Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband

Compare pay as you go mobile broadband deals using the comparison table below. We compare and review the providers of pre pay mobile broadband in Ireland to make choosing the best provider for you a fast and simple experience. *Each of the packages below is based on a 30 day contract. Daily, weekly or "mini usage" packages are also available and detailed on each of the provider's Websites.

Contract
Pay&Go
Vodafone Pay as You Go Logo
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The most popular of the pre pay mobile broadband providers. This package offers a good download limit, great connection speed and all for a bargain price of up to €20 per top up, plus the one off cost of the dongle.

A speed of 7.2Mb is the fastest you will get with a pay as you go package.

The download limit on this pre paid mobile broadband package of 5GB means you have plenty for your internet needs.

Stick modems cost €19.99 and include €10 free credit. When choosing your mobile broadband provider, we suggest make your decision based on usage download limit and coverage.

At €20 per top up Vodafone offers great value when you consider that they have the best coverage.

O2 Pay as You Go Mobile Broadband Logo
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The 2nd most popular of the prepaid mobile broadband packages. Coverage is not far behind Vodafone and Three & O2 is a little cheaper. Plus you get €40 top up included with the €40 dongle so it offers great value for money.

A very respectable 7.2Mb means plenty of speed with this pay as you go mobile broadband deal from O2.

5Gb on this 30 day plan means lots of download limit here for you each month.

A modest upfront purchase cost for this prepaid dongle of €29, and then just €19.99 for further 30 day top ups. Additionally, you can buy the €40 dongle and get €40 of free credit!

Good value here at €19.99 per 30 day top up for 5GB, or €3.99 a day for 500MB.

3 Pre Pay Mobile Broadband
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3 claim a coverage of 96% of Ireland and so offer one of the best options for getting a fast 3G signal in rural areas. Additionally, 3 is known for great reliability, coverage and the fact that you almost always get your full connection speed.

7.2Mb is the standard but with 3 you do actually get all of that download speed. A fast and good value dongle if you want a pre pay option.

Plenty of usage allowance here with choices of 2GB, 6GB or 12GB and a range of top up options for flexibility.

There is an upfront cost for your dongle, starting at €29 which makes this dongle a bit expensive. But Three is known for outstanding quality and good network coverage.

With top ups costing up to €35 for a 30 day top up you pay a little more for your pre pay mobile broadband with Three, however there are a range of flexible top up options available.

Meteor Mobile Broadband Logo
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Meteor launched their mobile broadband products in 2009 making them the newest entrant to the mobile broadband market. Maybe as a result of this Meteor has limited 3G coverage and so definately the worst of the options in our view.

A connection speed of 7.2Mb can be achieved if you have a 3G signal but the very limited 3G coverage means you can expect much lower speeds in most areas. The E353 dongle offers up to 14.4Mbps but again this may be hard to achieve.

7.5Gb for your download usage each month means plenty of usage limit with this prepaid option, provided you opt for the 30 Day Pass top up.

There's a one off cost of between €9.99 and €49 depending on which USB stick you go for.

At €19.99 for 30 Days the top up charges are the same as Vodafone and O2 and cheaper than 3, but bear in mind connection speeds may not be reliable in your area.

Pre Pay Mobile Broadband Information

Compare Pre Pay Mobile Broadband

Prepay (or pay as you go as it is often called) mobile broadband offers great flexibility as you are not tied into any long contracts like you are with a contract mobile broadband package. Use the comparison table above to compare the different prepay packages that are offered by the different providers of pay as you go mobile broadband in Ireland.

Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband - What Top Up options are there?

With pay as you go mobile broadband you need to buy a prepaid dongle and then a "top up" package for the dongle to charge it up with download credit.

The prepay plans in the above comparison table are all based on the 30 day option that each of the providers offers. It is also possible to get shorter top up packages:

Vodafone offers a daily top up with 500Mb allowance for €3 per top up and a weekly  2Gb weekly top up option for €10 in addition to the 30 day 5Gb payg option that we review above.

O2 offers a daily top up card with a 500Mb usage allowance for €3.99 per day as well as the 5Gb 30 day top up option that we review above.

3 offers a prepay daily top up card as well as the 30 day top up that we review above. The daily card is available with either a 500Mb (€3 per top up) or a 2Gb (€10) usage. 3 also offers a 20Gb usage option on its 30 day package which is priced at €35 per top up.

Meteor offers a 500Mb daily top up in addition to the 5Gb 30 day top up option that we review in the comparison table above.

As you can see there are a number of options available when you are looking for payg mobile broadband. Take a little time to review and compare the various prepay options available in order to select the package that suits your needs best.

Pre pay mobile broadband means that you can enjoy mobile broadband internet access but without any contractual ties to the service provider. With a pay monthly mobile broadband package you are generally tied in for a period of 12 months. O2 does offer shorter contract terms of 3 months and 6 months. But with a pay as you go package you are not tied at all. This means that you have total flexibility and convenience.

Using Pay as You Go Mobile Broadband

All of the top up cards do have an expiry date so you do need to watch out for that. The most popular option is the 30 day or "Monthly" top up card but as we detail above there are daily and weekly options that are available. The down side with these pay as you go top up cards for mobile broadband is that if you do not use all of your usage allowance within the prescribed period you will lose it as the top up "expires".

Once a card expires or you use all of the credit on the card if you want more internet access using your internet dongle then you can buy a new top up card to re charge your broadband dongle with credit. You can get your top ups online so that you do not have to wait and can get further mobile broadband access immediately.