Vodafone UK:
You can get affordable and dependable mobile Internet from Vodafone on your laptop with a USB stick modem. All that’s needed is to connect the USB stick to your laptop, it will install software automatically and you will be done.
On Vodafone UK there are 3 plans available. It is recommended that if you are a very occasional user, that you select the £3 plan. This gets you 250MB of data for £2, with your first 250MB free. However, like all of these plans, there is a one-off fee of £19. If you are somewhat of an occasional user, it is recommended that you buy the £7 per month plan. This gets you 500 MB of data for only £7.50 each. You also receive 1GB of free data on the BT Openzone Wi-Fi network.
If you are somewhat of a regular user, for example if you use the Internet every day, the £15 per month plan would be perfect for you. Here the stick costs £9 once-off and has 2GB of data included. If you exceed your data it will cost you £15 per extra gigabyte. You also receive 1GB of free BT Openzone Wi-Fi.
The 18-month plans both offer free stick modems. The cheaper option costs £15 per month, comes with 2GB of data, 2GB of BT Openzone Wi-Fi and you have the option of renting a telephone line for 3 months at half price.
If you are a little more hard-core with your data needs, you can pay £20 a month for 2GB of data and 4GB of BT Openzone Wi-Fi. This also has the half-price line rental promotion.
Their pay-as-you-go plans have a one-off fee of £24.99 and comes with 500GB of data which expires after 60 days. This is the easiest way to get online with Vodafone. It’s cheap, fast and there is no commitment. You can top up with 500MB of data for as little as £5. This lasts for 60 days.
Tethering:
Another great way to get mobile Internet these days is to use your mobile phone as a modem. This way your laptop can connect to the Internet via your phone’s 3G. This is also known as tethering. You just need to connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable or via Bluetooth (however Bluetooth will be somewhat slower) and perhaps change one or two of your phone’s settings. Vodafone offers a ‘Via Your Phone Plus’ tethering pack just for this purpose and it will definitely save you money in the long run. It costs £15 per month and you receive 2GB of data. Every subsequent gigabyte after this limit will cost £15 extra.
The Vodafone UK website has a simple little tool to help you choose the correct plan or package. The way it works is it has 2 questions and a slider for each. The first question is: ‘how often do you use the Internet?’ You can answer either ‘occasionally’ or ‘regularly’ by sliding the slider left or right. The next question is: ‘what do you use the Internet for?’ And the slider has 2 options here too: browsing and downloading. Once you are done it will give you a recommendation as to which plan will be ideal for your needs.
Vodafone UK is the third-biggest provider in the UK and was founded in 1982.