The Best PAYG Dongle Deals

Pay as you go mobile broadband gives you al the benefits of a mobile broadband contract - freedom to access the internet on the move, quick access to email and even downloading or streaming media - without needing to sign up to a contract. There can be big advantages here, if for example, you only plan to use the dongle occassionally or in an emergency.

One great thing to remember is that you can always top up your pay as you go dongle, even if you don't have any credit left on your account you can always access the top up pages of your network with the dongle so you can add credit to your accont over the internet, even when your balance is zero.

Here at UK Mobile Broadband Deals we compare all the mobile broadband offers available in the market to make it really easy for you to select the right deal for you. In the table above you will see the prepay dongle options from all five of the main networks so you can quickly and easily compare their offers and then select the right one for you. Simply select 'more info' to go through to the deal pages of the networks themselves to learn more or to buy. If you want to learn more about mobile broadband generally before making your decision then stay on this site and make use of our guides and coverage checker to help inform your decision.

Pay As You Go Dongles are very simple to use. The dongle iteself simply connects to a USB port on your Windows or Apple Mac computer and it will install its own software automatically. Once the software is installed you will need to top up your account so that you have some credit to spend on Internet access. This is simple to do and the best way is to register a credit card or debit card with your network. Once you have your card registered it is then a simple case of logging in with a username and password and telling your network how much credit you would like to buy.Of course there are other ways to top up too, just like with a pay as you go mobile phone your dongle has a SIM card with a unique 'mobile phone number' (although you cant make calls from it). The dongle SIM can be topped up in any way that a standard prepay phone can be.

Once you have some credit on your account it's simple to connect to the Internet and start using mobile broadband straight away. As soon as you connect your dongle the connection software will autostart and you just need to click the 'go' or equivalent (it varies by network) button to connect. Within seconds you'll be connected to the Internet and able to start browsing to your heart's content.

A Few Points About Data

One thing you should always be concious of is how much data you are using, or plan to use with your dongle. Data is the amount of information, measured in kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, that you access over the mobile networks. Everything you do when using your dongle, from browsing the Internet to picking up email to streaming video will use an amount of data and this is what your dongle credit pays for. Typically 1gb of data a month will give you plenty of access to light browsing and email but if you plan to stream music or listen to Internet radio you are likely to want more like three times this and for downloading lots of attachement, using BBC iPlayer, watching You Tube videos or other data hungry activities you may need considerably more.

Data does tend to be more expensive for pay as you go users than those on contracts so if you do plan to use a lot it may be worth thinking about signing up to a contract instead. If the flexibility of pay as you go is what appeals though then it's still important to think about how much data you are likely to use as the networks do have different pricing structures and different offers for different types of users so this should be one of the key factors in your decision about which network is right for you.

Unlimited Mobile Broadband Browsing

One of the most interesting pay as you go dongle offers is from T-Mobile who have structured their tariff in a different way to the others. Whilst most networks charge you based on how much data you use, T-Mobile offer essentially unlimited access for browsing and email. For this they charge a fixed amount for a day, week or month and then state that they will never charge more. There is a fair usage policy associated with this which states that if you consume large amounts of data they may restrict your usage but they will never charge you extra. This deal is intended to ensure that you can browse the Internet and use email as much as you like but the fair usage policy means that you can't really use your dongle for lots of downloading or streaming of media. This is a great offer for users who want to control their costs and one of the more innovative ways of pricing mobile broadband for pay as you go users.

Coverage and Signal Quality

The final, and perhaps most important, thing to consider when choosing the right deal for you is the coverage of the different networks where you are likely to use your dongle. Coverage can vary a lot by network and this affects the speed that you can access the Internet and even whether you can get access at all. One network might have a great signal in one location giving you high speeds faster than a home broadband connection whilst another might not have any coverage at all. Most networks have invested heavily in the quality of the 3G and 3.5G networks and it's now quite rare to find 'blackspots' in populated areas where you can't get access at all but it is not at all uncommon to find that one network might give you a speed of 3MBps whilst another crawls along at 200Kbps.

In our experience typically Three and the now combined T-Mobile and Orange networks have the widest coverage and the best speed. This tends to be backed up by most of the research done by the likes of Which and Ofcom but it is only a guide to averages. If you want to be sure of getting the best coverage where you are likely to use your dongle we recommend looking at the coverage maps you can see on our mobile broadband coverage page.