SIM card for house alarm

Author
Discussion

audi321

Original Poster:

5,207 posts

214 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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Hi all. It’s literally been 20 years since I’ve had any knowledge of PAYG type sims.

Is there anything around that is designed for one off uses whereby the credit doesn’t expire?

It’s for a new house alarm which will text me when it’s triggered.

Thanks all for any advice.

Defcon5

6,186 posts

192 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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H3G ones won’t expire for a long time, even without it sending anything.

OldGermanHeaps

3,842 posts

179 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
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h3g ones wont work unless the panel supports 3g, if the network detects it has been put in a 2g only device it will block it until it goes into a 3g capable device, 3 dont own 2g infrastructure. so it would be permanently roaming and costing them money.
o2 used to last ages, but that was a long time ago, I have fitted nothing but csl m2m contract sims for quite a while in intruder and wardencall gear. 3 payg is good for cctv though in a 4g router.
Google prepay m2m sims and see what you find.

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Saturday 19th January 22:00

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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I use a Giffgaff SIM . All I have to do is either get it to text me ( I just text it with a status request) or call me on e every 6 months. I top it up with a tenner once or twice a year if I forget the text thing.

theaxe

3,560 posts

223 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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100% use ThingsMobile. I use mine on the house alarm (a few SMS messages a month) and I've used a few pence of the initial £10 top up over 3 months.

The web console is also really good for monitoring usage as they're designed for thousands of IoT devices, but overkill for my purposes.

Also, they're not locked to any network and so just pick whatever is strongest.

richatnort

3,029 posts

132 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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I know this maybe a stupid thing but my alarm relies on a phone line to call out but is there anyway of plugging a phone line into a sim card type device so I don't need a phone line cable running round my house

audi321

Original Poster:

5,207 posts

214 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
quotequote all
Thanks all.

I’ve gone with Asda in the end as their PAYG credit never expires providing you make one call or text every 6 months (I’ll set a phone reminder to set my alarm off).

s2kjock

1,692 posts

148 months

Sunday 20th January 2019
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RogerDodger said:
I use a Giffgaff SIM . All I have to do is either get it to text me ( I just text it with a status request)
How do you do that? My father has a similar SIM as a backup in his dual SIM phone, but explaining to him over the phone how to change default SIM temporarily is very painful!

If I could get his phone to respond to my text once every 6 months it would be much easier.


Somebody

1,193 posts

84 months

Monday 21st January 2019
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How much data would it consume per month? You can have a free Three SIM with 200MB of data free here: https://www.three.co.uk/Free_SIM_MBB/Order

or if texts only then Three 321 PAYG with credits lasting forever and costs 2p per text

Edited by Somebody on Monday 21st January 13:45

RammyMP

6,785 posts

154 months

Monday 21st January 2019
quotequote all
s2kjock said:
RogerDodger said:
I use a Giffgaff SIM . All I have to do is either get it to text me ( I just text it with a status request)
How do you do that? My father has a similar SIM as a backup in his dual SIM phone, but explaining to him over the phone how to change default SIM temporarily is very painful!

If I could get his phone to respond to my text once every 6 months it would be much easier.
I used a Giffgaff sim in my cellular controlled gates, Giffgaff cut it off and told me their sims are only to be used in phones. I then got a Vodafone sim and never had a problem.

anonymous-user

55 months

Monday 21st January 2019
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O2 classic sim may suit

OldGermanHeaps

3,842 posts

179 months

Monday 21st January 2019
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richatnort said:
I know this maybe a stupid thing but my alarm relies on a phone line to call out but is there anyway of plugging a phone line into a sim card type device so I don't need a phone line cable running round my house
fixed cellular terminal, or dect landline extension

Riley Blue

20,986 posts

227 months

audi321

Original Poster:

5,207 posts

214 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
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Riley Blue said:
Not bad but must top up every 120 days with £10

was8v

1,937 posts

196 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
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I recently setup an EE sim like this.

Just ring their support line before you top it up, speak to an advisor, say you want old school pay and go, not any of their "packs".

Then I think you need to use it at least once every 3 months.

Prices here https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/help-pdfs/ee-...