Three (3) Mobile Internet

otester

A

alipops1986 wrote: »

Hello All,

I've had a 3 dongle [USB] for about a yr now and never really had any issues with it - found it fast and 99% of the time reliable.

However, the last 3-4 days it seems to drop in signal, as soon as the ickle world on the computers on my laptop which shows i'm online goes, it stops loading pages. The only option then is disconnect and reconnect.

Today, I had enough and phoned 3 to complain. The bloke on the technical help desk wasn't sure what the problem was as my connection on my laptop shows it's at it's highest and the local connection is the best you can get, apparently.

So, I shall have to wait until some1 from technical support rings me back in the next 24-48hrs. A little annoyed as i'm normally such a huge supporter of 3 internet!

*sighs*

Probably a faulty mast, either that or they have removed your local one (mast merge) happened to me so I left them.

epm-84

alipops1986 wrote: »

However, the last 3-4 days it seems to drop in signal, as soon as the ickle world on the computers on my laptop which shows i'm online goes, it stops loading pages. The only option then is disconnect and reconnect.

I'm in a different part of the country and have seen huge drops in speed using 3 mobile internet since Saturday, so slow that it can take 5 minutes to load a single page if indeed it does load. The signal strength is there but the speed is not. The email technical support has gone from a 48 hour response to a 10 day response, which suggests Three are having huge problems at the moment.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Could be a faulty cell if it used to work OK before.

We've used Three 3G for 3.5 years as our primary internet connection, as it's much faster than ADSL is here (1.7Mbps) and we can't get cable.

It has run faithfully at 2 to 3meg for that time up til recently when it fell to bits. I assumed contention. They said try a new modem. So I went and bought one (an E367).

The speeds have now shot up to 5 or 6meg down and 1.5meg up, but it does take a little work with the new modem to get it facing just the right way.

We're in a rural area so contention isn't something I have to endure (I guess, which is why I get most of the speed the cell can offer up)

If I'd started out trying O2 or T-Mobile I'd have concluded that 3G was pants and unworkable because despite having an apparent fair signal the performance is nearly useless. Move a mile up the road and that situation could reverse. That's why the money back guarantee is pretty essential.

If you live in an urban area - especially edge of town where 3G is basically the only broadband option because the phone lines are long/rubbish then I'm betting the contention as people move over to 3G will be a killer in those areas and ADSL will remain the best option if it's usable.

You may find this interesting
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/05/26/ofcom-reveals-uk-average-mobile-broadband-speeds-of-just-1-5mbps.html

johnbhoy10

Hi there-

I bought a 3 dongle in CPW over a month ago. It's on PAYG and was 1GB usage or 30 days whatever comes first. Bought as a back-up internet connection and has being mostly fine.

Here's my query-the 30 days expired at the start of the week so i thought that's that then for that sim. However, i tried it today for a laugh and i'm still getting online with it. I am actually using it just now. Also if go to my 3 and check my balance it shows as zero balance?? Not complaining really but has anyone else had this???

Also i will need to get a top-up sim. Can anyone suggest a good seller of these. I think Amazon were doing a 3GB a couple of months ago for about £7/8 or something like that but missed out on that one. Would be looking at the 1GB//30 days or 3GB/90 day sims but nothing more than that.

ps-forgot to add that there was probably still about 0.5GB left on it but was obviously aware when the 30 days were up that was it. Don't know if that's why i'm still getting even though i know i'm not meant to.

thanks

Catnapper

I've had a 3 dongle for about 18 months and it worked fine up to about three months ago, when speeds dropped and there were frequent dropouts, at the same location I've used all the time.
At times, it's unusable.
I've read elsewhere that 3 is allocating a lot of its bandwith to roaming mobile phone data use and that dongle users are being throttled which, at the price I pay, is unacceptable.

Mark_In_Hampshire

@Catnapper - identical situation here and I moaned to Three about their "All you can Eat" plan thinking that this had caused contention to the point where the service was unusable and unreliable.

They reassured me three times that there are no capacity issues. So given it has worked well for 3 years and the alternatives (ADSL @ 1.5Mbps, T-Mobile @ 1Mbps, O2 @ 2.8Mbps which wanders in and out, no cable) I forked out the 70 quid for the E367 and I also bought an Edimax 3G router.

It seems to get quicker each day Speed tests are 5 to 6 meg down 1.5 meg up.

That's with the modem in the identical location to before albeit I played around with the direction to maximise the speed a bit as it makes a difference.

So while I thought Three were lying through their teeth about contention and couldn't really see how a USB modem without moving parts can "fail" in fact Three were truthful and these modems do die. I still wonder how and why.