UKH

My 2-year contract with Three finishes soon and it's decision time. When I signed up I got a mobile wifi unit (£8, 20 GB/month) to run my laptop mainly and a no-frills smartphone (£10, 500MB/month plus 300 mins calls and unlimited texts). I now own the phone. I've often just run the phone off the wifi unit when car camping to save the paltry inclusive data. This was my first 'deal' and I'm not much more tech-savvy now. Someone at work mentioned using the phone itself as a mobile hotspot for the laptop. Are there any downsides/pitfalls to this? Anyone recommend a good deal (keep it simple for the dunderhead!)? Thanks.

So long as you don't want to use the computer away from the phone (eg other family members when you're not around), then hotspoting the phone is so easy even I can do it. 

If you plan to keep the handset, just look for an affordable sim only phone package with 20gb of data included. 

Thanks, Jenny! I'm not one for the latest model so happy to keep the old phone. With a sim only deal do you get to keep your current phone number? It'd be a pain having to update.

Yes you can “port” your old number to SIM only, it’s been made a LOT easier these days to do it. I’ve done it three times for my parents in the last two years and I am remarkably non-savvy with these things. In fact it is so easy, that I’ve forgotten how to do it (if that makes sense! I just mean “I asked the chap in Tesco or EE and they explained and we did it and it worked then I forgot”. I think you just text “PAC” to your current supplier) 

Not only cheaper, also much better for environment to keep a working phone rather than upgrade. 

As said above - if changing provider you need to request the PAC code from Three, then give this to the new company and they will transfer the existing number over for you.

An option to consider is monthly contracts.
Lots of monthly sim only contracts nowadays which have the advantage of changing the package of data every month if necessary, say if you have or expect to have periods of lower or higher data needs than your norm.

Only disadvantages of using your phone I’ve found is the phone battery can take a hit acting as a hotspot, and some providers do not, or did not in the past, allow tethering or have/had some limits on it’s use. Maybe all changed in recent years - I’ve not kept up to date and stuck with the same provider for more than 5 years; monthly sim only though to have flexibility of changing package as and when needed. Works well.

Thanks. I've seen some monthly contracts on USwitch. I (wrongly?) assumed that gave the provider a way to vary the charges every month. I'm not too bothered about varying the data use each month and a 12 month contract would work better for me. I've seen that Three have a 12 month unlimited data deal for £16/month which would be less than what I'm currently paying. I'll see if I can tether the laptop from it without limit. Battery life shouldn't be a problem as I can plug the phone in whenever I'm using the laptop.

All contracts, afaik, now have in the T&Cs an ability to increase prices on a yearly basis*. My provider has iirc only changed prices twice in over five years. They have increase the package quite a few times though at no extra costs during same period. Works both ways I suppose.

* Yearly can be actually within your 12 mths. I heard last week an ad for one on offer now and the “small print” at the end clearly said price would rise in April 21!!

I tether my chrome book to my phone when out in the field. Its okay but often if someone rings the computer gets dropped. I also have a lot of data on my phone that I refer to when on the computer and again often for some reason this causes the computer to get dropped.

2 weeks ago I signed up for a 4g WiFi hub. It's great. Not dropped once unless there has been no signal and seems to get a better signal than my phone. I have been using the computer to access our remote server on sites where my phone won't ever open a Web page. 

This is the contract I’ve got - you can they get on it and get free roaming all over the place (not just the EU). 

This is interesting. I do sometimes use phone and laptop in conjunction - logging into one of my accounts requires a text message to be sent to the phone.

I think I will consider keeping my WiFi hub going. Thanks.

I ran my desktop pc off my phone hotspot for about a week when we had broadband issues and it didn't create any noticeable problems with the phone performance.

Infact with one site I use that requires a text message login, the phone hotspot is often more reliable than a slow WiFi connection.

One thing to bear in mind with using a hotspot is that (others may correct me if i'm wrong) I believe Three actually allow you to hotspot however other networks don't. You will still likely be able to do it on another network and I doubt other networks actually catch people doing it but just in case..

Thanks. With my account login I have to type/speak the number into the phone while the laptop is opening the account. Might be a pain to find out it doesn't work? I'm one of those 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' types. My current hub and phone set up seems to work OK so may end up keeping it as is? May get a bigger data package though. Got a few more days to ponder. 

That used to be the case, but they do stop you now if it's not on your contract! Definitely check that tethering is allowed on the contract you go for. Check moneysavingexpert and some of the resellers like Affordable mobiles if you are looking for a deal, they often have the cheaper contracts (although often at the 24 month end of the scale)

That's interesting. I've no idea if Three 'allow' tethering or not and less idea what's in my contract! I did a little experiment yesterday and tethered my laptop to the phone for the first time ever and played a short Youtube video. It worked but I only did this for less than a minute to see if I could actually do it. In reality, I've been tethering the phone to my little WiFi hub as it has 20GB/month data and the phone only 500MB/month. Done this for two years and no issues from Three.

I'm with three now. My previous contract with them whenever I connected to my laptop it would prevent me from using the internet - whenever opening a web browser it would just bring a page saying this isn't in your contract. My current one it is included. I think you can view it if you log onto their website

On the subject of 4g wifi hubs, how do they compare in terms of reliability with hubs using landline?

I'm currently stuck with BT who provide me with about 6 to 8mps via copper wire, for which I pay the same as other customers do for high speed fibre.

If 4g hubs are as reliable as wired then I'd probably get rid of the landline, as only scammers call me on it.

I've had no problems with mine. The signal strength seems fine here for Three and I've never lost it when watching video like iPlayer. I have a landline socket but have never used it since I moved here late 2019. I take it with me car camping and have watched iPlayer on the North Pennines moors above Alston!