In article <HaGdnQurhcya4w_NnZ2dnUVZ7sadnZ2d@giganews.com>, R D S wrote:
> Is anyone aware of a reasonably priced PAYG sim deal where the data
> isn't time limited?
No such beast, as far as I'm aware.
I take it that the aim is to get at least "some" data availability for
the lowest annual cost ... with the hope and expectation that you can get
by on WiFi most of the time and so won't actually use much if any of the
mobile data.
There used to be a Vodafone dongle (with SIM) that only needed to be
topped up every six months (or 270 days, depending on whom you believe)
but they are now vanishingly rare (rumour has it that you can still get
them on eBay). These used to be about £35 for the dongle including 1GB,
and £15 per top-up. (£30/year)
Three do a 3GB for £20 data SIM that lasts for 90 days, which is the best
I can find among current offers. (£80/year) You can get these cheaper
from Amazon (~£45/year).
Some resellers sell fairly cheap data deals ... but they generally do
expire monthly. Giff Gaff do a 500GB data bundle for a fiver a month
(£60/year (O2 network)).
Andrews and Arnold will sell you a data SIM for £10 and will connect you
for £2 a month (£24/year (Three network)). There is no inclusive data
allowance and the data charge is 2.4p per MB (inc VAT).
If you can find anything better I'd be pleased to hear it!
[Crossposted to uk.telecom.mobile, as this sort of thing gets discussed
there quite often and you may get a few more replies.]
In message <VA.000006f3.3e961b3d@me.invalid>, at 16:40:28 on Thu, 1 Nov
2012, Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> remarked:
>There used to be a Vodafone dongle (with SIM) that only needed to be
>topped up every six months (or 270 days, depending on whom you believe)
>but they are now vanishingly rare (rumour has it that you can still get
>them on eBay). These used to be about £35 for the dongle including 1GB,
>and £15 per top-up. (£30/year)
They need to be used every six months (this may be a new restriction, I
don't recall it from when I got mine), not topped up. They are indeed
still available on eBay, about £70 last time I looked.
--
Roland Perry
On 01/11/2012 16:40, Daniel James wrote:
> In article <HaGdnQurhcya4w_NnZ2dnUVZ7sadnZ2d@giganews.com>, R D S wrote:
>> Is anyone aware of a reasonably priced PAYG sim deal where the data
>> isn't time limited?
>
> No such beast, as far as I'm aware.
I did find that my unlocked mobile dongle would work with normal
Vodafone and T-mobile monthly contract phone SIM cards. - If that helps.
> Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> remarked:
>
>> There used to be a Vodafone dongle (with SIM) that only needed to be
>> topped up every six months (or 270 days, depending on whom you believe)
>> but they are now vanishingly rare
>
> They need to be used every six months (this may be a new restriction, I
> don't recall it from when I got mine)
Mine is several years old, the blurb with it says it will be deactivated
after 180 days of non-use, but can be re-activated with no loss of
credit within the next 90 days, after which it's toast.
On Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:40:28 +0000, Daniel James wrote:
> Three do a 3GB for £20 data SIM that lasts for 90 days, which is the
> best I can find among current offers. (£80/year) You can get these
> cheaper from Amazon (~£45/year).
>
That wouldn't be too bad.
Part of my wanting to do something with it is that I have mobile
broadband from Three, 15gb per month.
This is usually more than enough but on the occasions where I use it all
up oddly they won't sell me any more and I have to wait until the end of
the month.
(Not entirely true, they will let me run over by 200mb and charge £20 for
the privilege.)
On Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:40:28 +0000, Daniel James wrote:
>
> Three do a 3GB for £20 data SIM that lasts for 90 days, which is the
> best I can find among current offers. (£80/year) You can get these
> cheaper from Amazon (~£45/year).
>
> Some resellers sell fairly cheap data deals ... but they generally do
> expire monthly. Giff Gaff do a 500GB data bundle for a fiver a month
> (£60/year (O2 network)).
>
In message <7_qdnbvy6s9VLQ_NnZ2dnUVZ8h6dnZ2d@brightview.co.uk >, at
17:26:35 on Thu, 1 Nov 2012, Andy Burns <usenet.aug2009@adslpipe.co.uk>
remarked:
>>> There used to be a Vodafone dongle (with SIM) that only needed to be
>>> topped up every six months (or 270 days, depending on whom you believe)
>>> but they are now vanishingly rare
>>
>> They need to be used every six months (this may be a new restriction, I
>> don't recall it from when I got mine)
>
>Mine is several years old, the blurb with it says it will be
>deactivated after 180 days of non-use, but can be re-activated with no
>loss of credit within the next 90 days, after which it's toast.
I've dug out the blurb for mine and it contains the following (which I'd
not seen before) difficult to parse clause:
"If you do not use your broadband for a set period of 180 days of
topping up, unfortunately your credit will expire and your broadband
will be disconnected".
Not sure what a "period of topping up" is, but I'm pretty sure I've gone
much longer than 180 days in the past without using it, and it's still
working.
--
Roland Perry
Daniel James wrote:
>
> In article <HaGdnQurhcya4w_NnZ2dnUVZ7sadnZ2d@giganews.com>, R D S wrote:
> > Is anyone aware of a reasonably priced PAYG sim deal where the data
> > isn't time limited?
>
> No such beast, as far as I'm aware.
The data that is earned by viewing ads does not expire, apparently.
I've "earned" 1.5 GB of data watching ads in a minimised window.
They sell cash top-ups too, but they do expire after 30 days if
unused.
In uk.telecom.mobile R D S <rsandr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Part of my wanting to do something with it is that I have mobile
> broadband from Three, 15gb per month.
> This is usually more than enough but on the occasions where I use it all
> up oddly they won't sell me any more and I have to wait until the end of
> the month.
> (Not entirely true, they will let me run over by 200mb and charge £20 for
> the privilege.)
In which case, buy another PAYG SIM. Only put credit on it when you want to
use it. Keep it in a drawer the rest of the time. Make sure you use it
(even just for a text) every 6 months so it doesn't expire.
The awkward gap in the tariffs comes if you want to use, say, 200MB per
month. But using gigabytes per month or nothing at all is no problem.
Re: Getting use out of a spare dongle 
Linear Mode
