need around 10 gb data a month.

Affordable Mobiles.co.uk 12 month deal on 3
£8pm for 8gb/unlimited calls and texts, but includes cashback of £60 so effectively only costing £3pm

Three SIM Card

• •8GB data
  •Unlimited mins
  •Unlimited texts
• • £0 Upfront
  •12 months

£8 † /mth

+ £60 Cashback by Redemption
Redeem your cashback from AffordableMobiles.co.uk in instalments by submitting copies of your bills. Full details with order.

 

[Derekoak]

Why not just turn on your phone's mobile hotspot and also recieve calls too? That's all I do and connect any device to it, no need for any separate mifi or extra sim card! A smart phone has built in mifi.

That is what we have been doing for a year. My samsung 5 phone has an unlimited calls / data/ text sim in it cost less than 12 pounds a month for a year. It has a hotspot that supports data for 2 tablets at home and away. We have a reasonable signal at home so an aerial is not needed there. We have not paid for landline broadband for years now.
Similarly in France we mostly get 4g signal so our needs are mostly met without an external aerial. It is just so simple, and my phone still has calls and texts. The same sim in a mifi with external aerials at home and the car would get more speed if we streamed but for what we need, our only cost is that sim and a leftover 24gb prepaid sim in one tablet used when we occasionally go in 2 directions and the hotspot does not work. That sim will not be replaced.
My wife has a Smarty sim in her phone basically 5 pounds a month for calls and texts and pay for data only as needed at I think 1.25 a gb. As she mostly uses my hotspot that is very little.

 

[REC]

We have a data SIM only deal with three (unlimited data) which came with a Huawei b310(I think!) Router. We already had a Huawei 5577c mifi so we put the SIM in that when in the van and in Portugal house. Have a pounding aerial which we use in Portugal and also when signal is poor in the van. Works really well boosting signal from one band 3g to three bands 4g. Also have Vodafone 100gb on my phone which I can use as a hotspot. Found that when I use Vodafone in europe, for some reason iPlayer thinks I am in UK ......use nordvpn usually with the three sim.

 

[xsilvergs]

We have a Giffgaff SIM in the vans router, I swapped from Smarty for better coverage.

I am now thinking of changing to EE. Giffgaff only allow a certain period of time out of the country before their usage terms kick in. We previously had Virgin SIMs (which run on EE) in our phones and never had restrictions while in Europe.

If EE still allows us to use their SIM out of the country for 6 months we will be ditching our landline / broadband and just hook up to the van when at home.

 

[REC]

Data allowance for EE is currently 50gb max ( fair use policy) when in Europe

 

[ricc]

We're staying with daughter for weekend. Landline broadband is off for the house move.nim online with a 3 data sim in my cheap Android tablet....hotspot turned on for the wife's iPad to connect to. Till daughter wakes up and turns her phone hotspot on on unlimited data.

 

[xsilvergs]

Data allowance for EE is currently 50gb max ( fair use policy) when in Europe

That's better than Giffgaff was offering last year. We can probably live with 50gb.

In Portugal we've used NOS unlimited SIMs, €1 / day, they are throttled but still ok for watching iPlayer.

 

[witzend]

We have a Giffgaff SIM in the vans router, I swapped from Smarty for better coverage.

Only thing to be aware of with Gifgaf / O2 is they will turn your sim off if its used more abroad than in UK. They did this to the sim I had in my tracker with out any warning we only became aware when our son told us he couldn't connect to tracker to see our location

 

[Phantom]

Till daughter wakes up and turns her phone hotspot on on unlimited data.

Why not just leave it on 24/7?

 

[Obanboy666]

Me not being up to speed with the ins and outs of mobile phone sims etc can someone answer the following.
Browing different suppliers and I’ve noticed there can be a substantial price difference between phone sims and tablet sims. For example on the EE site a 50 gb phone sim on contract is around £25.00 a month where as a tablet 50 gb sim is £44.00 a month.
Could I not just buy the phone sim contract and use it in my iPad Or would they be wise to this and prevent it ?

 

[landoboguy]

Me not being up to speed with the ins and outs of mobile phone sims etc can someone answer the following.
Browing different suppliers and I’ve noticed there can be a substantial price difference between phone sims and tablet sims. For example on the EE site a 50 gb phone sim on contract is around £25.00 a month where as a tablet 50 gb sim is £44.00 a month.
Could I not just buy the phone sim contract and use it in my iPad Or would they be wise to this and prevent it ?

Phone sim will be fine, there was ruling by offcom a couple of years ago stating one should operate both.
ee have 100gb for £20 per month with 3 months free btsport, apple music, and various others
that will be fine
see uswitch for the best deals https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/

imoblie (which operates on the Three network) have a monthly deal rolling contract ( 1 month notice) unlimited data £18.00 but also cheaer ones if you dont need unlimited

Best SIM Only Deals - Compare SIM Only Contracts | iD Mobile

Compare our SIM Only Deals which, like standard mobile phone contracts, offer a package of minutes, texts, and data for a monthly cost.

www.idmobile.co.uk

 

[witzend]

Me not being up to speed with the ins and outs of mobile phone sims etc can someone answer the following.

I've also been looking at sim only deals and You need to watch for data speeds for instance Vodafone do 3 all unlimited, 1 is fastest available £33, 2 is up to 10 mbps £28 the other is up to 2 mbps £23 on some of the comparison sites its difficult to see which one your getting

 

[regnarts]

Noticed that Sim only offers don't allow you to use the full amount of data in Europe with capping set at 20gb use in Europe with unlimited & 100gb offers.
Has anyone seen a Sim contract with full amount allowed or do you use a Spanish data supplier if in Spain.
If or when I go to Spain for say 3 months in winter I want to have a good data connection but the UK suppliers are capping.

 

[Obanboy666]

Phone sim will be fine, there was ruling by offcom a couple of years ago stating one should operate both.
ee have 100gb for £20 per month with 3 months free btsport, apple music, and various others
that will be fine
see uswitch for the best deals https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/

imoblie (which operates on the Three network) have a monthly deal rolling contract ( 1 month notice) unlimited data £18.00 but also cheaer ones if you dont need unlimited

Best SIM Only Deals - Compare SIM Only Contracts | iD Mobile

Compare our SIM Only Deals which, like standard mobile phone contracts, offer a package of minutes, texts, and data for a monthly cost.

www.idmobile.co.uk

Just had a quick browse on the uswitch site you suggested and some great deals.
I won’t be going abroad in the foreseeable future and when away in the motorhome only use my iPad and laptop for web browsing, using the forums, ebay, online banking, news etc so reckon I will get a sim for my phone and use it as a hotspot for my iPad and laptop.
Probs go with imobile as I had a three sim in my mifi for 3 years and had great coverage.
Many thanks for the link etc.

 

[Phantom]

Not only data speed but also area coverage. But unlimited everything for about £20/month is great value if it works for you.

 

[vintageb3]

I have just cancelled my data sim contract with ‘3’ that I use in my Huawei mifi in the motorhome. Great service and coverage but they wanted to drastically increase the monthly charge regardless of my threat to cancel.
So I’m open to suggestions of who to go with, monthly contract, payg, not bothered as long as it’s a good deal. Going off my last years usage I need around 10 gb data a month.

Can I ask what you were paying and what was the drastic increase? Thanks.

 

[Obanboy666]

Can I ask what you were paying and what was the drastic increase? Thanks.

I was paying £8.75 a month for 20gb and they were increasing it to £30.25.
I had negotiated the £8.75 a month for 20gb the year previous when I informed them I wished to cancel my contract, I was paying something like £5.00 for 5gb a month. Surprise surprise they offered me the £8.75 @ 20gb as I was a loyal long standing customer.
This time they wouldn’t budge so I’m leaving them.