3g broadband

[MrP]

hi,

am thinking about buying one of thses cheap 3g broadband dongles to use in a laptop when we are on holiday etc.

however, while i'm sure they will work in the UK, what happens if i try and use it abroad (in france)??

can i just go out and buy a simcard for a local telco and stick it in, or am i gonna have to buy a specific one for france?

cheers

[gss03]

You might find that you can simply slot in another providers SIM into this, but that the USB modem will be SIMlocked by the UK provider.
I have found this with my "Three" 3G card - it just errors out when the device is plugged into the laptop.

[MrP]

is it possible to unlock them to work with any simcard?

[burble]

Yep. I think it's pretty much only the Three datacards that are locked, I've got a couple of Vodafone & Orange cards that work fine on other networks.

[benjus]

Unlocking can be pretty easy - before you buy check which model of dongle you'll be getting and google for how to unlock it. Many models can be unlocked by replacing the provider's firmware with the manufacturer's. There's also a program called DC-unlocker which can unlock most models for €15 a go. I unlocked my Three dongle with DC-unlocker, but later found out that I could have re-flashed the firmware for free...

Using it abroad with the UK SIM should work, but the data roaming rates can be astronomical.

For France I suggest you look at Orange - using a standard PAYG SIM card I believe they have an Internet add-on for around €10 per month (I can't remember all the details). Note that SIM cards (even PAYG ones) can be tricky to buy in France, and you may have to provide evidence of a French address. OTOH, maybe that was just the store I used... you can also find a few SIM cards on French ebay.

Doing it this way (rather than getting a "proper" mobile broadband SIM card in France) the download limits won't be very high, but at least you'll have some connectivity for not much money.

[benjus]

By the way, this site is very useful for finding good mobile providers for international travel:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html

[lacyjee]

Hello...
This post is really great. These days 3G Broadband is very popular and many ones had used this. This is gaining ppularity.

[Disturbedguy]

And your spam posts are gaining much annoyance from myself.