Next "Ignoramus Grade" Question: Mobile Internet

addo · Unread post by **addo** » 29 Mar 2011, 20:44

I can't believe how much this has actually informed me - the only bit of comprehension which seems slippery at present, is whether you can swap SIMs between dongles.

PAYG is also good in the sense that it allows me to cheaply evaluate the fairly marginal reception at my property. I can't make or receive calls there, yet a mate who's on Vodabone has been known to spend his "work" time there texting and chatting to his women in Sydney...

I tried hooking up the mobile to my laptop but the only way it seemed to want to work, was as a dialup service (which I don't have). Although maybe that's just a software thing?

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 30 Mar 2011, 10:45

hi Adam, yep my vodo dongle has a swappable sim,..

J

Unread post by **Paul-R** » 30 Mar 2011, 11:05

jgra1 wrote:hi Adam, yep my vodo dongle has a swappable sim,..

But would another sim work in it? If the dongles are subsidised like PAYG mobiles can they then be simlocked?

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 30 Mar 2011, 11:34

ahh.. no clue Paul..

I guess I can use the PAYG sim in my mobile but never tried..

Unread post by **Paul-R** » 30 Mar 2011, 11:40

Actually, me neither!

I have an O2 PAYG dongle which is so far unused. I can't be absolutely sure but I seem to remember that the destructions said something about the phone number allocated to it couldn't accept (or was it make) phone calls.

Maybe there's something special about a sim for a dongle?

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 30 Mar 2011, 11:58

Sims have several services that can be assigned to them such as voice, data and blackberry.
So for a dongle sim they just activate the data service.
Another network's sim with data service can be used instead as long as the dongle isn't locked to one network.
Whether it is locked or not is down to the network provider's policy.
None of my O2 phones have been loked but my older vodaphone ones were.
In the US they seem to lock all phones and until recently it wasn't legal to unlock them which I guess is why people over there tend to buy phones outright rather than get free ones from a network.