Travel Technology - UK Wireless PC Card Rental?

I don't know if anyone here will be able to answer this, but I figured I needed to start somewhere.

I recently got a Verizon Wireless PC Card. It slips into the PCMCIA slot of my laptop and I love it! I no longer have to deal with "hotspots", bad hotel broadband and most importantly, I can use it on the train, etc.

So, here is the question. I am travelling to the UK in a couple of weeks and I wondered if anyone knows of a company that rents wireless PC cards that will work in the UK (the one I have does not). I really don't want to purchase a card nor do I want to subscribe to a service that I will only use once or twice a year.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I havent heard of a service that rents them here - usually people coming from the US rent them over there, in my experience. I think Verizon has such a service if I'm not mistaken.

If your search for a renting service doesn't prove fruitful, I actually have a 3G/EDGE/GPS laptop datacard that I bought in advance of a move a move in May. If you need a card in London in April, I can rent it to you for the time you are here (using a pre-paid SIM that you would load as much or little as you like). Feel free to PM me if you want.

Thanks so much for the offer, but I am flying into Glasgow and will only be in Scotland on this trip. I had been looking over the Verizon website and I think I may have to stop into a Verizon store tomorrow and see what they may know about rentals. I had tried one Verizon shop a couple of weeks ago and was met with some VERY blank stares when I asked them about global cards!! Thank you again for the offer.....you have just got to love the flyertalk community!

I doubt Verizon will know much about intl. data, they have a hard enough time comprehending intl. phone calls.

If it is REALLY important:

http://www.cellhire.com/services/int_data/european_data_cc.htm

But you may be better off using a prepaid cellphone and tethering to your notebook. I'm fairly sure most operators in the UK now have some form of prepaid 3G data access. I'll look into this and get back to you!

Orange have something they call "Mobile Office PAYC" (pay as you consume) which is essentially a prepaid 3G data card service. It's meant to be £1.00 per MB of data and the card costs £68.08.

If I were you I'd make the call to Orange in the UK to verify that it is indeed contract free and you can signup as a non UK resident.

The page is here:

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/yourplan/mocplan

Thank you for the suggestions! I am going to go with Cellhire for this trip and while I am there check out Orange and see what I might be able to set up for the future that is more economical. I travel to the UK at least a couple of times a year for usually a couple of weeks at a time so it will probably be worth it for me to buy a card there and top up minutes as I need them. Thanks again for the ideas.

Orange have something they call "Mobile Office PAYC" (pay as you consume) which is essentially a prepaid 3G data card service. It's meant to be £1.00 per MB of data and the card costs £68.08.
If I were you I'd make the call to Orange in the UK to verify that it is indeed contract free and you can signup as a non UK resident.
The page is here:
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/yourplan/mocplan

Intersting. I wanted to know more because £1/MB is a very good rate and I hadnt heard of this.

However, that page you linked doesnt work. You have to start at the orange UK home page, then go to their Orange Business shop, then click on mobile phones, then lcik on data cards, then click on Buy -at which point you see the plans, uncluding this one.

I callled Orange UK business sales at 0800 079 2000 and the rep said you have to set up an Orange Business account to use that plan. So you must have a UK address and pass a credit check on it.

It gets more interesting though: Orange is basically offering an unlocked Sierra 850 card for £49 - if you are a verifiable UK business.

How it works is this: if you pass the credit check, you get a SIM and the data card and orange software. You pay £49 for this. You sign up to a "12 month contract" that seems to me is basically a sham to pump up their subscriber numbers - ther eis no monthly fee on this plan. You just pay £1/MB for UK data usage and £6.50/MB for data usage elsewhere in Europe.

However the card ( a Sierra Wireless 850 card rebadged for Orange) is unlocked. So as long as you have a SIM for any other provider in the UK or abroad - and the relvant PC software from that provider, you can use the data card with them.

Sierra's website has the generic PC software for this card up on it - and a couple of provider specific ones.

You can call Orange cust service at 079 73 100 150 for more specifics on the settings etc.

Very interestng one.... Thanks for the link. May sell my card and buy this one instead.

Most providers have some form of deposit system in place for people that can't pass their credit check. I know in the US it can be as high as $500, most providers I dealt with in Europe would accept anyone with a form of deposit.