UK Broadband 'Dongles'

I find it bizarre a person would not want home broadband when you can get unlimited use as cheap as £10 per month (plus rental) unles user does not even have a phone.

No data package comes remotely close in cost or performance.

Good old data only sims are pretty uncommon these days and still tend to be overpriced

Probably cheaper to simply use tethering on a mobile phone as a hotspot.

Allowances vary a lot but payg will always work out expensive.

Tethering allowances are fairly generous now from majors, but not always on all plans e.g. the cheap Three Essential Plans do not allow tethering.

Tethering – Mobile Tethering Allowances Compared



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Steve C said:

I should have said the person concerned is about to move and doesn't want to be locked into a 12 month+ home broadband contract.

Then tethering via a mobile is probably best short term option. OP may already have a reasonable allowance assuming OP has a mobile phone.

Actually, it does no really matter if OP is moving - you just transfer contract to new home.

Steve,

Whatever decision your friend makes, get them to check its price on one or more of the price comparison sites because accessing from one of those sites can trigger discounts that do not apply if you go to the ISP's website directly.

I found this out by accident when I was searching for a replacement mobile phone ISP [voice, SMS, data] last December; my phone is both my telephone & my internet connection. Three offered a mobile phone contract for £15 a month [12GB data] but I found the same deal for less through Compare the market - using their link to Three instead of a direct link, Three's offer was £13 a month [12GB data]. I checked I was not making a mistake by using both links to compare each deal being offered - it was the same deal on the same terms with different prices.

Changing to Three was shambolic but was mostly alright once it settled down.
- The contract start date is the date their SIM is delivered to you and not the date you start using it [they adjust costs to avoid your paying for days you did not use but the contract start date is inviolate; mine started on 29/12/17 because that's when their delivery courier turned up].
- They have been unable to change the monthly start date to the first of each month [I find it easier to comprehend the significance of how much data I have left if the data months match calendar months].
- Trying to explain what I wanted resulted in their changing the direct debit payment date to the third of each month & the data start date to the thirteenth of each month.

Best of luck,
Denis