On 19/10/2020 12:33, Pancho wrote:
On 18/10/2020 21:21, Roge
Â*There is a reasonable '3' signal at the flat. Any reason why I
couldn't use one of these SIMs - and then top it up or replace when
the data is used up?

I tried a long expiry '3' data sim a few years ago, amazingly cheap
compared to the competition. However, the download speed made it
unusable, often in the 300-500 Kb/s range, I only used a small fraction
of the data before I stopped using it. I'm not sure if that was due to
'3' signal strength or contention for bandwidth. I tried it in a few
different locations, miles apart, and it was useless in them all.

Sounds more like your choice of hardware was ill advised.

I had no trouble at all using Three PAYG data SIMs at full speed. Though
I was using a Mifi with an external high gain yagi antenna pointed at a
mast. Never had much bother getting 20+Mbps at any time of day.

Two things hurt low signal or jamming by local RF noise of which some BT
phone chargers and badly screened fast laptops seem particularly bad.
USB extender is sometimes needed to get the dongle well away from the
laptop (ie it has pathetic speed plugged directly into a USB slot).

So I would do some '3' speed tests, at peak hours, before assuming it is
a solution.

O2 was fine (20+ Mb/s) , but only had monthly data, I would use Giff
Gaff now, which is O2 based.

EE is also worth a look but I don't think they have such long expiry
data deals - but for higher monthly usage they can be OK.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown