- Joined
- Mar 12, 2006
- Messages
- 2,608
- Car
- Mini Cooper S, BMW M140i
Greetings, citizens.
We had a situation at work a few weeks back where we lost our internet connection for a whole day. I rang our ISP, who of course denied it was anything to do with them, and myself and a colleague spent quite a lot of the day trying to sort it out, to no avail. Mysteriously, the next morning the bit fairies had visited and everything was working, but again this was nothing to do with the fault being with our ISP. Right.
We're a small company (12 people) and I reckon we could make do with a cellular connection, at least for a short time, whilst our ISP fixes a fault that isn't anything to do them, no sirree. It's certainly better than where we found ourselves. It might be expensive, but as a short term solution it has to be cheaper than a dozen people sitting around.
I've had a look at a few combination routers, and Draytek (a name I remember from my days in IT) do a combination ADSL/VDSL/LTE router with a built in SIM slot. This seems to tick a lot of boxes, and although not the cheapest, at £300 it won't break the bank either.
It's unlocked to any cellular supplier, and this is where I'm asking for advice. Obviously I'm looking for the cheapest deal given that we will (hopefully) only need this once in a blue moon.
The best I've found so far is with 3, who will sell me a pay as you go SIM pre-loaded with 12GB that lasts for 12 months. £30 to you John, and if the data hasn't been used in 12 months it disappears.
This seems reasonable, although the cost/GB isn't the cheapest the 12 month lifespan is the best I've seen. Most SIM deals expire after 30 days. My phone's on 3 and I know that although we can only get 3G rather than 4G at work the signal is rock solid and my theory is that if you have to drum your fingers a bit whilst the regular internet is down it's better than nothing. I also realise that 12GB doesn't go far, but if we go into a failover situation it's easy enough to chuck a bunch of money on the SIM and keep the company going.
So, question, any other suggestions? To be fair, our ISP is normally pretty reliable but it's only when things go the way of the pear you realise it's important to have a Plan B..
Cheers,
Gaz
We had a situation at work a few weeks back where we lost our internet connection for a whole day. I rang our ISP, who of course denied it was anything to do with them, and myself and a colleague spent quite a lot of the day trying to sort it out, to no avail. Mysteriously, the next morning the bit fairies had visited and everything was working, but again this was nothing to do with the fault being with our ISP. Right.
We're a small company (12 people) and I reckon we could make do with a cellular connection, at least for a short time, whilst our ISP fixes a fault that isn't anything to do them, no sirree. It's certainly better than where we found ourselves. It might be expensive, but as a short term solution it has to be cheaper than a dozen people sitting around.
I've had a look at a few combination routers, and Draytek (a name I remember from my days in IT) do a combination ADSL/VDSL/LTE router with a built in SIM slot. This seems to tick a lot of boxes, and although not the cheapest, at £300 it won't break the bank either.
It's unlocked to any cellular supplier, and this is where I'm asking for advice. Obviously I'm looking for the cheapest deal given that we will (hopefully) only need this once in a blue moon.
The best I've found so far is with 3, who will sell me a pay as you go SIM pre-loaded with 12GB that lasts for 12 months. £30 to you John, and if the data hasn't been used in 12 months it disappears.
This seems reasonable, although the cost/GB isn't the cheapest the 12 month lifespan is the best I've seen. Most SIM deals expire after 30 days. My phone's on 3 and I know that although we can only get 3G rather than 4G at work the signal is rock solid and my theory is that if you have to drum your fingers a bit whilst the regular internet is down it's better than nothing. I also realise that 12GB doesn't go far, but if we go into a failover situation it's easy enough to chuck a bunch of money on the SIM and keep the company going.
So, question, any other suggestions? To be fair, our ISP is normally pretty reliable but it's only when things go the way of the pear you realise it's important to have a Plan B..
Cheers,
Gaz
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