| Pagina's in het onderwerp: < [1 2 3] > | Laptop / dongle / roaming internet access De persoon die dit onderwerp heeft geplaatst: Charlie Bavington
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| did you consider Internet cafes? | Jul 13, 2009 |
Hi,
I don't know why you need to have net connection all the time? When I travel I use internet cafes -you can find them in the remotest villages in Turkey, Greece...so I'm sure you'll find them in France as well - and with a decent 4/8 GB USB you may download or upload anything you need to work on on your laptop till you find the next cafe (if you are travelling all the time)
Have a nice time on holidays
| | | | | My requirements.... | Jul 13, 2009 |
... or should I say my ideal solution:
1. works in both the UK and France without fuss
2. installs easily
3. does not involve me dragging my long-suffering family to mobile telephone retailers when we are supposed to be on holiday, or me deserting them while I undertake a solo mission!
4. ditto internet cafés
(Honestly though, both those options are useful backup options if my main service fai... See more ... or should I say my ideal solution:
1. works in both the UK and France without fuss
2. installs easily
3. does not involve me dragging my long-suffering family to mobile telephone retailers when we are supposed to be on holiday, or me deserting them while I undertake a solo mission!
4. ditto internet cafés
(Honestly though, both those options are useful backup options if my main service fails. Last resort, though, not first resort.)
I just want to be able to plough through a few paragraphs in the evenings while my little boy sleeps upstairs and the wife dozes in a postprandial haze on the sofa. A dim view will be taken of any work-related activity during the day... and quite frankly, I agree with that.
I admit those virtual provider types make me twitchy - small cash flow problem and Bouygues pulls the plug out and I'm shafted. But thanks for the info.
Giovanni - as I understand it after speaking to a man in the Orange shop, if you don't go for a long-term contract, you buy a dongle for £29, and pay £15 for 30 days, which entitles you to 3 GB of data in those 30 days, in the UK. Roaming is £3 per MB, which he reckons is about 2,000 'ordinary' webpages (I may check that maths!). The deal will renew for another 30 days automatically, so you have to actually cancel it. Not cheap, but cheaper than divorce
I should have been clearer when I said "any other options" - I was wondering whether anyone had any experiences to share with dongles and suchlike from providers other than Orange (T-mobile, O2, etc.).
[Edited at 2009-07-13 19:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Charlie Bavington wrote:
I should have been clearer when I said "any other options" - I was wondering whether anyone had any experiences to share with dongles and suchlike from providers other than Orange (T-mobile, O2, etc.).
Ask them. My situation is the reverse. I use my mobile Internet on a Portuguese contract whenever I'm in the UK and pay 12 euros per day -- regardless of how long I'm connected in the 24 hour period.
Since I normally work for a few hours per day when I'm there, 12 euros is easily made up and a lot cheaper than being charged for actual use (as Paula describes). But then again, I'm only ever there for three or four days. In your case it will probably work out too pricy.
I've also had no problems getting coverage wherever I go.
[Edited at 2009-07-14 00:06 GMT]
| | | | | That confirms an oddity! | Jul 14, 2009 |
It would appear on the evidence so far, then, that in Europe, prices appear to be based on connection time, and in the UK, on data usage.
And that roaming prices are still based on the system in use "domestically" - I roam from the UK to France, I pay per MB even though I'm probably using the same infrastructure that Orange's French customers are charged per hour to use.
Meanwhile, you roam here from Portugal and pay for time, whereas Vodofone roaming to Portugal from the UK i... See more It would appear on the evidence so far, then, that in Europe, prices appear to be based on connection time, and in the UK, on data usage.
And that roaming prices are still based on the system in use "domestically" - I roam from the UK to France, I pay per MB even though I'm probably using the same infrastructure that Orange's French customers are charged per hour to use.
Meanwhile, you roam here from Portugal and pay for time, whereas Vodofone roaming to Portugal from the UK is charged per MB.
I wonder which is best value for money, even "domestically", never mind roaming?
I do tend to stay connected when I'm working and just check bits and bobs from time to time as I go along, so I have a feeling that paying per page rather than for connected time probably suits my working method, assuming that the cost is not outragous.
According to here, with Orange for example, as a French PAYG user:
http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/mobilite/Cle3G.aspx?rdt%20=o
a couple of hours after dinner would cost €14
(I am now assured that, although very much not the preferred option, I have permission to nip to an Orange store for a dongle without domestic discord necessarily resulting.
Although reading between the lines, I need to factor in the price of extra wine and other goodies before making the final cost comparison
Whereas as a roaming Orange customer, i pay less than €4 (£3) for 1 MB. Orange guidance has the following:
* 100 emails without attachment = 1MB
* 3 emails with attachment = 1MB
* 1 hour spent on Instant Messenger = 1MB
* 1 hour web browsing = 10MB
* downloading one 3-minute MP3 = 1MB
* downloading one 10-minute video = 80MB
Make of that what you will, but I do actually intend to see a couple of other companies to see how their costs compare, now I've actually got an idea of what I can get for 1 MB Key info it has taken me too long to find....
My thanks to all for their contributions so far, even if I may have appeared ungrateful or unenthusiastic - it is ALL worth knowing. ▲ Collapse
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Take a look at SIMYO
www.simyo.com
In France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Austria, etc.
Vodafone, Orange and all the other "Big Companies" are expensive!
| | | | kmtext
Verenigd Koninkrijk
Local time: 14:04
Engels
+ ...
| Get a local payg sim | Jul 14, 2009 |
I looked into taking mine (BT Business) roaming around Europe. Depending on where you are and which network you're connected to, charges can range from £4/Mb-£14/Mb. I'd suggest that a bit of research before you go and a quick visit to one of the French mobile phone retailers on your first day to pick up a sim card would be a good idea.
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what are you going to use?
G
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kmtext wrote:
I looked into taking mine (BT Business) roaming around Europe. Depending on where you are and which network you're connected to, charges can range from £4/Mb-£14/Mb. I'd suggest that a bit of research before you go and a quick visit to one of the French mobile phone retailers on your first day to pick up a sim card would be a good idea.
So you're thinking I buy the Orange (for example) dongle for the UK leg of the trip (which we mustn't overlook!), and then replace the SIM card when I get over the channel?
Is that a relatively easy, if fiddly, job as with a mobile phone? I assume it is entirely legal? Which one did you buy?
Interested parties may note that data charges have fallen slightly since 1 July 'cos the EU are playing tough (!). Ditto roaming mobile calls and texts should be cheaper than last year.
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Fernando Toledo wrote:
Take a look at SIMYO
Despite my reservations, I have had a good look around the French website. Unless I am much mistaken, you have to buy a mobile telephone from them. Which they post to you. I assume you are suggesting that I do this, then use the phone as a modem, paying 0.19€ per minute every minute I am connected? Is that the idea? Would that even work, unless I already have a French mobile phone number from another company (Bouygues, SFR, Orange) in the first place?
I'm sorry, I may be being really ignorant about some of the technology here, but I can't see exactly how I can use what SIMYO offers to connect my laptop to the internet, on the day I arrive in France, and more cheaply than the other options available to me. Please give me a few pointers as to exactly how your suggstion helps meet my current requirements. Thanks
| | | | | Narrowed it down ! | Jul 14, 2009 |
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:
what are you going to use?
G
Still dunno, really. If we stick to the original parameters for now, out of the major UK providers, Vodaphone and O2 seem to only allow dongle roaming if you sign up for 18 months or longer. T-Mobile have a pay-per-day deal which looks good if you are visiting the UK (2 quid a day + £30 for the dongle, which spread over a fortnight would be quite reasonable), but no roaming.
That leaves Orange and 3 (damn fool name for Google searches!)
Orange here:
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband?WT.svl=208
which would appear to cost £29 for the dongle + £15 per month (for 3GB in the UK, largely irrelevant, well within my needs) + £2.95 per 1MB roaming data costs
Three here:
http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/
(click "1 month contract" tab), which would appear to cost £10 for the dongle + £15 per month (for 5GB in the UK) + £1.95 roaming data (found on another page)
Time to hit the high street to check the truth of this research.
Meanwhile, I'm still a bit confused about how much surfing equals 1MB. The "3" site seemed to imply it was only 3 pages! Yet both Orange and Vodafone have guidance pages indicating that 1 hour of normal surfing equates to 10 MB. Are they assuming 2 minutes a page/30 pages an hour? That would basically mean each page costs £1 with Orange, and 65p with Three. I seem unable to find independent facts about this aspect anywhere.
This is actually a key factor for me, because the particular regular job I am planning to do on holiday involves a fair amount of fact checking (FWIW, it is basically a business intelligence report in French, that uses a great deal of English source material, much of it available on the net, which I like to read to check everything is right). I would guess I could be looking at paying over £50 just for checking pages for that job.
And if we go back to here:
http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/mobilite/Cle3G.aspx?rdt%20=o
I could get 24 hours of time (2 x 12 hour passes) for roughly the same money (plus €29 dongle)
(Note to self, Bouygues do not appear to offer such deals, looks like all long-term contract stuff.... )
Likewise SFR:
http://www.sfr.fr/internet-mobile/offres-internet-mobile-cle-internet-3g/?vue=00235e&sfrintid=HPI_bol_interpart_bolmid
Very similar prices per hour, and a dongle for €29 - what a coincidence!
If it weren't for the fact I need something for the UK as well, and that I prefer the reassurance of somthing I know works before I leave the house, the obvious choice would be an Orange or SFR dongle deal in France. Time to reflect....
(Sorry, this is turning into a bit of a Charlie's dongle blog thread.)
| | | | | Carphone Warehouse say: | Jul 15, 2009 |
1. That Three's network coverage leaves a little to be desired.
2. When he heard about my roaming dongle plan, he said that really and truly, the best idea is to buy locally. Which, to be fair, is not the first time I've heard that advice
I visited the T-Mobile shop, he says you can roam with their deal, at £1.50 per MB, but it's PAYG so you have to leave your card with someone in the UK and get in touch... See more 1. That Three's network coverage leaves a little to be desired.
2. When he heard about my roaming dongle plan, he said that really and truly, the best idea is to buy locally. Which, to be fair, is not the first time I've heard that advice
I visited the T-Mobile shop, he says you can roam with their deal, at £1.50 per MB, but it's PAYG so you have to leave your card with someone in the UK and get in touch with them as the credit is running out and get them to charge it and send you the code somehow and... yeah, not the easiest solution. But a cheap data rate.
Both T-Mobile and CW staff confirmed my fears about how much 1 MB gets you in terms of web pages. Not much.
So now I'm thinking go with Orange for the UK leg, and potentially some low level roaming when I am first in France, then buy a French PAYG dongle at the earliest opportunity.
And then hope that there is no issue with installing 2 dongles on one laptop.... ▲ Collapse
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Charlie Bavington wrote:
Fernando Toledo wrote:
Take a look at SIMYO
Despite my reservations, I have had a good look around the French website. Unless I am much mistaken, you have to buy a mobile telephone from them. Which they post to you. I assume you are suggesting that I do this, then use the phone as a modem, paying 0.19€ per minute every minute I am connected? Is that the idea? Would that even work, unless I already have a French mobile phone number from another company (Bouygues, SFR, Orange) in the first place?
I'm sorry, I may be being really ignorant about some of the technology here, but I can't see exactly how I can use what SIMYO offers to connect my laptop to the internet, on the day I arrive in France, and more cheaply than the other options available to me. Please give me a few pointers as to exactly how your suggstion helps meet my current requirements. Thanks
I suppose in France is the same as in Spain or Germany, also. You need only a USB stick for your notebook. You can buy it there if you have not. Then just buy a prepaid SIM card in each country for Internet mobile.
They have the best price, no need to pay monthly.
Maybe if you call for information? Asking that you don't need a telephone or to make calls, but only Internet Mobile with a stick.
[Edited at 2009-07-15 14:34 GMT]
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Ines Burrell 
Verenigd Koninkrijk
Local time: 14:04
Lid 2004
Engels naar Lets
+ ...
Just a quick warning regarding the MBs one can use while roaming. Do not forget to disable your automatic antivirus updates. Also check how to disable Windows updates, they eat up incredible amount of MBs. When I was in Portugal last summer I used around 15 MB a day and that was basically email checking several times a day, online dictionaries, google research and news websites, not a single extra. Also, if you connect and disconnect all the time your MB limit for some unknown to me reason (I am... See more Just a quick warning regarding the MBs one can use while roaming. Do not forget to disable your automatic antivirus updates. Also check how to disable Windows updates, they eat up incredible amount of MBs. When I was in Portugal last summer I used around 15 MB a day and that was basically email checking several times a day, online dictionaries, google research and news websites, not a single extra. Also, if you connect and disconnect all the time your MB limit for some unknown to me reason (I am not a specialist, so this is just an observation) is used up faster.
Ines ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I am with Fernando and kmtext on this | Jul 15, 2009 |
You get your dongle in the UK, either from a phone company together with the SIM, if it is convenient. Or else you just buy one in a shop.
Then when you are in France (but you can look it up on the Internet from home), you get a prepaid SIM card for internet connections and stick it in your dongle, replacing the British one. (it is easy and legal)
It certainly is more convenient, because their is no international roaming involved. They must have some kind of interesting offers for p... See more You get your dongle in the UK, either from a phone company together with the SIM, if it is convenient. Or else you just buy one in a shop.
Then when you are in France (but you can look it up on the Internet from home), you get a prepaid SIM card for internet connections and stick it in your dongle, replacing the British one. (it is easy and legal)
It certainly is more convenient, because their is no international roaming involved. They must have some kind of interesting offers for prepaid internet connections: for xx days, or for yy minutes, or for zz Mb.
It is the same system as your mobile phone.
If you had to do many local phone calls in France for 20 days, you wouldn't think of using your UK mobile: you would get a French prepaid SIM card for those 20 days. The same goes for your internet connection.
There are lots of these offers in Italy, so I cannot think that the same doesn't apply to France.
(to give you an idea, the one I have is not prepaid, but it costs me 20 euros a month for unlimited use, including the cost of the dongle itself.) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Fears confirmed | Jul 15, 2009 |
Burrell wrote:
Just a quick warning regarding the MBs one can use while roaming. Do not forget to disable your automatic antivirus updates. Also check how to disable Windows updates, they eat up incredible amount of MBs.
Good point, which occured to me the other day, and then slipped out of the forefront of my mind again.
When I was in Portugal last summer I used around 15 MB a day and that was basically email checking several times a day, online dictionaries, google research and news websites, not a single extra. Also, if you connect and disconnect all the time your MB limit for some unknown to me reason (I am not a specialist, so this is just an observation) is used up faster.
Valuable info, thanks. I was long suspecting that the roaming option could prove prohibitively expensive, this seems to confirm it. I guess some kind of rounding system could explain your final point.
It is certainly starting to seem that roaming dongles are for emergency use at best, and that a local solution is going to save so much money that I really have no choice but to use it, despite my desire not to spend holiday time in mobile phone shops
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