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Using your USB Dongle abroad. Author = DocHolliday
This post is about using your USB dongle to connect to the internet via the mobile phone network in countries other than the UK. If you want to connect with WiFi then look here (link to be inserted when someone else writes the appropriate page).
Roaming
Despite the EU putting an upper limit on data roaming charges, these only apply to the wholesale rates that mobile companies may charge each other; end-user rates are still outrageously expensive. You would be ill-advised to use roaming for anything other than minimal and very occasional internet browsing or email, otherwise you will end up with a huge bill. The rates that would apply are best obtained from your mobile company – there are too many tariffs and they change too often to list them here.
Using a local sim card for the country you are travelling to
This is generally the best and most economical solution if you want to do some serious web browsing on holiday. First, you will most likely have to get your dongle unlocked. Please refer to the Idiot's Guide. Briefly, unlocking can be done online and people commonly use one of these two sites:
Dc-unlocker Kulankendi
Dc-unlocker is the easier of the two to use and usually the same price as the other – about €15. The software you download (for free) will tell you whether or not your dongle is locked to one mobile phone company. The charge is applied when you connect to the server to complete the unlock process and of course you need internet access to do that, so get it sorted before you get on the ferry! NB If you use a Vodafone dongle in the UK, for example, that does NOT mean that you can simply insert a Vodafone sim card from another country without unlocking the dongle.
It would be impossible to list all the mobile data services available in all of the countries of Europe, but luckily a large number of them are documented on Prepaid-Wireless-Internet-Access. You don't have to sign up and the site is fairly easy to use, but it depends on the enthusiasm of its users to keep the information up to date. The countries are not listed in alphabetical order, so it's best to do a search (top right hand corner), as that will turn up information and discussion threads that you might otherwise miss. There is a forum in which anyone may post a query. Another good source of information is the Pay_as_you_go_sim_with_data_Wiki. This attempts to cover the whole world and again relies on its users to keep it up to date.
Once abroad, you are at the mercy of the particular phone shop you go to – some are very helpful, others not. They may profess ignorance of the deal you have read about and try to sell you something more expensive. Some will say that you need to buy one of their dongles rather than use your UK one. This is not usually true. I have used my unlocked Three dongle in eight out of nine countries I went to in the last year. If you get this sort of reaction, just go to another shop of the same mobile firm.
France
A special mention for notre amis: It's a wonderful country in many respects, but mobile internet access, even if you are a resident, is mostly a total rip-off, especially if you are on prepaid – sans enagagement. There is a good deal from Orange called Internet Max which gives a month's access for €12. It was withdrawn, but it seems to have reappeared recently according to this site. Alternatively, I advise you to use WiFi where you can, possible aided by a good aerial.
Connection software (Windows)
Most people seem to use Mobile Partner from Huawei, as they produce most dongles currently in use. You can download it from dc-unlocker. You will need to enter the Access Point Name (APN) when you create a connection profile, and sometimes a username and password, as specified by the mobile company. The mobile phone shop where you buy the sim should be able to give you these settings. If not, try looking here. Make absolutely certain you use the correct APN or your connection costs could turn out to be a lot higher than you were expecting!
Coverage
My experience has been that mobile network coverage on the continent is generally far better than the patchy, slow services we suffer in the UK. 3G access is widespread and if you don't get that you will often get EDGE (236 kbits/s) which is perfectly usable for web browsing.
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