New Three Internet "Hi-Speed" Dongles

bobobop

Has anybody tried the new Three dongles on offer with this apparent speed upgrade? I work a lot out in the field and need a decent connection for on the road but don't know whether it's worth upgrading from Vodafone or not. Im quite privacy concious so use Tor for most of my sites. Will this affect it in way? I just need it to speed up! Cheers in advance.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I changed from a failing old E220 modem - one of the first ones, I think, to an E367

The download went from about 2.9Mbps to 5.4Mbps and the upstream from 0.8Mbps to 1.5Mbps.

PlutoinCapricorn

Mark, do you think that they would work with a prepaid SIM?

I have an E156G dongle at the moment, and I am very satisfied with what I have, but your post has made me think of upgrading.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I'm not sure I know what you mean by "prepaid SIM" - ours is a PAYG one, so when it runs out I top it up online - 7GB for £25 which lasts for 30 days. Which is about how long it takes us to use it. We previously used to pay something like £14/mo line rental and then another £25/mo on top for Zen ADSL which could only do 1.7Mbps thanks to a poor quality phone line.

There are contracts - think there's a 15GB/mo one - but when I looked, the contract lengths were ludicrous (2 years) and since I only use it in one location - as our primary internet connection at home - in theory the cell we connect to could be retired and I'd be stuck with the thing for a long time and unable to use it.

The old E220 got slower and slower and died altogether in the end. I thought this was contention, but 3 assured me that it wasn't, so I paid the 69.99 for the new modem and it flies along. Compared with the ADSL, anyway..

prowla

Based on my experience, it's a bonus if the 3 "mobile" internet works at all!

PlutoinCapricorn

You can get a dongle/SIM prepaid kit: the SIM has an allowance of 1/3/12 gb on it, and expires either when the data is used up or after 1/3/12 months.

Three expect you to start topping up once the allowances expires, but it is possible to get more prepaid SIMs from Amazon and eBay and just replace the used-up SIM. The cost is much cheaper than top-ups, although the prices have risen recently. This could be because of people on MSE who are passing on this information!

I have 2 dongles that I bought in 2009, a lot of used up SIMs and some stock of SIMs with a prepaid allowance on them. I thought that I was fixed up, but now I am tempted.

Prowla, I have been extremely lucky with 3 mobile BB: it works very well for me, in many places.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Ah, I see

As long as it's a Three MBB SIM I guess this would work. The new modem came with a SIM preloaded with 1GB which I forgot about until the last batch of data expired and I was able to swap out the SIM and use that up.

If it's not a Three MBB SIM (e.g. it's a phone SIM) I believe Three have found a way to block that now, so it won't work in a dongle (though it will work in a phone)

bobobop

Cheers people think I may get one but can I just buy a generic hi-speed device that would give me the speeds they advertise? Or does it depend on the sim, I really don't want to have get a contract with them!

Mark_In_Hampshire

The E367 modem I have is 69.99 from Three directly if you buy it as new

No contract required

Actually just having looked, it's half price now

http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/?payg=1&intid=3mainmbbmbr121

However check the coverage map on their website first for the place(s) you intend using it, and do check you can return it if it doesn't work out - whether or not it achieves those speeds, indeed whether it's actually usable, really depends on where you are

PlutoinCapricorn

Mark, do you happen to know whether SKYPE works and is permitted on normal 3 mobile BB? If so, would it be much better using a new premium dongle?

Mark_In_Hampshire

I have a feeling the Ts and Cs might forbid the use of VOIP services but that said, we did use Skype at one point a year or so back and it was fine, and we use Sipgate now which also works fine.

It can be a bit latent/laggy but then I've always found that to be the case with VOIP on any internet connection.

The ping times are consistently lower on the new modem but again that said, the old one was failing anyway.