ChrisD Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 Does anyone have any suggestions on equipment and costs for mobile internet in the UK and spain/france I'm a complete novice in this area so any advice will be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 :-D Hi ChrisD. I have used a pay-as-you-go open Mobile phone with Vodaphone here and a Movistar Sim chip in Spain along with the Nokia Data Suite software. Later Nokia phones allow you to download the Data suite for free from the Nokia Website. I recently did a tour of the USA and used Wifi access. I have also used it occasionally here and hope to use it in Europe in the future. ;-) :'( Costs? Depends on when you use it. I tend to use it off peak. Here it is 12p per minute and in Spain it was (may have changed) 12 eurocents. ;-) 8-) Just a point. Basic Mobile phone data speeds are slow. 3G much faster. Wifi absolutely flies. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigrem Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 I use a Nokia 3220 phone connected to laptop via Data cable (Nokia). use Nokia PC Suite, downloadable from Nokia. I am connected to Orange Pay as You Go, using their GPRS service. Costs are £3 for 1Mb in Uk £10 /Mb in France, never been to Spain. 1MB is approx equal to 100 short e-mails, or veiwing 20 web sites (not downloading them ). I subscribe to OnSpeed which compresses data and speeds things up. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Surely you can plug into a Wi-Fi network? Most big hotels offer a service these days and paying for it will be a lot cheaper than mobile phone rates. Most of the time you can probably tap into someone's unsecured network without charge anyway! And all you need is a WiFi PCMCIA card or USB version for your laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 You can also use a Data Card if your laptop has a PCMCIA slot as most do - Vodafone and Orange do them, I have one on a contract from Vodafone. You slot your sim into them and away you go, you get 384Kbps, about half regular 512 boradband speed, still relatively fast. Connects via 3G if it finds a network, else GPRS (packet radio). You get a normal mobile number for it and it receives SMS neatly and sends too, via the software supplied. You can talk on it via Skype or use it via a microphone as a mobile phone. Relatively pricey still - monthly unlimited internet use in UK is around £40, but you can get PAYG sims on ebay as well as the data cards themselves for around £50 or so. Take care to buy the newer data cards or you'll be stuck with GPRS and unable to use 3G. Windows XP or Mac compatible. I use mine all the time on the road, but am generally in the UK. Regards *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philman Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 If you have a laptop that you take when away, then as suggested above WiFi is a very good inexpensive method. A PCMCIA Card or a USB adapter are available for around £20 - £25, Staples are possibly the cheapest. Many campsites are now providing wireless connections for their campers, I stayed at one in Italy last month and it was €10 for unlimited access however long you stayed at the campsite. There are so-called hotspots near airports and hotels and I understand if you are close to a McDonalds you can connect to their network. Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisD Posted April 30, 2006 Author Share Posted April 30, 2006 A big thank you to all of you for your help and I will certainly follow up all this advice. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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