

Ask HN: Which 3G dongle to use in UK (and London info)? - Jun8

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.<p>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.<p>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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timthorn
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.

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AN447
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.

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timthorn
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>

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Jun8
Yep, it's Romford, my bad. In fact, I'll be very close to a Tesco store, so I
can buy this there.

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tunaslut
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.

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mooism2
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).)

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

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Jun8
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.

