where's the REAL honest PAYG mobile midband?

vibe666

I have a small business account with 2 mobile phones on it, each with a 250mb data allowance with o2 but i've had a few times when i've needed to use the tethering on them for mobile access on my laptop (which is expensive) so I want to get a 3G dongle as a backup for the odd time when i'm working on the road or just away from home with a laptop and want to get online but nobody seems to want to give it to me without forcing me to pay through the nose for 24 hours, or a month in one big hit that i'm probably not going to need to use.

is anyone actually selling a PAYG midband dongle that is actually "pay as you go" rather than "pay thru the nose" for a day pass or for 30 days in what is effectively a single month prepay contract?

does anyone do a prepay dongle that i can keep and buy say 10gb of usage and then just use X amount of data whenever i need to, but just keep it in my laptop bag if i don't actually need it without worrying that i've just bought a 30 day pass that i might not be using for 25 days?

William Powell

I too dream sometimes

Thats never going to happen, but I'd love to be proved wrong

bealtine

Honesty and telcos are two words that don't fit in the same sentence:)

William Powell

From a user point of view what the OP suggests would be brilliant but what telco is going to allow someone a years access for say 20euro even if they only download a couple of Gigs of data in that time? Even a phone topup has a time limit on it and PAYG isn't making anything like as much money for the telco if its eevn making them any money at all.

vibe666

i actually wouldn't mind a time limit on the top-ups, say 6 months or something, i just don't see why they can't make a PAYG data plan that IS actually PAYG. the whole point of having a PAYG account is supposed to be that you pay for what you actually use.

watty

I looked at PayG for backup / emergency. As you say it's not really PAYG. Even phone credit can expire now in Months (3? 6?) on PAYG, an emergency PAYG pre topped up phone doesn't seem possible either.

There should be options with NO exipry or need to top up. After all, if it's not used it costs the operator nothing.

Useless Regulator.

William Powell

watty wrote: »

I looked at PayG for backup / emergency. As you say it's not really PAYG. Even phone credit can expire now in Months (3? 6?) on PAYG, an emergency PAYG pre topped up phone doesn't seem possible either.

There should be options with NO exipry or need to top up. After all, if it's not used it costs the operator nothing.

Useless Regulator.

I keep a 3 SIM with 10euro unallocated credit that does not time out, I can can "spend" it in an emergency.

jor el

vibe666 wrote: »

that is actually "pay as you go" rather than "pay thru the nose" for a day pass or for 30 days in what is effectively a single month prepay contract?

None that I'm aware of. They all give 30 days only on their monthly passes, and none let you carry unused data allowance beyond that. You can get a 1 day pass if you need Internet access on a sporadic basis, but it works out way more expensive this way, unless you only use it one or two days a month.

vibe666

i'm actually looking to upgrade my phone too, so i might just make sure i get one that can do tethering and have a decent data bundle on that.