3g Dongle ?

[sloughman]

Hello I wonder if anyone can advise.

 

We have a teacher that regularly takes students out on day field trips (at least weekly). He has asked if he would be able to access the internet on these trips on his PC. 3G dongles spring to mind. Although a 3G enabled tablet is also a possibility, but more expensive. Has anyone got any thoughts on this as to what may be the best approach ?

 

Thanks in advance

[Steve21]

We have a 3G dongle as part of our schools phone contracts, but we generally don't give it out to teachers. Our trip phones are iPhones so are used for internet access etc.

 

Not sure if you have any business phone contracts etc, but it works out a lot cheaper to add one to it, then get seperate etc

 

And then it's the question of if he's taking school laptops etc on trips are they insured as I know most don't cover things like that?

 

Steve

[abillybob]

Our school has a cheap smart phone on contract with three. This gives them unlimited 3g tethering for around £17 a month works really well and you can use it as a phone

[sloughman]

That's great thanks, I'll investigate further.

[mac_shinobi]

If not a phone then a MiFi as then you only pay for the sim contract which will only be used for data, I have an iPad 3rd gen cellular with Three and they charge £29 a month which gives me 15gb of data per month, obviously this is consumer contract so for education or business may differ depending on if the school etc pay for it

 

Regardless of going with Three or whichever network provider which can be used for 5 devices at the same time : Huawei E5331 Value MiFi.

Edited February 5, 2014 by mac_shinobi

[teejay]

It's cheaper on 3 to get a cheap smartphone and use tethering, for £15 a month they do a 12 month sim only contract with unlimited data and allows tethering.

[MYK-IT]

It's cheaper on 3 to get a cheap smartphone and use tethering, for £15 a month they do a 12 month sim only contract with unlimited data and allows tethering.

 

Sadly tariffs for The One Plan went up last week by £5 per month.

 

£20pm 12 Month Contract

£23pm 30 Day Contract

 

Still unlimited data with tethering (via smartphone only, not dongle/mifi)

[Jawloms]

What about Ovivo? Pay £20 once, then £0 per month and get 1GB of data per month forever. - http://www.ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-data/

2GB is £5 per month and 3GB is £10 per month.

[teejay]

Ooops, so it has, still a pretty good deal though on 3 though. Also if you get good coverage in your area the speed is far better than I've seen off other providers, in fact in our current house it works better than our FTTC broadband most of the time.

[MatthewL]

Having tethered off my phone when working on new sites whilst commissioning them you can easily kill a mobile phone battery in less than 3 hours browsing the web.

 

I would recommend a MiFi it lasts longer and also MiFi/dongle they are more robust.

[rad]

Get a USB dongle, it's cheaper and can be plugged into any laptop.

[Trapper]

Through EE I pay (on business tied to our phones) £12pcm for a dongle with 5GB of data on the 3G/4G in Brum network.

 

It can either be used with the dongle on a PC, or in an iPad. I've tried using the shared connection iPad to iPad and they didn't charge us anymore.

 

My EE customer rep was actually surprised when I asked if I could use what is a PC/dongle contract SIM in my iPad. He didn't know!

[abillybob]

I spoke to three as I got a new phone this weekend and apparently they are ditching the unlimited tethering soon so you may want to think quick if you're looking into this kind of thing Just a heads up!

[mac_shinobi]

I spoke to three as I got a new phone this weekend and apparently they are ditching the unlimited tethering soon so you may want to think quick if you're looking into this kind of thing Just a heads up!

 

What about a sim only type plan for the MiFi or iPads etc ( obviously not gonna get an iPad , just as an example ) ??

 

Presume they will be about £30 pcm and give you about 15gb of data etc ??

[HarryMonkey]

I used to take my laptop out and about with me and bought a 3g dongle and a payg sim from O2 and just topped up as I needed it.