Ask HN: Which 3G dongle to use in UK (and London info)? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which 3G dongle to use in UK (and London info)?

3 pointsJun88 comments

I'm traveling to UK (Rumford, near London) next week and need Internet access for my Macbook Pro. Which 3G dongle should I use, since I'm clueless about the situation outside US. I'll also buy a pay as you go SIM card, which one should I buy.

If you know the London area any other information (pubs, cool places to see, beer, how to greet royalty if I see them, etc.) would be much appreciated.

Edit: Thanks for all the responses. Yep, it's Romford, not Rumford :-) Also, is having free WiFi common in UK stores, like in the US, e.g. in Starbucks?

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Free WiFi is not as common as in the US. Starbucks have a partnership with BT Openzone - but if you load a Starbucks card you can register for free WiFi at Starbucks locations.

Network 3 or Voda are the best one. I worked in Carphone Warehouse for 2-3 years during my undergrad/masters and those were the best ones to buy.

Much of a muchness in the UK, especially so in London (I assume you mean Romford - Rumford is in Cornwall if memory serves).

You can get a stick with 1GB of data for about £20/$35 from most supermarkets or phone shops. Eg http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-7408.aspx

Yep, it's Romford, my bad. In fact, I'll be very close to a Tesco store, so I can buy this there.

Make sure the Tesco you are near has these (maybe phone up or paste up the branch and I'll do a quick check for you). Not all Tesco stores are created equal - there are Tesco Metro stores are really only food, Tesco Extra carry pretty much everything (food, clothes, TVs, laptops, mobile phones etc), plain old Tesco stores might have an aisle or two of AV/electronics.

There are five 3G UK networks: Vodafone, O2, Three, Orange, and T-Mobile. They will have coverage checkers on their websites, but some of them you will need the postcode of the address you're staying at to use. (Note: you mean Romford, probably the one in North East London (near Havering).)

This might be cheaper, depending on your requirements: http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/

This sounds good. I don't think there are any WiFi spots near where I'll be working, but I can use this for evenings.

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