internet on UK coast

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ErikKiekens

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Hi,
I shall be navigating pretty much around the UK this summer; south coast, Dublin, Scottish west-coast Islands and coming back same route or via eastcoast depending on weather. I need to have access to my mails for business reasons. The free wifi in some marinas is seldom useful (poor reception and bandwith). Any advice?
Erik
 
1 Dont rely on an i phone - they have poor aerials
2 Get a wifi aerial
3 Have more than one network (EE & Vodaphone? )
4 Some yacht clubs have good WiFi
5 Get someone shore based to read you emails and discuss them on the phone or DELEGATE MORE!!
 
I used two 3G GSM dongles (Vodafone and T-Mobile). I wish I had bought a third (from 3). You will need an Irish one for Ireland. Coverage is spotty but far better than wifi. Watch out on the Irish borders, Vodafone (UK) will swallow all your credit if it locks onto an Irish Vodafone cell (as mine did). T-Mobile just refused to work until I returned to UK waters, much fairer.
 
Next summer I hope to be in a similar situation - except for the business part! :D
Will these companies sell a pay-as-you-go solution for someone not resident in UK?
 
Leif-J said:
Next summer I hope to be in a similar situation - except for the business part! :D
Will these companies sell a pay-as-you-go solution for someone not resident in UK?
Click to expand...

Yes - there's no requirement to register PAYG agreements in the UK. You can just go into a phone store or supermarket, buy a sim card and some credit, and away you go. No proof of identification or residency needed.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Leif-J said:
Next summer I hope to be in a similar situation - except for the business part! :D
Will these companies sell a pay-as-you-go solution for someone not resident in UK?
Click to expand...

Leif
A business contact from the USA came over here recently and bought a UK phone at the airport - much cheaper to do this than pay to use him US system. I suspect you will need a credit card. Most supermarkets seem to sell pay as you go SIM cards sp should not be a problem to use your own phone with one of these but again will need a credit or debit card to "top up" the credit.
Suggest you visit "Phones for U" or "Car phone warehouse" when you get over here
Good luck
Martin
Martin
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Yes - there's no requirement to register PAYG agreements in the UK. You can just go into a phone store or supermarket, buy a sim card and some credit, and away you go. No proof of identification or residency needed.

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...

Tks Jimmy.
We are looking very much forward to starting our extended cruise next year, first stop Shetland and from there going south.
And we would like to be in contact with friends and family while underway.
Brgds
Leif
 
Halo said:
Leif
A business contact from the USA came over here recently and bought a UK phone at the airport - much cheaper to do this than pay to use him US system. I suspect you will need a credit card. Most supermarkets seem to sell pay as you go SIM cards sp should not be a problem to use your own phone with one of these but again will need a credit or debit card to "top up" the credit.
Suggest you visit "Phones for U" or "Car phone warehouse" when you get over here
Good luck
Martin
Martin
Click to expand...

Excellent Martin, one thing less to worry about before we depart next year.
Brgds
Leif
 
For a couple of years we carried on our website a page of user experience reports on quality of internet access via variouis carriers at all sorts of East Coast locations.
We discontinued the page about a year ago, the interest had died off, I think largely because folk were finding internet access was possible pretty well everywhere.
Last summer I used a T-Mobile (now EE) sim for internet access around the coast and rivers of the Thames Estuary, and it worked pretty well universally, outperforming the O2 sim in wife's phone.
 
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michael_w said:
Mcdonalds, Burger King, KFC all have free wifi. So do a lot of pubs.
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Most of which do not exist on the west coast of Scotland. There are a lot of blind spots, and lots of places where one network gets reception while others don't. A 3G Kindle is quite useful in that it can access (free) any available network, but the data rate can be excruciatingly slow.
 
DaveS said:
Most of which do not exist on the west coast of Scotland. There are a lot of blind spots, and lots of places where one network gets reception while others don't. A 3G Kindle is quite useful in that it can access (free) any available network, but the data rate can be excruciatingly slow.
Click to expand...


Agree. There are plenty of places on the West Coast of Scotland (north of the Clyde) where there is NO mobile coverage, and signals better than standard GSM are few and far between. Local conditions vary a lot as well - the terrain is such that many anchorages are in mobile shadows.
 
A "MiFi" type device is very useful on a boat - you can switch on, pop it in a bag and hoist to top of the mast where I seem to get signal even in areas with no coverage a deck level. As others suggest a couple of networks is useful too - Vodafone and Three dongles and O2 Iphone seems to cover most places for me.

Steve
 
I also have just invested in a Mifi amazing what a difference it makes just putting it on deck helps then my laptop or Ipad connects to it with WiFi, I have also bought off Amazon or eBay a three.co.uk SIM card with 3 Gb of data which lasts up to three months and cost around £14.00 take a couple of these with you should last ages no contract no monthly fee.
Regards Mike
 
Up to now i still can't find anywhere that the 3 dongle won't work.It also seems to work best plugged straight in, rather than an extension to above deck.
 
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