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I've had my 3G dongle since May. We went to Scotland for six weeks and, apart from times when we were in the remotest of areas it worked just fine. We have just returned from six weeks in France and in all that time it only worked once on the first day there and again once four weeks into the trip. For this reason I was not able to renew my subscription to Motorhome Facts until two weeks after expiry and now I have lost my 'dancing penguin' avatar. There were other times when it told me I was connected but I could not get any web pages displayed. In all the ruddy thing was pretty hopeless. Before I ring 3G when I will no doubt have to try and understand somebody in Mumbai etc., do any of you clever bods have an explanation?
I assume you are attempting to use a UK dongle abroad? The rates are probably something in the region of £1 a MB!
Is it a contract or pay as you go? Have you checked your bills? Have you received any text messages to the device? There is a european data cap of €50 per month after which you have to 'opt in' via to continue to use it when abroad. Be thankful that its failure to work has probably saved you a few quid!
I assume you are attempting to use a UK dongle abroad? The rates are probably something in the region of £1 a MB!
Is it a contract or pay as you go? Have you checked your bills? Have you received any text messages to the device? There is a european data cap of €50 per month after which you have to 'opt in' via to continue to use it when abroad. Be thankful that its failure to work has probably saved you a few quid!
Addie,
It was bought in the UK (a rolling monthly contract) but I had phoned 3G prior to departure to get roaming swtched on which they confirmed. My 3G bill does reflect the little that I managed to use in France and yes, I can see that the charges would have been huge had I had free reign but I only wanted it to check emails in the first place so would never have run up too big a bill. It was just so frustrating to hardly ever be able to even get into the internet.
I assume you are attempting to use a UK dongle abroad? The rates are probably something in the region of £1 a MB!
Is it a contract or pay as you go? Have you checked your bills? Have you received any text messages to the device? There is a european data cap of €50 per month after which you have to 'opt in' via to continue to use it when abroad. Be thankful that its failure to work has probably saved you a few quid!
Addie,
It was bought in the UK (a rolling monthly contract) but I had phoned 3G prior to departure to get roaming swtched on which they confirmed. My 3G bill does reflect the little that I managed to use in France and yes, I can see that the charges would have been huge had I had free reign but I only wanted it to check emails in the first place so would never have run up too big a bill. It was just so frustrating to hardly ever be able to even get into the internet.
Cheers
If it was just e-mail you wanted you might be better with a smart phone on Vodafone, you can then opt in to Vodafone data traveller either £2/day for 25Mb on both PAYG or Contract, or £10/mth on contract. I'm using this to write this post from a beach in Greece!
Alternatively if it was just France you can unlock your dongle and pick up an Orange FR data sim (off ebay.fr) which for €9 gives you 500/MB a month.
As for why your Dongle didn't work, I found when Three Like Home operated you had to manually select the network on occasion. Are you sure you didn't consume more than 34Mb (your limit before opting in?). Sometimes it takes longer then your billing cycle for foreign usage to be displayed on your bill.
I assume you are attempting to use a UK dongle abroad? The rates are probably something in the region of £1 a MB!
Is it a contract or pay as you go? Have you checked your bills? Have you received any text messages to the device? There is a european data cap of €50 per month after which you have to 'opt in' via to continue to use it when abroad. Be thankful that its failure to work has probably saved you a few quid!
Addie,
It was bought in the UK (a rolling monthly contract) but I had phoned 3G prior to departure to get roaming swtched on which they confirmed. My 3G bill does reflect the little that I managed to use in France and yes, I can see that the charges would have been huge had I had free reign but I only wanted it to check emails in the first place so would never have run up too big a bill. It was just so frustrating to hardly ever be able to even get into the internet.
Cheers
If it was just e-mail you wanted you might be better with a smart phone on Vodafone, you can then opt in to Vodafone data traveller either £2/day for 25Mb on both PAYG or Contract, or £10/mth on contract. I'm using this to write this post from a beach in Greece!
Alternatively if it was just France you can unlock your dongle and pick up an Orange FR data sim (off ebay.fr) which for €9 gives you 500/MB a month.
As for why your Dongle didn't work, I found when Three Like Home operated you had to manually select the network on occasion. Are you sure you didn't consume more than 34Mb (your limit before opting in?). Sometimes it takes longer then your billing cycle for foreign usage to be displayed on your bill.
Hi Addie,
Many thanks for your reply. I have 5 gygabites a month (and I have never used all of that) as my normal allowance but was told that whilst abroad all expenses incurred there would be over and above my regular payment/allowance and this has been reflected on my 3g account online. I think I will look into the ebay.fr method which sounds like good value.
Don't forget your sun tan lotion!! Lucky you --- on a beach in Greece. Thanks for your help.
Linda
I found that the network in France is nowhere near as good as in the UK. I could usually get a connection using a Vodafone sim but it was almost always very slow. I found fast connections only in towns or cities but would never use a UK sim to connect abroad except for the deal Addie recommends.
I gave all that up and bought satellite internet which I find very good if also very expensive. It depends on what you want to be able to do, how often and for how long, Alan.
Another "Internet abroad" thread! Once again I agree with Addie about the Vodafone data traveller. Unlike Alan's experience regarding connections we have found the opposite using the vodafone uk sim this summer abroad. The reason for this is the Vodafone deal allows you to use any available provider not just Vodafone or Orange France if you using the orange sim.
So where I am right now on a beach in Normandy there is no signal from SFR or Vodafone but there is one from Orange and a weaker one from a couple of other providers.
I think apart from perhaps when in a cave or wine cellar we have found a signal everyday all over Europe over the last four months and hence using the iPhone have had Internet and emails every day. All for £10 a month on top of my Vodafone contract.
I think Addie and I should be on commision from Vodafone!
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