3 mobile broadband

fayraz

I have been with 3 for a month now on their £15 p/m plan and it has been brilliant. I always connect with HSPDA and get speeds at around 1MB, make sure you are in a "Turbo" area to take full advantage because otherwise you will be connecting with 3G or even worse GPRS.

For general web surfing its briilliant but if your a constant downloader don't bother the other thing I noticed is that when I place the modem next to the window I get even faster speeds.

JKB_3

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

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Hmmm, 3 network....?

As per my post above I have a Nokia N95 on o2 which I use as a modem on my laptop. Obviously dependant on where I am, when I get a 3G connection it is pretty good. However on 56K all it is good for is downloading email, which can be slow - but I have never had a problem with dropping the connection.

I was with 3 a few years ago, just on a PAYG deal, and there customer service was dire. One of the few good things about o2, is their customer services are UK based.

I've got a Nokia N73 on Vodafone which I've used for the same purpose in the past, but the cost is prohibitive. My monthly bill after checking my mail this way for a fortnight (logging on for perhaps ten minutes per day) was over £150! talking to Vodafone about it suggested they might have a more suitable tariff coming along but it didn't materialise.

JKB_3

fayraz wrote: »

I have been with 3 for a month now on their £15 p/m plan and it has been brilliant. I always connect with HSPDA and get speeds at around 1MB, make sure you are in a "Turbo" area to take full advantage because otherwise you will be connecting with 3G or even worse GPRS.

For general web surfing its briilliant but if your a constant downloader don't bother the other thing I noticed is that when I place the modem next to the window I get even faster speeds.

So the system *can* work, then? That's encouraging. I wouldn't discount the possibility that I've done something wrong with the installation, but as far as I can see there isn't much to do apart from plug the modem in and let it get on with it.
I'm on Windows XP as my operating system, do you mind telling me what you're using? I believe the modem's compatible with XP, but confirmation would be useful.
I suppose it's always possble that my modem is faulty.....

inmypocketnottheirs

JKB wrote: »

I've got a Nokia N73 on Vodafone which I've used for the same purpose in the past, but the cost is prohibitive. My monthly bill after checking my mail this way for a fortnight (logging on for perhaps ten minutes per day) was over £150! talking to Vodafone about it suggested they might have a more suitable tariff coming along but it didn't materialise.

Yes 'willy nilly' access without a data tariff is horrendously expensive. o2 have just released a new tariff (as recently as in the last 6 weeks) I pay £7.50 a month on top of my bundle for unlimited access (subject to a fair usage policy up to 200 MB - how is that unlimited?). Also T mobile do their web n walk tariff at the same price,so it is only a matter of time until voda catch on too. Either that or port your existing number over to o2 or T Mobile. I am actually on line now with laptop via N95 with a speed of 115.2 kbps and it is actually quite quick!

vertical_fool

Hi all.

I was looking into the three mobile broadband for £25 when I started looking on Ebay for the value of the USB modem. I came across a link which I think was just selling Three sim cards stating that you can then pay £5 a month add on for unlimited internet access?

How does this work?

What is the cost?

How fast is it?

What limits are imposed?

Any help will be greatfully appreciated as I expect would many others interested in this form of Broadband. Maybe just for a trial before getting the contract if it works out to be better?

Thanks

Vertical

Hopefullyuseful1

Hi,

A bit of useful info for you on our Vodafone data charges. These have been changed recently and offer even better value now. First of all, our datacard broadband package is now only £25.00 per month for unlimited access subject to fair usage of 3gig, that's pretty competitive for broadband that can be used on the move in the UK.

Our standard mobile internet data charging has changed too, we now offer a monthly data pack for £7.50 for 120 mb per month which may be increased at some stage dependant on what happens during this introductory period as it's quite new.

For customers who use up all of their 120 mb allowance with a data pack or customers who have no data pack at all, we introduced a new daily rate charging system. It works like this.

Standard charging would normally be £2.00 per megabyte, however with daily rate, as soon as you hit £1.00 of data charges in a day (0.5mb), we stop charging you until you reach 15mb of data that day. This means you get 15mb of data for only £1.00. If you went over the 15mb, which is quite difficult to do on a mobile I would add, then you'd simply pay £2.00 for each subsequent mb after that. This would then start again the next day and another 15mb for that £1.00.

If you use less than £1.00 worth of data, so less than 0.5mb then you're charged the equivalent charge, i.e 0.25 mb of data would be charged as £0.50p.

Hope this helps. You can get more information about data charging on the Vodafone website by clicking here.

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafone UK

fayraz

JKB wrote: »

So the system *can* work, then? That's encouraging. I wouldn't discount the possibility that I've done something wrong with the installation, but as far as I can see there isn't much to do apart from plug the modem in and let it get on with it.
I'm on Windows XP as my operating system, do you mind telling me what you're using? I believe the modem's compatible with XP, but confirmation would be useful.
I suppose it's always possble that my modem is faulty.....

All you have to do is plug the modem in and it wait for a few minutes for it to install its drivers and a small application, which allows you to connect and disconnect from the internet and also shows other statistics like signal strength and the amount of data transferred.

I am currently using it now and just done a speed test and this is what I got:



I think it's pretty good for surfing, do a speed test JKB and post the results, it will be interesting to see what speeds you are hitting; I am in Shipley at the moment.

fayraz

Have a look here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=590072; I am on the 3 deal and have posted my speed results and comments.

Can you post the link for the 3 sim card that states this because I have found loads for Vodafone and they state you buy the sim card and have to pay £1 per day for 0.5MB allowance.

JKB_3

fayraz wrote: »

All you have to do is plug the modem in and it wait for a few minutes for it to install its drivers and a small application, which allows you to connect and disconnect from the internet and also shows other statistics like signal strength and the amount of data transferred.

I am currently using it now and just done a speed test and this is what I got:



I think it's pretty good for surfing, do a speed test JKB and post the results, it will be interesting to see what speeds you are hitting; I am in Shipley at the moment.

A good illustration of how bad things are; I couldn't even open the Speedtest.net website ::-(
I've just tried a reinstall, but no noticeable change. I wonder if my Karma could stand a call to 3's Customer Services?

fayraz

JKB wrote: »

A good illustration of how bad things are; I couldn't even open the Speedtest.net website ::-(
I've just tried a reinstall, but no noticeable change. I wonder if my Karma could stand a call to 3's Customer Services?

Which area are you in?