The EE Buzzard (Part 2)

Having used this for a few days it seems fine.

The "generic" administration window seems to come up if it thinks you are on a mobile browser. If it thinks you are on a desktop computer (correctly or not) it gives a "lightly branded" EE desktop.

The whole business of finding out how much data you have left seems slightly hit and miss, although this is essentially an EE problem not specific to the EE Buzzard.

Either in the car or used with a different power supply (for example a "Juice Pack" or USB charger) it works well in a hotel room or (subject to coverage) on a train.

The Huawei E8278 AKA EE Buzzard In Car WiFi (part 1)

This looked interesting when first advertised but was a bit pricy. Some months later EE are launching/have launched the EE Buzzard 2 (which is physically more of an "In Car WiFi" but arguably less generally useful) and the first model is/was available from Amazon for £30.

It comes in a plastic container which is cup holder sized (more of a marketing gimmick than a practical way of storing it) containing a car lighter socket to USB adaptor, the WiFi modem itself and a SIM card and instructions (in the bottom).

Ignoring for a moment the "in car" aspect, plugged into a USB power supply, it makes a reasonable WiFi hotspot. If you want the hotspot portable use a "juice pack" such as a Nokia DC-16.

If you put EE's supplied SIM in it (or a similar one bought from Amazon or Argos) it works straight away.

There is a simple (and it seems not operator modified) management page at 192.168.1.1 with login and password of "admin" by default. The o2 version (not sold for in car use) seems heavily o2 branded.

I've yet to experiment with another operator's SIM in it (and with EE doing good deals at the moment for 3 months of PAYG 4G) I've no reason to do so but initial impressions are good.