[domokun]

I'm looking for the cheapest way to get myself online with mobile broadband without signing my life away. I'm moving house and therefore in between internet connection contracts, so I don't need 12, 18, or even more than a couple of months of coverage.

The best I can find seems to be a free (plus P&P) dongle from 3 (Welcome to 3 Dongle 4 Free) and unlocking it using software that's all over the place. Jamming £7.50 credit on a brand new 02 SIM card, and sign up for the unlimited web bolt-on (O2 Web - O2), which works on a rolling month contract, so I can cancel at any time in the month if I've had enough.

Can anyone see if I'm missing anything, with the exception of 02s fair usage policy? 02 can, it seems, tell if you're using a dongle with an iPhone SIM by cross checking the IMEI number, could they tell I'm using a dongle with this 'normal' SIM?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Domo

[NicolasB]

Using a regular O2 SIM in anything other than a phone is a breach of your contract - whether they can spot you doing it, I don't know. I shouldn't underestimate the impact of the fair usage policy, either. O2 doesn't put a number on it, but if you look at comparable deals from Vodafone or Orange, "unlimited" actually means "500MB a month or less". You're also explicitly banned from streaming live audio or video. I think I heard somewhere that they explicitly block you from accessing BBC iPlayer, I'm not sure about other sites.

Clearly what you're supposed to do in this situation is actually take out a mobile broadband contract - I suspect that if you use it in a mobile-broadband-like way rather than a phone-like way, you will fall foul of the fair-usage limits sooner rather than later. That they charge £15 a month for mobile broadband with a 3GB per month limit gives you some idea of what they're expecting you to do for £7.50 a month.

[meansizzler]

Depends on your definition of a phone, device used to make and recieve calls, but with devices such as pda phones and iphones having the ability to play back music/video write documents and surf the web do these even classify as phones if so then so would a laptop as it offers the same function, one embedded with a modem i.e built in just like a phone, I have an iphone contract and my laptop has built in 3g modem which is voice enabled so just like an iphone I an make and receive calls, so what makes it different from any other phone, as it is mobile and functions as a phone, I done 100+ MB download in 10 mins at speeds of 225KB/s on O2 3G, I don't see it as a breach of policy especially since I was making a call at the same time as downloading.....

You should be fine if your just browsing and not heavy downloading, if they slap you with a bill then just ask them what is the definition of a phone..., PM me for the APN username/password, as you need these to connect, not as simple as putting in your sim and hey presto

[NicolasB]

Originally Posted by meansizzler

Depends on your definition of a phone, device used to make and recieve calls, but with devices such as pda phones and iphones having the ability to play back music/video write documents and surf the web do these even classify as phones if so then so would a laptop as it offers the same function, one embedded with a modem i.e built in just like a phone

Here are the terms and conditions from O2's website:

All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes. You may not use your SIM Card:

• in, or connected to, any other device including modems; to allow the continuous streaming of any audio / video content, enable Voice over Internet (Voip), P2P or file sharing; or
• in such a way that adversely impacts the service to other O2 customers.

If O2 reasonably suspects you are not acting in accordance with this policy O2 reserves the right to impose further charges, impose network protection controls which may reduce your speed of transmission, remove the Web Bolt On from your account or disconnect your tariff at any time, having attempted to contact you first.

So they explicitly ban you from using the SIM card in a modem.

I am also not sure you can have a SIM which only has a bolt-on - I think you may need to pay £10 a month for telephone services as well as the £7.50 for the bolt-on. There may be an equivalent for PAYG, I'm not sure.