Mifi Wifi Mobile Broadband in general

[paruses]

Sorry if there's an 80 page thread about this - there doesn't look to be anything more recent than 2018.

I am looking at getting a mobile router / dongle as I may need to connect to work for a week or so in January and I know that there will be no wifi. I like the mifi type idea as I had a dongle a long time ago and found it a bit of a pain plus it uses up a usb port (although that might not be an issue as it's not going to be in constant use after the week - only similar occasions).

This looked a reasonable buy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081S5KRZ7/?coliid=I29NF5VKPQNP2E&colid=3VEKJIM0M72Q5&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

And obvs there is the provider to consider too. All the big names want you for 12 /24 months or want a lot of money but someone like Smarty will give you 50gb for £10 for a month. I am right that these sorts of people (GiffGaff would be another) just use O2 or Vodafone's infrastructure? Smarty's coverage map looks decent enough for where I will use it to start with.

Anyone use anything similar or have a recommendation? I don't want to spend a fortune but if I can connect using this it means I can avoid having to work at home and then travel over to this location I have made unnecessarily mysterious each evening (and back in the morning).

[Sebastian Cobb]

It sounds like this is for a one-off/short period, can you get by with tethering to your phone over WiFi and maybe purchasing a one-off boost for the extra data? When my broadband died I got by on that and it worked reasonably well, I could videocall and stuff.

[canadagoose]

Sorry if there's an 80 page thread about this - there doesn't look to be anything more recent than 2018.

I am looking at getting a mobile router / dongle as I may need to connect to work for a week or so in January and I know that there will be no wifi. I like the mifi type idea as I had a dongle a long time ago and found it a bit of a pain plus it uses up a usb port (although that might not be an issue as it's not going to be in constant use after the week - only similar occasions).

This looked a reasonable buy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081S5KRZ7/?coliid=I29NF5VKPQNP2E&colid=3VEKJIM0M72Q5&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

And obvs there is the provider to consider too. All the big names want you for 12 /24 months or want a lot of money but someone like Smarty will give you 50gb for £10 for a month. I am right that these sorts of people (GiffGaff would be another) just use O2 or Vodafone's infrastructure? Smarty's coverage map looks decent enough for where I will use it to start with.

Anyone use anything similar or have a recommendation? I don't want to spend a fortune but if I can connect using this it means I can avoid having to work at home and then travel over to this location I have made unnecessarily mysterious each evening (and back in the morning).

Smarty uses Three's network (without band 20, which goes through walls more easily, but I highly doubt you'll need it for mobile broadband). You can always get a SIM and give it a go - there's no contract or anything, so you can change to another one if it's no use.

It sounds like this is for a one-off/short period, can you get by with tethering to your phone and maybe purchasing a one-off boost for the extra data? When my broadband died I got by on that and it worked reasonably well, I could videocall and stuff.

You can also do this, which would save you hassle. You might need to put your phone up at the window, though, depending on signal level.

edit: brackets in wrong place

[paruses]

It sounds like this is for a one-off/short period, can you get by with tethering to your phone over WiFi and maybe purchasing a one-off boost for the extra data? When my broadband died I got by on that and it worked reasonably well, I could videocall and stuff.

Hadn't thought of this. I think I've always discounted tethering as previous mobile contracts penalised you quite a bit for doing it (but this is going back a long time). Just had a look at O2 who is my provider and they want a shit load compared to the data - however I have a few new enough but unused handsets around to stick a Smarty SIM in and see how it goes.

Without writing all of the scenario out this might not even be necessary so would rather waste a tenner on 30gb of unused data than £60 on SIM + router that realistically I would never use again.

Smarty uses Three's network (without band 20, which goes through walls more easily, but I highly doubt you'll need it for mobile broadband). You can always get a SIM and give it a go - there's no contract or anything, so you can change to another one if it's no use.
You can also do this, which would save you hassle. You might need to put your phone up at the window, though, depending on signal level.

Thanks. That explains why they give indoor/outdoor coverage on their coverage map. I can work with phones on windowsills or just finding the best spot in the house if it comes to it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah some of them can be pricks on tethering, but I think routers are measured in the same way

I didn't know smarty existed. However was going to lower my data on giffgaff as I'm not going anywhere at the moment and saw they'd added a load of more competitive data options and rather than save £2 a month for a cap I could probably breach with Spotify on a long walk or two, ended up changing to more data at the same price. Anyway I have no complaints.

[touchingcloth]

Without writing all of the scenario out this might not even be necessary so would rather waste a tenner on 30gb of unused data than £60 on SIM + router that realistically I would never use again.

Having looked into this same question for my dad recently, I was going to suggest the same as Cobbo and just go down the tethering route. I saw some MiFi routers for around £18, but anything half decent started at the same £60 point you seem to have found, which just isn't worth it unless you plan to use the thing for more than a single week.

If your current phone contract has a decent data limit then tethering is definitely the best way to go for a single week's usage. If you need more than your contract allows for then you should investigate what they offer in terms of one-off data add ons, or check price comparison sites for the best no-contract sim for the amount of data you're likely to need. When I looked for my dad last month, Vodafone were doing no-contract sims with unlimited data for £32, so that's likely to be the very most you would need to pay. It's a bit of a faff going down the separate data sim route if tethering on your current contract isn't an option, but if your phone has dual sim slots...

[paruses]

Was just going to amend my nonsense bit earlier after a re-read and it sort of address your points TC: O2 want about £30 for 8gb bolt on or 2gb for about £12. I probably wouldn't need that much - and that's just a hopeful guess - but Smarty will give you 30gb for £10. Given I have a spare handset I can stick the sim into it makes the decision easy.

Re: smarty suddenly appearing - they've been ads on C5 catchup for the last week prior to me googling anything. It would have been giffgaff otherwise. I think they use O2s network and I know I had a good signal last time on O2.

[canadagoose]

Smarty are actually doing unlimited data for £15 a month now, if you wanted more.

[touchingcloth]

Ah, good one to know about! They didn't appear at all when I was Googling just a few weeks ago.

Total no-brainer if you have the spare handset. I do the same thing for my home office because the main home router is too variable when other people are using it while I'm working, and it costs me €20 for 30GB, which I resent. Smarty.pt pls.

[Sebastian Cobb]

That does seem quite good. I'm kind of in the point where I could probably get better deals for more data, but I was getting 7gb (now 11) for a tenner, and using about 2-3gb (in lockdown that has shrunk to about 300mb). So it made little sense to try and get more data, or dropping down to a 2gb cap for a saving of £2 a month. Or even spend ages researching if I could do much better tbh.