MOBILE WI FI

Jul 8, 2020
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Hi All,
I am needing mi fi for use at work and when i get away in the caravan , looking for unlimited data plan .

Any recommendations ?

Cheers,

Brian.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi Brian
We use Huawei with a 3 simcard, marketed as 'internet with legs'little box is about £40 and card is unlimited and also about £40 from Amazon, works well for us, lot cheaper than paying for CMC wifi on sites, our sytem has worked wherever we have been and also on the move for work.Suspect it will run out fairly quickly if you need streaming but for emails and web access it works fine for us.
 
Jul 8, 2020
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Cheers, i can get 3 with unlimited data for 22 per month, i plan to tour up north Scotland so wondering how the network coverage is.

Where have you been and what like is the reception with 3 .

Cheers.
 
Oct 8, 2006
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Why not just use your mobile as a hotspot and get an unlimited data deal SIM for that?
If you want to go the mifi route have a look in Computer Exchange (shops everywhere) on uk.webuy.com and see what they can offer. You will get a 2yr guarantee with it. However if you see one check the model number first and look it up to make sure it will do 4G or your speed will be limited to about 10Mb whereas 4G will give you 50Mb on a good day with a following wind. DO NOT be suckered into getting an external for it if it is a type that has external aerial socket(s) until you have tried it - they are much more sensitive than you might expect, Huawei especially so (I've got two!)
 
Jul 18, 2017
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I have a sim free phone and use the Three sim card on contract for 18 months. I use the phone as the router so nor issue there. I do have a Three mifi unit, but have not used it for ages as more convenient to use the phone. We use it for Prime and Netfilx no issue. Just get the data unlimited sim card if your phone is not in contract.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hello Brian
We have not been to Scotland but have used the system all over southern England and most of Devon and Cornwall worked in the caravan when we didnt have a mobile phone signal, although our phones are 02.our 3 cards are data only and are a one offpayment so no monthly fees,how long they last depends on usage,both of us at work use them on the move with laptops.
 
Jun 16, 2020
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Data has dramatically reduced in price over the last year. Still shop around but there are deals to be had.

We have a mifi, but find that to tether to our phones, or even the camera, gets just as good results. Sometimes need to lodge the phone in the skylight.

My tip, if you can, is to use sims from different systems. I have a 20 gig contract, which finishes in April, with Vodafone. Wife has an unlimited sim from Virgin, (EE). She really never uses it. And I use less than 1 gig. So a lot going spare. Doing this gives you a much greater chance of getting a signal on sit.

I should add, my sons family all have contracts. Virgin offered him the free unlimited sim. So he gave it to his Mum.

John
 
Oct 8, 2006
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Three generally are good although my not be so given the recent abolishment of 3-2-1 and increasing the charges to 10-10-5. The increase may also affect other charges in due course.
One thing to be wary of is 3 coverage. We go to a farm site in East Somerset when visiting our daughter in Bath. There is a pylon about 650m to one side of the site that has VF and O2 both with 4G. About 1Km away on a nearby hilltop in the other direction is a short 3 tower which has 3 and EE on it. EE does 4G but 3 only has 3G thus limiting you download speed substantially. It would appear that 3 don't see the business case for 4G on the site even if it can easily be made available given EE and 3 share the same distribution network.
 
Jun 16, 2010
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I had an unlimited data plan with 3 - £10 a month

Most campsites I've stayed on (with the exception of the Sutton on Sea CCS), I've struggled to get any coverage.

In fact, not just campsites - anywhere outside a town / city has always been garbage

With EE now, and hoping to prove that it works better when we get the chance!
 
Nov 11, 2009
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I had an unlimited data plan with 3 - £10 a month

Most campsites I've stayed on (with the exception of the Sutton on Sea CCS), I've struggled to get any coverage.

In fact, not just campsites - anywhere outside a town / city has always been garbage

With EE now, and hoping to prove that it works better when we get the chance!


Good luck. We are with EE and there have been so many times that I’ve had to walk around outside moving arms around. I’m almost certain that a Scout camp on the opposite side of the valley tried to relay it for me by semaphore. All this talk about 5 G I’d settle for a good 4G yet in some areas it’s difficult to even get a text away. We have been down the eastern borders of Turkey and into Bhutan and yet been able to contact family, and dogs, more easily than in many parts of UK.
 
Oct 8, 2006
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Good luck. We are with EE and there have been so many times that I’ve had to walk around outside moving arms around. I’m almost certain that a Scout camp on the opposite side of the valley tried to relay it for me by semaphore. All this talk about 5 G I’d settle for a good 4G yet in some areas it’s difficult to even get a text away. We have been down the eastern borders of Turkey and into Bhutan and yet been able to contact family, and dogs, more easily than in many parts of UK.

Ah, but when roaming your phone will connect to any SP that it can find so you have a distinct advantage over the locals. In this country you are tied to one SP and if their coverage at location is poor or 'missing' - hard luck. That is why, if you want certain coverage, you should be on one supplier and your wife with another. Note also that in many instances VF and O2 will have common rural coverage as will BT/EE and 3. VF and O2 share distribution under the Cornerstone project, and EE and 3 share distribution through MBNL.
 
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Nov 11, 2009
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Ah, but when roaming your phone will connect to any SP that it can find so you have a distinct advantage over the locals. In this country you are tied to one SP and if their coverage at location is poor or 'missing' - hard luck. That is why, if you want certain coverage, you should be on one supplier and your wife with another. Note also that in many instances VF and O2 will have common rural coverage as will BT/EE and 3. VF and O2 share distribution under the Cornerstone project, and EE and 3 share distribution through MBNL.

Thanks I will bear that in mind. We are both on EE and have been since they were 121. Our phones are well out of contract but still being charged the old SIM only contract rates. 500 minutes, unlimited texts, 18 gb data for me, 10 gb for my wife. We’ve “ collected” the data through various means such as contract renewals, having home phone and broadband etc, plus one complaint. I think they have given us the data as they see from our record we rarely if ever use any each month. Cost per phone £6 plus vat. £14.4 plus the account billing charge. Now that we can ring mobiles from the home phone within the phone and broadband tariff the mobiles don’t get used so much for outgoing calls but our kids and grandkids are totally mobile.
 
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Sam Vimes

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Sep 7, 2020
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When we set up our First Responders group here in rural Scotland communication was an issue because within a couple miles you might have only one of about four carriers you could get a signal from. Scottish Ambulance issued us with mobile phones from an Isle Of Man carrier which meant we were always going to be roaming for a service and it worked very well.

Eventually they issued us with Air Wave radios but even these were a bit patchy. Didn't work at my house so I still resorted to the mobile phone - which was actually easier to sign off with.

As an aside my mobile phone has provision for two sim cards which gives more coverage if needed.
 
Mar 27, 2011
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I’ve had EE from when they started and took over my previous provider which was orange I think, I’ve been to sites from as far as mablethorpe and down to Cornwall, I also use my mobile to set up telematics on vehicles and can be anywhere within a radius of 150 miles from home, the majority are in rural locations and in all the time I’ve been with EE I’ve had at most a half dozen times with no signal, I think EE use there own masts and also have use of BT I think and they certainly will going forward as EE and BT are now connected in some way I believe, but it’s good that all these other providers exist because if we all went to the same one there’d be no competition and prices would go up, we get a good deal with EE due to NHS discounts they offer to NHS staff, I rely heavily on my mobile which is why I have my main phone on EE and always have a backup which is a tesco, the tesco has been in my car for a couple of years and has never been switched on, but as has been said before each to their own, how much worse would lockdown have been with our mobiles.

BP
 
Oct 8, 2006
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I’ve had EE from when they started and took over my previous provider which was orange I think, I’ve been to sites from as far as mablethorpe and down to Cornwall, I also use my mobile to set up telematics on vehicles and can be anywhere within a radius of 150 miles from home, the majority are in rural locations and in all the time I’ve been with EE I’ve had at most a half dozen times with no signal, I think EE use there own masts and also have use of BT I think and they certainly will going forward as EE and BT are now connected in some way I believe, but it’s good that all these other providers exist because if we all went to the same one there’d be no competition and prices would go up, we get a good deal with EE due to NHS discounts they offer to NHS staff, I rely heavily on my mobile which is why I have my main phone on EE and always have a backup which is a tesco, the tesco has been in my car for a couple of years and has never been switched on, but as has been said before each to their own, how much worse would lockdown have been with our mobiles.

BP

Have you tried your Tesco phone lately? Tesco runs on the O2 network - they are what is known as a MVNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator - but still have to comply with O2 rules which on PAYG requires at least one chargeable event every 6 months. I suspect you will find it no longer works and your number may even have been re-issued to someone else. Oh, and you will have lost any credit on the account.

Now to expound upon how cellular works. There are four network operators in the UK, Vodafone, O2, 3 and BT/EE. EE came about when France Telecom who owned Orange and 1-2-1 that had long since become T-Mobile and were owned by Deutsche Telekom agreed to merge as EE or Everything Everywhere. EE was bought by BT just under five years ago but still operates as two separate mobile service providers on the same (EE) infrastructure.

3 and T-Mobile set up a joint network distribution company in 2007 called MBNL - Mobile Broadband Network Ltd - to get their networks to the radio sites by fibre or (in most cases) by microwave link. MBNL stayed in place when the EE merger and then the BT takeovers occurred. Not to be outdone VF and O2 set up the Cornerstone project to do the same for their networks. The outcome is that VF and O2 are mainly on the same sites (as in towers though not necessarily on street poles) and 3 and EE do the same on their sites although the sites may be owned by any of the cellular operators and shared, or be on sites owned by other organisations such as Arqiva. In some remote areas - such as the very rural parts of the Scottish Highlands - OfCom have given permission for local roaming to exist so that coverage can be improved by erection of single masts or use of existing sites that are not primarily cellular - such as TV/radio broadcast sites, microwave link sites, and mast sites owned by the emergency services and public authorities and utilities and saving cost in the process.

The problems of the different providers is about frequencies used. 3 used to have backup agreements with other providers (VF at first, later O2) for areas where they had no coverage, but a few years ago they decided their coverage (note population, not geographical) was good enough and cancelled the agreements. 3 operates solely in the 3G band around 2110MHz which suffers more rapid signal loss with distance so they need more sites. EE operates in the 1800MHz band and suffers the same issues to a lesser degree, but VF and O2 operate around 900MHz which suffers even less, these being 2G operations. 800MHz has been allocated for wide area 4G use for all providers although EE first started 4G also in the 1800MHz band. 5G when it arrives (for wide area) will be in the 700MHz band.

IME the problem with EE is that their sites hang on to a call until grim death, and then when it is handed on to the next cell there are no resources available so the call is dropped. O2 and VF do suffer the same but to a considerably lesser extent. EE is also expanding its 4G network as the new Emergency Services Network that will replace Airwave in the next year or so (in theory at least!) and the ESN needs geographical rather than population coverage.
 
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Nov 11, 2009
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Have you tried your Tesco phone lately? Tesco runs on the O2 network - they are what is known as a MVNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator - but still have to comply with O2 rules which on PAYG requires at least one chargeable event every 6 months. I suspect you will find it no longer works and your number may even have been re-issued to someone else. Oh, and you will have lost any credit on the account.

Now to expound upon how cellular works. There are four network operators in the UK, Vodafone, O2, 3 and BT/EE. EE came about when France Telecom who owned Orange and 1-2-1 that had long since become T-Mobile and were owned by Deutsche Telekom agreed to merge as EE or Everything Everywhere. EE was bought by BT just under five years ago but still operates as two separate mobile service providers on the same (EE) infrastructure.

3 and T-Mobile set up a joint network distribution company in 2007 called MBNL - Mobile Broadband Network Ltd - to get their networks to the radio sites by fibre or (in most cases) by microwave link. MBNL stayed in place when the EE merger and then the BT takeovers occurred. Not to be outdone VF and O2 set up the Cornerstone project to do the same for their networks. The outcome is that VF and O2 are mainly on the same sites (as in towers though not necessarily on street poles) and 3 and EE do the same on their sites although the sites may be owned by any of the cellular operators and shared, or be on sites owned by other organisations such as Arqiva. In some remote areas - such as the very rural parts of the Scottish Highlands - OfCom have given permission for local roaming to exist so that coverage can be improved by erection of single masts or use of existing sites that are not primarily cellular - such as TV/radio broadcast sites, microwave link sites, and mast sites owned by the emergency services and public authorities and utilities and saving cost in the process.

The problems of the different providers is about frequencies used. 3 used to have backup agreements with other providers (VF at first, later O2) for areas where they had no coverage, but a few years ago they decided their coverage (note population, not geographical) was good enough and cancelled the agreements. 3 operates solely in the 3G band around 2110MHz which suffers more rapid signal loss with distance so they need more sites. EE operates in the 1800MHz band and suffers the same issues to a lesser degree, but VF and O2 operate around 900MHz which suffers even less, these being 2G operations. 800MHz has been allocated for wide area 4G use for all providers although EE first started 4G also in the 1800MHz band. 5G when it arrives (for wide area) will be in the 700MHz band.

IME the problem with EE is that their sites hang on to a call until grim death, and then when it is handed on to the next cell there are no resources available so the call is dropped. O2 and VF do suffer the same but to a considerably lesser extent. EE is also expanding its 4G network as the new Emergency Services Network that will replace Airwave in the next year or so (in theory at least!) and the ESN needs geographical rather than population coverage.


My late father learned the PAYG lesson and then once a month used to ring his landline. The mobile he kept solely for emergency use in the car.
 
Oct 8, 2006
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My late father learned the PAYG lesson and then once a month used to ring his landline. The mobile he kept solely for emergency use in the car.

Same here, except I send a text to my 'normal' mobile 'cos its cheaper. Duplicated on the spare phone in the caravan and SWMBO's phone which is otherwise never switched on!
 
Mar 27, 2011
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That’s exactly what I do, my tesco is for an emergency back up on pay as you go, I have a reminder on my main phone to call myself once a month, not a problem at all takes 2 minutes and nothing gets lost my credit stays live and on the very rare EE failure to have a signal, my tesco backup has done the job and I’ve not had to go knocking on the door of the person or person vehicles I’m working on which doesn’t look very professional when I’d have to say sorry I can’t test the unit I’ve just fitted because there’s no phone signal.

BP
 
Mar 27, 2011
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I’m unsure as to the need to explain the development of the mobile network systems over the years, I found it very interesting nonetheless and as I’ve said earlier personally my EE works in 99.9% of locations, both rural locations and town and city locations and customers in the rural areas comment regularly when they ask how I test the unit I’ve fitted and are often amazed that I had a signal on my phone to test it, I don’t think any provider has a 100% coverage but EE seem to have the best coverage whether by population or geography, as I said very interesting background info from you woodentop.

BP
 

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