Unlocked broadband dongle

[Pick]

i have just bought a unlocked Huawei E353 on eBay for £20.I thought it might be a good idea to have the facility of using any simcard.I Put in my orange sim card and plugged it in.Everything installed okay and then a page came up £3 per mb.What a waste of money.
Is this the norm, or is there a differant way.

 

[DemiLion]

PAYG data can be quite pricey if you don't buy it in blocks.

Having done some research I've decided to go for the Three Mifi with a monthly rolling contract, because it works out as better value. I've then got my standard Orange contract as back up.

There was a thread a couple of months ago discussing data rates, and if I remember correctly the conclusion was that Pre Pay was the way forward if you didn't want a contract.

 

[Gary Coyle]

I use 3, great service as a long standing customer of theirs, ive recently upgraded my package to the brand new HSPDA+ 21.5mbs dongle for free which flies, its faster than my home broadband, i also have an iPad but i refused to pay another £15 on top for a seperate micro sim card so they have set me up with a mirco sim card for the iPad and an adapter so i can take it out of the iPad and put it in the dongle for use with the laptop, all with 15GB data a month for £10 a month. means i can watch Sky Go when out and about, brilliant service if you're prepared to haggle and chuck the dummy out of the pram.

 

[DemiLion]

Right, I'm now set up with the E586 on Three and as Gary says, it's blisteringly fast. Excellent bit of kit!

 

[RicherSea]

I've got the same Three contract as Gary, and it's still hte best value I've found. The MiFi routers are now totally up to streaming video, even 2-way HD video skype as long as you've got HSDPA signal. I would personally prefer a couple of these on different networks, rather than separate sims in each device I own, or separate dongles on each.

Having unlocked hardware is useful, as you can have a few sims and change, just make sure as already mentioned, you by you're PAYG data in blocks.