Pay as you go dongle
A Pay as you go dongle allows you to free up your broadband internet connection and receive broadband wherever you take your computer equipment, the mobile broadband dongle, and can receive a mobile signal. The great thing with the broadband dongles is that they are small, lightweight (they can fit in your pocket or laptop bag) and connect easily to your computer via a USB connection.
Pay as you go mobile broadband providers
Mobile broadband is a flexible resource at any time but with the added flexibility of only needing to pay as you use the broadband service PAYG dongles offer the perfect solution for those on the go (business users or students). Where business users may have previously used a wifi subscription to access data on a pay as you go basis in a cafe or city centre location, you can now take you own mini, personal connection device whereever you go.
The pay as you go services provided by the mobile operators means that once you have paid for the broadband dongle you can buy credit. Just the same as with a PAYG mobile phone, where you purchased the handset and then went on to buy additional minutes on a pre-credit system. With broadband dongles you pre-credit your broadband account with an amount data downloads and then draw down on the data usage.
The are also PAYG broadband deals offered by the mobile providers that allow you to pay-as-you-go on a daily basis – you pay a few pounds to access their network for a 24 hour period.
Warning: Check with the mobile broadband providers how long their PAYG dongle credits last for – for instance, the Vodafone credit does expire four months after you have credited the broadband dongle, but with the others, like Three mobile broadband, the credit only lasts for 30 days. You’ve been warned, to avoid disappointment read the small print on their websites.
Who offers pay as you go dongles?
Pay as you go mobile broadband is currently being offered in the UK by O2, Orange, T-mobile, Three (3) and Vodafone. Visit the pay as you go mobile broadband web-page for further information
Growth in pay-as-you-go dongles
The usage of pay as you go broadband dongles has shot up in the UK market. The mobile broadband service being offered by the UK mobile operators is now both established and accepted by the general public. There was initial skepticism to the speeds of mobile broadband – it is not going to be as quick as a fixed-line broadband connection for quite some time, but once you recognise the benefits that broadband dongles can bring to you – especially when using them a few times a month on business trips – the pay as you go services start to make sense.
What is a broadband dongle?
A pay as you go (PAYG) broadband dongle allows you to use a mobile broadband internet connection with a laptop or desktop computer. A broadband dongle is a simple, small USB device that plugs into any computer. Contained within the dongle is a mobile phone SIM card (exactly the same as you have in a mobile phone).
The broadband dongle simply acts like a mini mobile phone and allows your computer to connect to a mobile phone network. Because you are using a broadband dongle the access to the mobile network uses a data connection not a voice connection – but in essence it works exactly like a mobile phone.
