question re. tablets and wifi/3g

artful_codger

hi folks, i'm considering buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 when it comes out next month, but i'm a wee bit confused about wifi connectivity. I have broadband at home using Three's mobile wifi dongle (20 euro per month) - can the sim in this dongle be transferred into a Tablet in order to pick up wifi on the go without the need for a wifi/mifi dongle? or for connectivity on the go would i need to sign up to some sort of 3G data plan like my mobile phone has?

thanks in advance.

Fiskar

Don't think it is 3 G but also it has no usb port.

Have a look at the attached link which might help. Personally waiting to see if the much hyped Thrive which has usb, mini usb and hdmi will be better. Some of the guys on the Android forum may be able to help with this query.

http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/samsung-galaxy-tab-10/4505-3126_7-34505338.html?tag=rnav#reviewPage1

robinph

The tablet will pick up wifi when your out and about anyway, does not require anything extra...but I think your getting 3G and wifi confused.

As for the Three thing you have is it a MiFi stand alone widget that you have along the lines of this:
http://www.three.ie/products_services/broadband/products.html?active_tab=panel_mi-fi

Or is it one of these that you plug into the USB on your laptop:
http://www.three.ie/products_services/broadband/products.html?active_tab=panel_mbb

If it's the first one then you don't need to do anything special, just turn on the MiFi device and the tablet will then connect to it by WiFi signal.

If it's the second device, and you can get the SIM out, then sticking it in the tablet should give you data connectivity over 3G when out and about. But that is just the same as getting one of the pre-pay SIM only from them too:
http://www.three.ie/products_services/broadband/plans.html?active_tab=panel_prepay

IsThatSo?

IMO (if you can't do what you hoped to do) just get a wifi only Galaxy and instead of paying the €100 extra for a 3G one buy a 'Hotshot', they are about €60 on prepay, and you can connect up to 5 devices to it. Then you can just top it up as you need it and connect other devices to it also.......it costs the same for the bundles as you load up the sim card for the Hotshot just like you would the sim card for your 3G Galaxy. (There are billpay options too and I think the Hotshot might be free on some of them).

We use our normal wifi network at home and when out and about we use the Hotshot.......all the services have them afaik.

artful_codger

I think mifi is probably the best fall-back option if the wireless wifi sim doesn't work in a 3G tablet. What I use for wireless broadband at home is a USB dongle from Three and this dongle contains a removable sim...I may ask the Three rep on boards whether the sim can go straight into a 3G tablet, it'd be handier than carrying a mifi dongle around too, which has a much shorter battery life than the tablet.

Thanks for the replies folks.