On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 06:00:40PM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
I'm assuming there's a SIM in the dongle because we want to use it in Belgium as well and I'm hoping all I need to do is buy a mobile broadband SIM there and stick it in the dongle. Am I right? Is there some initialisation/configuring needed to activate the SIM?Well the Pay-g one from T-Mobile is provider locked and I assume that is the case for most if not all pay-g ones. I know mine can be unlocked but have never bothered myself. As to contract devices on other providers I am not sure but googling should tell you. Other than that if the SIM needs to be activated then you may need to do that first in a mobile phone or something.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about things like provider locking, thanks for pointing that out. In that case it *might* be worth going for a separate dongle for Belgium rather than unlocking the Alcatel one. It would give us more flexibility if, for example, I am in Belgium while my wife is in the UK.
The alternative is to look for a deal on a mifi device rather than a USB dongle. Then you have the advantages that it is OS independent (providing whatever you want to use has functional wireless) and it can serve more than one device at a time. I think this would be the route I would take if I was buying one again.
They seem to come locked as well don't they? I think my "two dongles" approach may be better for us.