Mobile Broadband Dongle coverage in Norwich area

[Abbi]

We are going to be visiting the Norwich area in June and want to get a Pay as You Go Broadband Dongle to use on my laptop while I'm there. I am completely new to dongles and want to know if anyone lives in this area and can recommend a good network as I know that some mobiles don't have good coverage in rural areas (we shall be in the Wroxham area). Would there be any coverage on the broads?

I am looking at the 7.2Mbps speed but don't know if this is available on all the networks either?

Any help with buying one would be appreciated as there seem to be so many different types. Also are there any where you don't have to use the top up all within 1 month. I have seen some where you pay about £30 and this comes with 1Gb which has to be used within 1 month. Not too much of a prob but if there are any with a longer life span that would be good as we won't really use it at home.

Thanks for any advice.

[Holly Berry]

Hi Brenda,

we use 3G and that works well at our caravan which is in a really poor spot for mobile phone reception. On the spur of the moment OH went into Tesco and bought the dongle as it was only £13. Its pay as you go and the min charge is £10 per 1gb and that seems to last for ages. You do have to use it within the month or lose it from purchase date, but you can top up at anytime; its not a throw away.

Today my available amount was 220mb and I've dipped into COL throughout the day and probably been online for a couple of hours total and I still have 195mb left.

If you go to the website put your postcode in to see what the reception is like. Ours only shows poor and we only get 1 bar on the guage but it works fine.

Hope that helps

Pam

[Abbi]

Thanks Pam.  I've been doing a bit more research and 3G seems to have come out quite well. IWe're taking Abbi and staying in a golf resort hotel that we went to last year when she was only 5 months old, so hope she is as good this time!
My OH and son will be playing golf some of the time and I'm happy to just chill out and enjoy being away but last time our daughter was quite bored without her internet (and now I can keep updated on COL too!)
There are lots of lovely walks for Abbi around there and we want to go out on the Broads again too.

[Ian Wright]

i was looking for one that was not a 30 day top-up one. vodafone used to do one but have stopped doing it  as we go to Wales once or twice a month to our caravan. but £15 for 30 days is a bit to much as i would not use it much just handy to have.
sorry cant help with the Norwich coverage

[goldblend90]

Hi

Cant help you with coverage, but we have a T-Mobile dongle, and can either top up per month or day.  Its £2 per day, but when you first sign up they give you 30 days for £2.

We have used ours all over the country and not had a problem, but next weekend we are taking it camping, so will see if sat in the middle of a field is an issue.

Jenny, Harley & Mayhem

[Abbi]

Thank you for all your advice. We've just got a 3G 3 month pay as you go which seemed to say would be usable in Norwich so we will see next week!

[Coco]

Err, I'd call the place you are staying and ask them. Signal is sketchy around here to say the least. I live in a town sized village south/east of norwich and couldn't get a single provider who could give me coverage 

[dazla]

Hi there

A bit late now but, many phones will provide modem speeds on par with a dongle.

I recently lost ny HTC touch pro phone which I could plug in via usb and use as a 3g modem, alternatively I could use a free program that would allow my phone to take the 3g signal and distribute it over wifi as a router would.

Currently I am forced to use an evil Sony Ericsson phone (until I get a replacement) which I use as a modem over bluetooth because I refuse to install their crappy software on my pc. Works every bit as well as a dongle- bar the fact that i cannot surf and talk at the same time.



IMPORTANT- do not do this unless your phone tariff includes web access.

My web access as part of my package is cheaper than a dedicated dongle tariff and i dont have to carry yet another usb stick.

If you have an iphone you will have to jail break it to use it as a modem- most other phone manufacturers dont treat you with such contempt.

[MegandMolly]

Or you can take your sim out of the iphone and put it in a dongle for the internet access on the laptop -  then put it back into the phone afterwards 

Obviously same issue as previously mentioned of not being able to have calls and internet at the same time - but did allow the laptop to have internet access when a certain spaniel decided to chew the router cable 

[Abbi]

Thanks for the latest tips. The 3G dongle wouldn't work at the hotel so we ended up paying for 24 hours access via the hotels wifi broadband which cost £15. We seemed to be out and about most of the rest of the time so this did the trick. Mobile signal on our virgin mobiles was very sketchy the whole time we were there too so don't think it would've mattered which network we had gone for. I feel for the residents of Norfolk as I felt frustrated when I wanted to use my phone and had to keep driving around to find a signal. (Got quite excited when I could contact the outside world when I found a signal!)

We had a great time though in a beautiful place and hope to go back again next year.

[Coco]

I feel for the residents of Norfolk as I felt frustrated when I wanted to use my phone and had to keep driving around to find a signal. (Got quite excited when I could contact the outside world when I found a signal!)

Tell me about it! 

Glad you had a good time 

[JaspersMum]

We're looking at getting a dongle to take to Norfolk.  It seems we're stuck with the 30 day run out on the credit but do you have to top up every month as we would only use once in a while for hols.   So, for example, if we buy now and have the 30 day period covering the week we're away, can I stick it in a drawer and only buy another £15 credit when we next go on holiday?

[Abbi]

We're looking at getting a dongle to take to Norfolk.  It seems we're stuck with the 30 day run out on the credit but do you have to top up every month as we would only use once in a while for hols.   So, for example, if we buy now and have the 30 day period covering the week we're away, can I stick it in a drawer and only buy another £15 credit when we next go on holiday?

Yes, you don't have to keep it topped up all the time. You just top up and then have 30 days to use the credit and then top up again when you need it. Some networks offer £10 top ups and others are £15. Not sure how you tell which 1 to get as we checked the coverage for 3G before we went and it looked ok in the area we were visiting but couldn't get a signal once we were there.  Are you able to call the hotel/cottage/campsite etc before you travel, to see what they recommend? We had bought 1 that covered 3 months with the hope of using it again as it worked out a bit cheaper but haven't been able to use it at all!

We loved Norfolk so hope you have a good holiday.

[JaspersMum]

We're looking at getting a dongle to take to Norfolk.  It seems we're stuck with the 30 day run out on the credit but do you have to top up every month as we would only use once in a while for hols.   So, for example, if we buy now and have the 30 day period covering the week we're away, can I stick it in a drawer and only buy another £15 credit when we next go on holiday?

Yes, you don't have to keep it topped up all the time. You just top up and then have 30 days to use the credit and then top up again when you need it. Some networks offer £10 top ups and others are £15. Not sure how you tell which 1 to get as we checked the coverage for 3G before we went and it looked ok in the area we were visiting but couldn't get a signal once we were there.  Are you able to call the hotel/cottage/campsite etc before you travel, to see what they recommend? We had bought 1 that covered 3 months with the hope of using it again as it worked out a bit cheaper but haven't been able to use it at all!

We loved Norfolk so hope you have a good holiday.

I believe Vodafone has the best coverage where we are going.  It would probably have been first choice as we already have vodafone mobiles too... Thank you for the info.  We have a dongle supplied at the cottage but thought we might get one too and stop arguments