3 Mobile Broadband Premium

cj2011

Hello

Does anybody know if it's possible to use a so called 'premium' dongle from 3 with a standard mobile broadband contract? I assume that the fast dongle does work but will the dongle somehow 'know' that I'm on the cheap tariff and thus give me the slow speeds?

I am currently on a standard mobile broadband contract with 3 but I am extremely dissatisfied with the speeds and the unreliability of the service (it keeps cutting out randomly) so would like to know if upgrading the dongle to one that can handle faster speeds might solve the problem.

chanz4

as far as I know its just a dongle

Im_just_careful

I would say that getting another dongle is extremely unlikely to solve your problem.

Your problem is likely to be either

1) Poor reception

2) Too many people using your local cell or some other part of the 3 infrastructure

3) Unrealistic expectations based on marketing hype.

There is little to be done about 2 or 3 but if you buy something that allows your dongle to be placed in an area of better reception (by a window/upstairs) that might help.

If uou want the easy fix buy a MiFi on e-bay, try that and see if it helps, if not sell it again.

cj2011

Im_just_careful wrote: »

3) Unrealistic expectations based on marketing hype.

That's a bit rude. I expect to be able to stay online and not get disconnected randomly while I'm in the middle of something. How is that not realistic? I'm paying £15 a month for this so I'm expecting it to do the job.

What marketing hype btw? I haven't seen the standard dongle advertised anywhere (as I said I've got the regular one, and I'm not happy with the service).

cj2011

chanz4 wrote: »

as far as I know its just a dongle

Do you mean that the 'premium' dongle is exactly the same as the regular dongle, only with a different name (and slightly tweaked design)? Have you used the 'premium' one then?

Kernel_Sanders

cj2011 wrote: »

That's a bit rude. .

No it's not, he is criticising the ISPs.
To answer your original point, 3's prices are based on volume, not speed (unlike Virgin cable). You can put your b/b SIM into whatever dongle you like.

PlutoinCapricorn

I bought one of these on eBay. I could not see any difference at first, but it worked much better when I got a new laptop with Windows 7.

However, although it seems faster when it works well, I still get disconnections and this morning I couldn't connect at all for more than one hour.