Best way to connect to the Internet

[david123]

I know sounds complicated (well it does to me).
What we would like to do is to have a pay as you go mobile phone, or dongle, that we can use as a Tether for our iPads when we are away in our caravan. That way we would only put money into the phone for a month at the time when we are away. It will be only for internet use and not for making calls.We use gift gaff as our pay-as-you-go provider for our iPhones, but they do not support tethering.
Anybody know the best cost effective way of doing this? And, hopefully it won't be too complicated.

Cheers

 

[petermillard]

Well, 'best' way would be to have a SIM-enabled iPad but otherwise, Three allow tethering, and 'no extra charge' roaming in some countries. If you have an older phone you can use as a hotspot (or are prepared to swap out the SIM in your phone for another, temporarily) that's probably the cheapest way, otherwise you'd need a "MiFi" type device; 'dongles' are usually USB, so need a powered USB port to run, which iPads don't have.

A Huawei 3G MiFi with 1Gb of data is about £50 (shop around, obviously) and you can top up e.g. 3Gb for ~£20-ish that's valid for 3 months. Lots of info at http://www.three.co.uk

HTH Pete

Edited to add - GiffGaff do allow tethering, just not on the unlimited plan ('GoodyBag'); you can get a data-only plan ('GigaBag') that's 3Gb for £12.50/month.

 

[Myfordman]

Consider first that most locations for caravan parks are not likely to be too near to good coverage for 3G let alone 4G
Connection is likely to be slow.
Make sure the provider allows sporadic top up and does not steal what's left at the end of the period.

 

[dm65]

Depending on your phone, you can probably set it up as a wifi hotpsot like on my htc one so your ipads connect to your phone via wireless and in turn connect to the web through your phone

 

[david123]

Thanks guys
Quite a lot to think about.
dm65 II quite like the idea of using an NYC phone as a hotspot. I've noticed that you can get secondhand htc wildfires sim free mobiles on flea bay. Would that work? And is it easy to do. I assume sim free means that I can buy from any network.

 

[dm65]

Hi David

Yes, sim free means the phone isn't locked to a particular network

Quick Google produced this - https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/i ... 043AAn5cD1

Hope that helps

 

[david123]

Brilliant
Thank you Den, that seems to fit the bill.
Thank you all for helping out, I am a bit rubbish with the new kit so it's good to have such a helpful bunch of people to help out.

 

[petermillard]

Just remember that if you do go for a second hand phone to use as a hotspot, the battery probably won't be perfect, so be sure to pick a model that has a readily replaceable battery.

HTH Pete

 

[david123]

Good thinking Pete, I will bear that in mind, thanks

 

[r0nmlt]

Or else keep the hotspot phone always plugged in.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[nanscombe]

Or there is the new EE Osprey 4G mobile hotspot.

£74.99 - PAYG Preloaded with 6Gb of 4G data lasting 90 days
£59.99 - PAYG Preloaded with 2Gb of 4G data lasting 30 days

I actually use the previous Alcatel model, also from EE.

 

[david123]

Thank you all for your replies and advice.I have ordered the second hand phone

 

[david123]

Just to let you know I have now got it all set up and working. Thank you for yours help and advice.