Mifi dongle

[Hawcara]

Need mobile internet abroad, iPad, phone etc. I know nothing about this. Any advice, ideas or information would be gratefully received. Thank you

[stevec176]

Well I've got a Huawei E5573C with a 3 data sim card and it works great. Been using it around the NC500 and it's getting connected where my O2 phone has no connection. Whether I'll still be able to use it in the future is anyone's guess.

[weldted]

Using the Huawai dongle with a Vodafone datasim 150 BG valid for three months (50 gb a month) whilst in France with my Amazon fire stick works great.

[StuartO]

My wife and I have IPhones on Three each of which have a monthly allowance of 4Gb, which we hardly use while at home but worked well roaming in France/Spain/Portugal and easily coped with all our emailing and browsing needs. I used the IPhones to stream BBC Radio 4 for news, which didn’t seem to gobble up too much data. We even streamed one movie each on them each month (using our Amazon Prime account) and this didn’t exhaust the allowance. All Three contracts seem to offer both roaming and tethering these days, so we could watch on our IPad.

 

We also took a Huaei MiFi with a Three pre-paid data sim of 12 GB, which we used to stream several movies to the IPad. The only difficulty was that on a new MiFi the default setting is roaming switched off and it took a while to discover that the default username/password is admin and admin, to allow us to switch roaming on. We had more or less exhausted the 12 Gb SIM card at the end of our 2 month trip.

 

You can’t stream live UK tv programmes abroad without paying for a subscription service like FilmOn but we didn’t particularly want to watch any ordinary tv and we could always get Sky News on Astra 1 when we were too far south for Astra 2 if we wanted the latest about Brexit, which we didn’t!

[Robbo]

A good introduction to mobile broadband can be found here https://www.motorhomewifi.com/catalog/3g/

 

I bought "Pack 1" a few years ago and found it very good. The aftersales service is also very good, should you have a problem setting up etc.

 

I use a Three 12Gb data sim valid for 12 months. As a precaution, I purchase a spare sim prior to travel to Europe. It can be activated in mainland Europe. I've only managed to get a 3G signal in mainland Europe but that is sufficient for my needs.

[Sydney1]

I've got a Huawei with a £10 per month EE data card. with 5GB data

 

Chosen EE as seems to be the best overall coverage and speed but also because in the peak months of use, I can gift data from my EE phone or another family member's phone onto the MiFi SIM to top it up or back the other way if unused

[Hawcara]

Thank you all, for the comprehensive reply.

[david lloyd]

Just before we left for a six week tour of Provence we had a MotorhomeWifi 4g aerial and Huawei router fitted on the roof and equipped with the three 12gb card that last for twelve months. Have been touring round France now for four weeks and have had a very good signal wherever we have been including quite remote areas of the Cevennes national park. Not used it for TV but everything else has been good.

 

Before leaving I took out a three payment plan for 4gb of data at £11 per month but haven't had to activate it yet - still got about 5gb left on the other sim. Have to say, having the aerial increases the signal strength and speed no end from using the standard iPhone or iPad signal.

 

David

[Dickybeau]

I’ve got s similar physical setup. The only difference is that I buy a 24gb data card from 3 and replace it when it dies. I buy them from https://www.7dayshop.com/products/new-3-payg-4g-trio-data-sim-pack-preloaded-with-24gb-of-data-three-size-card-uk-worldwide-35049 £41.99 is the best price I have found so far. Should be enough to last me 5 weeks but I don’t watch tv via broadband (or very much at all).

[Robbo]

If you purchase a Huawei dongle/router, it's best to download the free HUAWEI Hi Link app.

 

This allows searching for the best local provider when abroad.....as allowed by your UK network provider.

 

Using the automatic search facility doesn't always give you the best signal and sometimes doesn't work at all.

[Hawcara]

Thank you again. The 7 day shop looks a good deal especially as it’s worldwide.

[Deffheads]

We have been in Spain since November last year and use a 100gb Virgin data/ phone sim in our mobile phone and use it to tether wifi to our laptop. With the use of a VPN we can watch most Uk channels and download movies as required [ it does rain sometimes}. I have a Huawei dongle, but it's much easier to us the mobile as a wifi hotspot.

This data/ phone sim was only £20.66 a month!

[John Allen]

Used to use a Huawai dongle but don't bother anymore. I just use a Samsung Galaxy S8 on EE 20Gb sim only contract and have used it all over France. I just turn on Mobile Hotspot and Tethering and use laptop or Samsung Tab s4 tablet with it. Wife even tethers her phone to it when she has run out of data. What is interesting are the comments about setting up VPN to get UK Tv . I could not stream Sky from my Sky Go account on the phone (out of region message) but it streamed fine on the tethered tablet. Maybe the tethering stops the App from finding out where it is like a VPN.

 

Signal seemed more easily attained than with the Huawai and antenna.