Temp plan upgrade while tethering phone

[JamesBe_2251963]

Hi, I am moving home soon. It may take a couple of weeks to get Broadband installed, meanwhile I will have to use my Android phone as a Router. I currently have a 16GB plan and I realise I will use a lot more data when tethered, so I need to upgrade my Smarty plan for a month or so, trouble is I have absolutely no idea to what data level. Suggestions would be very welcome. I wonder if  I can find out what my usual data usage is with Virgin Media?

Thanks for any help,

Regards, Jim

[MSF]

@JamesBe_2251963 I would suggest that the simplest way would be to buy the Unlimited plan for the month.

Your current plan is £8 and the Unlimited would be £20 (you may see a deal by the time you want to buy) - in relation to the usual costs of moving home, that's quite small and would save you messing about getting data from the old broadband supplier (if they even make it readily available)

[JamesBe_2251963]

@MSF 

Thanks very much, MSF, I haven't checked but the unlimited plan would need to start some two weeks before the renewal of my current plan. I hope I can arrange this

[MSF]

@JamesBe_2251963 I suppose the worst case scenario would see you buying the Unlimited plan for a couple of months.

Given that you would be spending an extra £12 per month at worst, I guess that's cheaper than the cost of the broadband service you are having (admittedly maybe not as fast or reliable though).

[MSF]

@JamesBe_2251963  You should be able to stop the auto-renew and choose another plan quite easily in your Account Dashboard.

[JamesBe_2251963]

@MSF

Hi, I'm not worried about the cost all I want is to be able to access the internet, using my PC and my tethered mobile for a couple of weeks while I get a new ISP at my new address. My existing ISP does not serve the area I'm moving to.

[MSF]

@JamesBe_2251963  Of course, it will all depend upon the Smarty signal quality at your new home.

Just as an example, I normally have a fairly good signal at home and recently was on a long Zoom meeting when the home broadband went down. I was able to tether my computer to the mobile and carry on the meeting with no problems in quality.

Hopefully all will work out well for you.

[JamesBe_2251963]

Thanks, I haven't tethered phone before so I hope it works out too!

[MSF]

@JamesBe_2251963  It's worth trying that now, well before you want to rely on it.

If you tether for a short while and test out on a few internet pages, you should not eat through a vast amount of your current plan data. Just in case you are not aware, you'll need to allow the personal hotspot in your Settings or something similar for Android.

The Zoom meeting that I mentioned did use a lot of data over about 90mins (over 1Gb), but that is sending and receiving a lot of data

[JamesBe_2251963]

Yes, I'll check it out shortly

[Raymond_3171189]

The 30 day unlimited data add on is currently only £17 and would start almost immediately. 

[MSF]

@Raymond_3171189  Not if you buy it directly from the smarty website. Are you referring to a special offer somewhere?

If you currently have a plan, you can only upgrade when that plan expires - unless you decide to start a new sim with a different number, purely to use in a router.

[Raymond_3171189]

I believe  the problem is you wish to use your mobile for tethering temporarily but think you may run out of gyour 16GB data ?

A temporary solution would  be purchasing an unlimited data add-on.

This is currently £17 per month.

Although this would involve extra expenditure and still using your mobile for teathering .

It could be a resolution. And used as a temporary fix.

[MSF]

@Raymond_3171189  Apologies! I did not notice that you were talking about the add on - I misread that as a one month unlimited plan.