Monday 7 September 2009

Hardware & Software - Staying connected on the move

Well as regular readers of this blog will know, I am a strong protaganist of my Samsung NC10 Netbook, as I have written here.

I have been using for over six months now, and cannot recommend it highly enough.

One of the great benefits is the ability to stay 'connected' to the webworld while on the move.

So I needed to sort out mobile broadband. Like choosing a mobile phone, the right network and the right tariff are not the easiest to find.

Should we go contract pay monthly or pay as you go.

AS I have Orange mobile phone and broadband in the home, I started looking at tat option, but they didn't do Pay as you go (PAYG) then, and I didn't see the point in shelling out £15 per month for 18 months to be honest.

So I looked at the PAYG options. So what was it to be.

I checked out the coverage and the price per MB of download. Some charge for the dongle and some don't. Don't let a 'free' dongle fool you tho'

The one key thing you need to check is the 'lifespan' of your credit.

I found that 3, T mobile and O2 had a lifespan of 30 days, whereas Vodafone had 180 days, although you had to get £15 credit, and not £10.

Check out the best options here.

Well, after 180 days, I had used a total of £9 of my credit, so after a top up, I am back to £21 as they carry over your unused.

So if I had gone for a 30day option, it would have cost me over £60 rather than £15.

So check out the small print.

So as well as recommending the Netbook as a storage device, a mobile processor, , it is also a fantastic mobile comms. device, and it has enabled me to keep on blogging, chatting via Skype, MSN, and keeping up with my emails, while I have connectivity. Sadly, 3G coverage doesn't always extend to the more remote parts of the country. There is, as they say, always a compromise.

I appreciate we have many overseas readers of the blog, so check out the same sort of things when you are looking in your own countries.

Martin

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