Staying in touch when sailing.

I had a pay as you go sim card with O2 until recently.  I need O2 'cause some of the other networks don't work round here.  I did a tot up of how much I was spending and was rather traumatised when I found it to be around the 140-160 pounds a year mark, not the £60 I had assumed.  One of the ads on another forum pointed me to Tesco's offer of a sim for £7.50 a month including 240 minutes and 5000 texts and they use the O2 network.  Yeah, 5000 texts: if I tried to use them up I would have RSI on the right thumb!  I confess I snapped their corporate hands off and my number was transferred on the day they said so so far so good.  The O2 network was good around the islands and Scotland and the only reason I had to go for a 3 dongle was 02 wouldn't sell me one 'cause my address was iffy as I live on a boat.  Probably something to do with anti-terrorism even though you can get a payg with no address!  I'm not a fan of Tesco but I think they are here to stay but let's hope they don't rule the world and I still haven't got a clubcard so there.

I bought a 3 dongle and added data when I needed it for the 100 day trip and the coverage was good all around Scotland and the UK east coast.  The only dull area being the NW coast of Scotland, it was somewhat intermittent there but locals say it is the same for other networks.  I have just found out that 3 now do a fast dongle with multi user access (15Gb/m) for £15.  That is getting to be cheaper than a land line.