Best UK and smallest pocket hot spot (friend traveling - won't change SIM)?

Vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,540
Hi all,

A friend from Canada will be traveling around the UK for quite some time. She needs to keep her current SIM in for work reasons.

What's a good pocket hotspot either with a one-off payment, top ups or months plan?

The smaller the better as it's something that would be with her when she is out and about!

Thanks
 
DataVampire said:
Don't most modern smartphones allow you to use them as a mobile hotspot?
Click to expand...

His friend has a Canadian SIM and to avoid a zillion-dollar bill when she returns from the UK, she will buy a UK SIM and tether to it for data purposes.

As for the original question, I can't offer any specific suggestions for best products.
 
TBH we have a lot of visitors from foreign places what they do is just buy a cheap smartphone which allows them to do use it as a mobile hotspot or just use 2 phones, they often buy a second hand one for this very purpose.
 
As others have said, one option would be hotspot on a phone/device. So your friend could potentially purchase a dirt cheap 2nd hand Android phone from somewhere like CEX and combine that with a data only and PAYG SIM only deal. Or get a MiFi device on a monthly deal.

I can't vouch for either the MiFi device or 3 network, but they have monthly deals on a 4G MiFi listed here (but includes upfront fee):
http://www.three.co.uk/discover/devices/huawei/4g-plus-mifi?memory=0&colour=Black
 
I thought that most phones these days were dual sim? My s10+ is great for this when travelling, just throw a local sim in whilst still being contactable on my main number
 
What's the battery life on a MiFi device? A cheap used smartphone will need charging every other day.

Also, on my phone the hotspot turns itself off if no device is connected for a period. You could easily not notice the hotspot \ WiFi is disconnected and start using the expensive mobile data.
 
I've had a couple of TP-Link M7350 4G MiFi devices and they've been brilliant; quite small with a good battery life - about £65 on Amazon (New) but you could find them cheaper used.
 
^^^ what's a good battery life? Could I leave one in a bag or car on standby for a week? Or do you need to power it on when needed to save battery life?
 
Mujja said:
^^^ what's a good battery life? Could I leave one in a bag or car on standby for a week? Or do you need to power it on when needed to save battery life?
Click to expand...

About 7-8 hours (of use) will go into standby though if not being used - your not going to get one that lasts much longer; standby or not
 
To save the aggro.

Buy a £10 feature phone with a 2 week battery life.
Put canadian sim into the feature phone.

Put british payg sim for data into canadian phone

??? profit.

I can't think of anything worse than walking around with a hotspot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom