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We move house in a couple of days, and our new broadband provider has texted to say that it won't be live until 1st of December. That's twelve days without broadband.
This is a problem; we have two kids, and Mrs CB works from home.
I've seen a few mobile WiFi routers for sale but not sure how many GB the average family use, or if they will be fast enough.
What's the cheapest way I can let the kids play games and watch stuff for twelve days?
if it were me, cheapest way would be wife tethers using her phone hotspot, and the kids go without games for 12 days? cheapest and simplest.
There's probably cheaper ways of doing it, but the Three prepaid 24GB data sims that are valid for 24 months once activated, are currently reduced to £36 on Amazon. I use one of these as a cheap way to get interweb access away from home, plus do "live tracking" and "live routing" on my GPS computer via the mobile app.
www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-Pay-Broadband-Data-Black/dp/B01M3VJ2B2
Check the details, this Three sim www..amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-All-You-Can-Eat-Data-Pay
looks like unlimited everything for 30 days for £29.30 in the current promo.
Goes without saying, Three reception and speeds vary enormously around the country.
You'll still have normal TV surely? The kids can suck it up and the wife can use mobile data
Tether to your phones.
Look at Smarty if you don't have a decent data allowance.
Does your existing provider not provide usage stats?
Thanks for the ideas. My existing provider sends me a paper bill, and I don't have any sort of online account with them.
Wife would have no idea how to use mobile data on a work laptop, and nor would I!
Was just looking at Smarty, looks interesting. So a mifi/mobile router may be in order
Unlimited data SIM
4g router
I have this info at hand because my neighbour didn't remove a dying cherry tree. Much simpler to let it fall down, block my drive and take out my internet for a week.
I switched to Three mobile broadband £15/pm 24 months unlimited a while back, included a 4G router and £50 cashback.
Speed about 45Mbs which is better than our landline ever got, despite the BT exchange visible from our house.
Landline now disconnected.
Both me and mrs work from home / kids watch youtube seems to work fine. I think we average over 10Gb/day though so wouldn't be able to use a limited plan for long!
Really glad I started this thread, thanks all.
I now know a limited card wouldn't cut it. That o2 one is perfect, along with a mobile router. Sorted
That o2 one is perfect,
That O2 one is over twice the price of the Smarty one I suggested earlier. Unlimited data, £20/month, no contract.
... £18 in fact, it's on offer right now.
Or 30GB for £10. You gonna use 30GB in twelve days?
You don't need a router unless you're getting range issues.
Wife would have no idea how to use mobile data on a work laptop, and nor would I!
Tethering to a phone is no harder than switching on Bluetooth, you just enable "wi-fi hotspot" in your phone settings. On your laptop you then connect to the hotspot like you would any Wi-Fi network, the laptop neither knows nor cares that the backhaul is 'mobile data.'
What "games" are the kids playing?
I feel like I'm being scolded 😄
The Smarty one is best value agreed, I'm just really need the faster turnaround.
Judging by the usage example above, we would definitely use over 30GB in twelve days.
Wifi Hotspot from a phone - whatever next? Thanks for the explanation.
Wife uses Teams a fair bit. Kids play on server-based games such as Roblox, Among Us and Human Fall Flat. They are on call (skype/other) with friends while playing, especially during lockdown.