New E71 and broadband dongle

Three gadgets in two weeks! After some considerable time chewing over the various options for connectivity I had been failing to figure out the right combination of phone, tariff, signal at work & sensible fair use. That was until a friend at work lent me his 3 broadband dongle. I’d seen these but not given much thought to how they work. What he showed me was that they have a sim inside. Importantly a sim which can just as easily go in a phone and provide a 3g connection to that.

So I tried it in my Nokia E61. And I found something else out…I get a signal at my desk, and at several key places at work (e.g. the coffee bar)

With the sim in my phone I can run JoikuSpot which uses the wifi to create an ad-hoc hotspot that uses the 3g connection to provide data access.

And with that I can connect anything, and importantly my N810. And even more importantly, do so anywhere I get a 3g signal.

The broadband dongle plans also start at 1G cap, and fair use is not restricted to basic browsing. After all they expect you to use it with a computer.

So I went to the 3 site…and then talked myself into looking at the E71… On a basic plan for £20 a month with no upfront cost. Plus the broadband dongle is then half price.

And that clinched it, so now I have a shiny new Nokia E71 and a 3G dongle I can use either directly with my laptop or put the sim in either of my E series phones. So £25 a month is a little more that I initially wanted to spend. But I’ve got a combination that is right for me. When Nokia finally bring out the next internet tablet with 3g support, I can pop my sim in that…

Next thing is probably to buy JoikuSpot pro (I’ve been using the ‘lite’ edition to prove it works)

As for how awesome my new E71 is… I’ll write about it next week, after a full week of using it.

It’s time to try my new connections on a trip…off to Southampton I think.