ipad SIM cards

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Ex-SolentBoy

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Does anyone know of a provider that allows you to buy a data allowance that lasts for a reasonable amount of time?

I do not want a monthly rolling contract.
I do not want to buy a data allowance that expires in a month or two.
I do not want to use a personal hotspot instead.

I just want very occasional use when no wifi is avaialble.

I thought Three did this, but they do not.
Tmobile have something, but you pay an amount every day you use it.

I just want to buy a load of data, say 2GB and use it when I want to. Perhaps a year validity or something.
 
Best one I've come across is buying sim cards for Three on eBay as they are designed for new users and give a longer life for the data. For example the 3gb allowance lasts 3 months rather than 1 when you top up.

Hope this helps!
 
Ex-SolentBoy said:
Does anyone know of a provider that allows you to buy a data allowance that lasts for a reasonable amount of time?

I do not want a monthly rolling contract.
I do not want to buy a data allowance that expires in a month or two.
I do not want to use a personal hotspot instead.

I just want very occasional use when no wifi is avaialble.

I thought Three did this, but they do not.
Tmobile have something, but you pay an amount every day you use it.

I just want to buy a load of data, say 2GB and use it when I want to. Perhaps a year validity or something.
Click to expand...

I don't think any of the networks do this. The closest is probably Orange who do true pay-as-you-go i.e. you are charged monthly in arrears for what you use at 5.1p per MB. This is a fairly high unit cost but if you only need the 3G capability occasionally, it probably works out okay. If you know you are going to use the 3G more intensively for a period, you can buy a data bundle that lasts for a day/week/month or whatever to bring the price/MB down.

http://shop.orange.co.uk/ipad/sim-only (look on the 'pay for what you use' tab)
 
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Cynical Moi

I am interested in that to, sadly I think I know the answer.

It seems the providers make money on unused bandwidth and time sensitive usage so I fear supplying an economical and convenient package for us users aint part of the plan.
 
mcanderson said:
Best one I've come across is buying sim cards for Three on eBay as they are designed for new users and give a longer life for the data. For example the 3gb allowance lasts 3 months rather than 1 when you top up.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Am I reading this correct?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3GB-PAYG-..._Home_Phones_Sim_Cards_CV&hash=item4169d99c20

Effectively you get a gigabyte a month for nine months for just over £11.

Seems like a resonable deal to me.

Edit. I must me mad. Its only one SIM, not 3!
 
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Ex-SolentBoy said:
I just want very occasional use when no wifi is avaialble.

I thought Three did this, but they do not.
Click to expand...

On my PAYG tariff (3-PAY) you can buy a 24hr add-on for £0.50 which gives you 120Mb of data. In practise -certainly if purchased after midday- it lasts until midnight the FOLLOWING day. I suspect that this is intended only for internet browsing on the phone, but it certainly works on my SkypePhone in dongle mode :D
 
lustyd said:
No it isn't, it's unlimited web and email with 500MB included per month for other data. I've still got my existing £5 credit despite heavy use for many months.
Click to expand...

I called them and asked specifically.
They said it was 5p per meg.

You may have an older offer, or they may be wrong, but I can hardly take the risk.

I am puzzled. How can they differentiate? What is other data?
 
Ex-SolentBoy said:
I am puzzled. How can they differentiate? What is other data?
Click to expand...

It's a little bit technical, but they monitor traffic going to port 80 or 443 on the content server with a User Agent showing it is initiated by a web browser and a content type of web data. Email uses other ports.
MS AutoUpdate traffic as well as updating other programs will eat into the 500MB, as will Skype and most video streaming as this will all be counted as other data, based on content type and/or destination port.
 
Ex-SolentBoy said:
I called them and asked specifically.
They said it was 5p per meg.

You may have an older offer, or they may be wrong, but I can hardly take the risk.

I am puzzled. How can they differentiate? What is other data?
Click to expand...

No, it quite clearly states on the site that email and web traffic are inclusive and that video etc are not.
"Always browse and email, plus 500MB data for watching videos and downloading music. "

As I said, I have yet to be charged any more than the £5 initial top up (which is supposed to be £10).
 
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