Samba Mobile Broadband - Is it Really Free?

Mernerva

r1skbreak3r wrote: »

I've had one of their sims for a while now - there seem to be loads of ads available, I let them run in the background when I'm at work and can build up over 100Mb/day usually, which is fine for me as I only tend to use it when I'm away at a hotel. I've tried the sim in an ipad, PS Vita and android phone and had no problems with any of them. At the moment I've left it in the cheap Galaxy Europa that 3 gave me when I renewed my contract and will use tethering to make it like a Mifi device.

It really works in a vita?

harrym1byt

harrym1byt wrote: »

Just trying to find out how these ads work....

By 8pm yesterday I had exhausted the ads, but a few more became available a little after midnight, so I was able to increase my credit to 220Mb.

This morning, there were another 32 which boosted my credit to 332Mb.

For interest - now upto 454.5Mb aquired via home broadband, still waiting for delivery of the SIMs, I ordered one standard + one micro at a pound each using a promo code of 'BG1'.

Some of the ads you have to click through, the 'Wales' one for instance - you have to click on the small running ad to pop up a larger ad window or you get no credit.

harrym1byt

My micro SIM and Standard SIMs turned up this morning, and they connected without any isues. Speed was extremely good using my unlocked Voda dongle and better than my paid for Voda SIM. The ads seem to load as quickly via the dongle, as via my home broadband and they do not charge against the gained data credit.

Since my last report, I have now got 556Mb of credit. What seems to work best for getting the credit, is to log in twice a day and exhaust all of the ads offered. Be wary of the Wales ad and the Lynx ad - you have to click through those to gain your credit and there may be others..

luci

harrym1byt wrote: »

My micro SIM and Standard SIMs turned up this morning, and they connected without any isues. Speed was extremely good using my unlocked Voda dongle and better than my paid for Voda SIM. The ads seem to load as quickly via the dongle, as via my home broadband and they do not charge against the gained data credit.

Since my last report, I have now got 556Mb of credit. What seems to work best for getting the credit, is to log in twice a day and exhaust all of the ads offered. Be wary of the Wales ad and the Lynx ad - you have to click through those to gain your credit and there may be others..

Give it time. The data you use watching ads will come off your earned credit eventually once they get the details of your usage from 3.

cinereus

Inigo_Montoya wrote: »

From the date you first connect to the network

So you can order 6 and keep them in a drawer until you need them?

Unfortunately there's a major bug in their address recognition which is preventing me ordering any SIMs! I've been on the phone to them for an hour and nobody wants to fix it...

harrym1byt

luci wrote: »

Give it time. The data you use watching ads will come off your earned credit eventually once they get the details of your usage from 3.

It seems you are correct and contrary to what they suggest... My 556Mb dropped to 529.4 as a result of using it for a few ads. - so pretty useless unless you build credit up on your home broadband before needing it. What happened to the Samba rep in this forum?

Blue_Max

cinereus wrote: »

So you can order 6 and keep them in a drawer until you need them?

Unfortunately there's a major bug in their address recognition which is preventing me ordering any SIMs! I've been on the phone to them for an hour and nobody wants to fix it...

SIMs have been known to expire after some months, even if not activated.
Could not find anything specific about this in 3's T&C about their 'SIM Only PAYG + 1 GB'

Blue_Max

harrym1byt wrote: »

It seems you are correct and contrary to what they suggest... My 556Mb dropped to 529.4 as a result of using it for a few ads. - so pretty useless unless you build credit up on your home broadband before needing it. What happened to the Samba rep in this forum?

data drain occurs when connected to the internet. This has been discussed in the Samba forum and in this thread. There is also a post by the Samba rep. Scroll up and see posts 279, 280 and 281

Having experienced this loss myself, I now use only a normal BB.

harrym1byt

Blue_Max wrote: »

data drain occurs when connected to the internet. This has been discussed in the Samba forum and in this thread. There is also a post by the Samba rep. Scroll up and see posts 279, 280 and 281

Having experienced this loss myself, I now use only a normal BB.

I had already read that. All I had running was the browser downloading the ads, I made a point of shutting down all other processes. The point is that the net effect of downloading the ads was a loss of 26Mb of credit.

Inigo_Montoya

cinereus wrote: »

So you can order 6 and keep them in a drawer until you need them?

Unfortunately there's a major bug in their address recognition which is preventing me ordering any SIMs! I've been on the phone to them for an hour and nobody wants to fix it...

There will almost certainly be a strict limit on how many you can order in a given time period but I do not know what that limit is for Three

Also theres always the distinct possibility the cashback will not be paid out if you start ordering multiple SIMs as its really only meant for new & not repeat customers

I have ordered 2 as I want to see if the 2nd order cashback goes payable - it would get very expensive if you ordered a lot of them & only the first order cashback was paid out

I do not know how long the SIMs will last without being activated so personally I'm just going to order them as needed especially as there will be a limit on the number ordered for a given delivery address