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Datacards and net access

I have recently bought a datacard from vodafone, part of an offer. I bought it 'pay as you use' as I dont want to pay a monthly cost when Im not going to use it much.

The costs per MB if your not on a monthly contract will floor you.

But with my mobile phone contract, I get a monthly data allowance. And with these datacards, you have to insert a simcard.

So when ordering I asked if I could use my phone simcard and use that monthly data allowance. The answer was no. But me being me, I borrowed a datacard (mine hasnt arrived yet) and put my sim card in it.

It works!

And generally, data packages are a lot cheaper on phone contracts. So anyone wanting to do this, yes you can.
 
Just keep an eye on your mobile phone bill.

I'm not sure how they're able to tell whether you're using your sim card in a phone or a data card.
 
Simple answer is, they arent. Thats why it works. All it is counted as is data allowance. I get 32MB free with my package, which might not sound a lot, but it is in terms of mobile data.

I can check my minutes etc left online, so if I use it I will be very closely monitoring it.

Just want the actual card to arrive now. Happy bunny tho!
 
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Old Due, do you have the URL to buy them PAYG?
 
No, funnily enough. I couldnt find it. Reason I bought one was my other half got a laptop, and they were doing them cheap with certain ones. You had to go through Vodafone to get it.

All I found on the vodaphone site was pay monthly ones. Its worth giving them a ring, to see how much they offer them for, if indeed they do outside the offer.

Or, if you want to use your mobile phone sim, simply buy one off ebay. A few things to make sure of:

Its actually 3G. not just GPRS.

It will work with your simcard, if your on another network (Im pretty sure the cards are unlocked anyway).

Your area for 3G coverage.

My area sucks badly, I cant get 3G for miles, as vodafones 3G coverage is very crap. However, I do get GPRS speeds at 56k (dialup, hurrah!).

I paid £49 for my card, and thats the 356kb version (or something like that).
They are doing a 1.4mb version, for £99. But considering how long its going to take to upgrade the network for that, its probably not worth the bother.

I dont know if they will sell the pay as you use cards seperately, or at what prices (assuming you havent bought an eligable laptop!) but ring them and ask. Cant hurt.

I might have a look around ebay in a while, see if I can dig up some examples.

Hope this helps.



Edit: Wow, ok. They are really expensive, the 3G ones. Didnt realise how much they were.
All I can say is ask vodafone, or whoever your network provider is. You might get a good deal, but probably not with pay as you go.
 
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The costs per MB if your not on a monthly contract will floor you.

I don't know if they still offer it, but with Orange PAYG you could buy an increadibly cheap unlimited data add-on option which expired at midnight the same day (so best purchased at 12.01 am from their website :) ) - probably GRPS only I'd think, but I've been told it really was unlimited!
 
Rang vodafone to see where my card was (still not arrived). Guy said it was coming by parcel force.

Unfortunatly, its going to my home address, and he said it has to be signed for. Which means unless its delivered tomorrow - and in my exprience they dont on Sat unless you pay a fortune - I'll miss it because I'll be at work.

So I called vodafone back up to ask for the tracking no. so I could get it diverted or something. The lady put me on hold then came back and said she couldnt find any record of it, so had sent another!

She said it was going by post, and wouldnt have to be signed for. I told her that another guy I spoke to said one was on the way, etc. She said dont worry about it!

I asked her what happens if I end up with 2. She said dont worry about it, keep it! I said to her that its a 3G datacard? Worth lots of money, but she was adamant it was ok.

So can anyone think of what I might end up with? I cant think its going to be another laptop 3G card. Not sent in royal mail unsigned and free when I had to pay £49 for the other one that was on special offer. Sim card maybe? :shrug:
 
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Well, I got one, the original that got sent. Funnily enough, the one by royal mail never arrived.

Im annoyed now, because they also didnt include a simcard with the datacard, which was supposed to be a pay as you go one. Still, Im happy using my monthly data package up on my phone sim, which they said I couldnt do :P. Makes no difference to them, its still 3G or GPRS data!

Dont suppose anyone knows how to clone a sim card? Its a pain taking it out of my phone everytime i want to use it.
 
You can't clone a sim unless it is a very old one which any 3G sim certainly isnt.

Early sims were vulnerable to a brute force attack, but the level of encryption has been significantly improved and the number of accesses before the sim self-distructs (well stops working) had been significantly curtailed. So be warry of the multi sim /cloning devices on the market that claim to be able to do this.
 
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Well its worth a try. My sim is actually about 2-3 years old, and although I have a new one sat in my drawer, I havent activated it yet. In theory, I could try and copy it, and if it stops working I use the new one.

Not for any dodgy purpose I might add, simply to stop changing the sim to datacard each time.
 
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