USB Internet Dongle Thingies in Europe

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Hi chums,

My mam and stepdad have just come back from another month touring Europe in their mobile home (lucky bastards!), but found that most of the campsites they stayed on charge about 10 Euros per day to use their wifi, which is a bit rich when they are just wanting to email people to say where they are and send the odd photo.

I see the usb dongles you get for internet access, but I'm not 100% sure how they work - and how they work in Europe. I assume they use 3G, but is that as widespread in Europe as it is in Britain? (they would mainly be in France, Germany, Spain or Switzerland)

Has anyone used one in Europe, and if so how well did it work?

Also, they would only want to use it 2 or 3 times over a year so wouldn't want a contract, is there a payg option that you don't have to keep topping up?

I know this info is all on the net somewhere, but I wanted some personal experience to filter out the salesman speeches.

Ta

[djr]

[colin1]

there was a thing on the radio about using those usb dongle things in europe.

They are incredibly expensive.

People have managed to end up with bills of £5000, and hundreds is pretty common.

wifi with the camp site will be much cheaper

Part of the problem, is that the service provide bills by what it thinks has been downloaded.

If you open your email, and there are several items that you dont even open, which have big attachments, it will log them against what you have downloaded.

The phone companies are backing down a bit under pressure, but reducing a £5000 bill that you werent expecting, to £1200 is still gonna sting. To be fair I think that was someone using iplayer abroad, which is gonna send the download count sky high.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Neorion]

either that or tell them to buy one for each country and top up the minimum.

I would think like the campervan the more you use it the cheaper they get (seeing as you have to buy the dongle)

Internet cafes are pennies, maybe use them instead.
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VFR FI 2000- Shiney Red Thing
"some things man was never meant to know, for everything else there's Google"

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Yeah, sounds like it's not that great an idea.

Ah well, ta anyway.

[Bendy]

Send postcards.

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Phfffffffttt...postcards! Get back to the care home Grandpa!