Cheapest PAYG 3G Broadband?

jester77

I'll be in Ireland later this month and will need net access for a few things. The handiest for me would be to pick up a PAYG 3G broadband and just use it for the few days I'm there. Which operator would offer the cheapest daily rates and can I get the SIM without having to buy the dongle?

jor el

There's only 1 that I'm aware of and it's from Three. It's pretty much useless for 99% of the people at 99% of the time. You have to buy the modem for it too. Internet cafes or try to find WiFi hotspots might be your best bet.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

sirlinux

You can get a sim without the dongle in any three store, works fine, you just turn on the the correct addons you can do it it on the three site withotu even signing up just follow the "login into my three" option on www.three.ie then the 3pay broadband option (you can adjust your profile to say your using it as broadband rather than a phone) it's 10 euro for 1 week and 2gb, 25 for the month.

Dman001

So could I buy a secondhand modem and buy a PAYG sim and stick it into it?

jester77

sirlinux wrote: »

You can get a sim without the dongle in any three store, works fine, you just turn on the the correct addons you can do it it on the three site withotu even signing up just follow the "login into my three" option on www.three.ie then the 3pay broadband option (you can adjust your profile to say your using it as broadband rather than a phone) it's 10 euro for 1 week and 2gb, 25 for the month.

Cheers, €10 sounds good value for a week, I'll look into that!

long_b

You could consider using a 3G phone with the 3 SIM via a USB cable.

watty

Most only do < 350k 3G rather than HSDPA though.

You can in theory use any EDGE/3G/HSDPA PAYG phone SIM in an unlocked Modem and use any Data enabled phone account on PC via WiFi, Bluetooth (often only 115k) or USB (some are really USB to serial adaptors and thus only 115k rather than native USB phones).

There is free SW for WinMobile and Symbian Series 60 phones to use the phone as an unencrypted open WiFi hotspot, assuming your Phone call provider lets you have EDGE/3G/HSDPA data.

strewelpeter

O2 have an offer here to buy a modem for 19 and and 20 / month for a 10G package.
They also have a 30 day no quibble 'happiness' offer.
Sounds like just the job.

Michael Collins

watty wrote: »

You can in theory use any EDGE/3G/HSDPA PAYG phone SIM in an unlocked Modem and use any Data enabled phone account on PC via WiFi...

Does either o2 or Vodafone allow HSDPA on a PAYG service however? I can't connect to the hs.vodafone.ie APN, it gives me an error on my PAYG SIM but it works fine on my Pay Monthly phone.

(There's no problem with office.vodafone.ie, but despite requesting a UMTS connection only in my connection settings, I don't get the full HSDPA speed - I'm presuming that HSDPA is only allowed on hs.vodafone.ie.)

snaps

If your coming from the Uk get a UK three PAYG modem. £10 will get you 1GB allowance for 30 days. Ideal for checking email, basic surfing (No downloading though) U can also use a three BB service in any country that has a three service which is a bonus. I use a UK three BB PAYG in Ireland as its much cheaper.