Mobile broadband pay as you go deals

What is 3G pay-as-you-go broadband?

There are a lot of ways of buying mobile broadband these days, from Mi-Fi, to iPad SIMs and traditional USB 3G dongles that slot into your laptop for a mobile browsing experience. Mobile broadband PAYG offers, like pay-as-you-go or pre-pay phones, allow customers to pay for the mobile broadband they need, up-front.

Cheap 3G pay as you go broadband?

Because you’re not tied into to a contract with 3G PAYG broadband you can always change providers relatively easily. As a result, the market for pay-as-you-go mobile broadband is incredibly competitive. If you want to compare mobile broadband PAYG deals, remember that there is nearly always an up-front cost for the PAYG dongle, MiFi router, iPad SIM card or tablet SIM. After that, it’s down to thinking about how much you’re going to use your PAYG mobile internet and therefore what kind of pre-loaded data allowance you need.

Mobile broadband pay as you go dongle offers – pay per day or pay per GB?

Unfortunately PAYG 3G broadband is not as simple as finding the cheapest payg dongle and away you go. The major network providers including T-Mobile, Orange, 3 Mobile and Vodafone all package their 3G pay-as-you-go broadband deals in different ways. The most common are listed below:-

  • Pay per day, per week or per month usage– Opt for this type of pay-as-you-go mobile broadband offer and you’ll pay a set amount up-front to use your dongle for, say 30 days. Within that time period you are normally allowed a pre-agreed amount of data, such as 1GB. Once the time limit expires you’ll need to top-up your dongle to use for another 30 days or whatever you require. Some, like T-Mobile, don’t impose a data limit, but have a fair usage limit – go over it and you won’t be charged, but use in peak times may be restricted.
  • Pay per GB (amount of data use) – If you choose a PAYG mobile broadband offer where you pay up-front for a set amount of data, for example 2GB – you can basically use your dongle until you reach that download limit. Just to complicate matters though, you also have a time limit with this type of deal – for example you might get a bundle which allows 2GB or 30 days usage. If you reach the end of the 30 days and have only used 1.5GB, you lose the rest and will have to top-up to get back online.

    • You can probably tell by now – a lot of the packaging of these deals is fairly creative and it’s hard to compare when the providers have different charging mechanisms. Don’t despair, just go in with your head screwed on and take time to study all the deals on offer.