Free wireless internet and cheap 3G broadband article discussion

scooby32

Posted a while back looking for advice on mobile broadband. Went with vodaphone and after chatting to customer services they recommended for my use going with the cheaper option which was only a 12 month contract. At £15 with £90 quidco cashback validated now, It works out at £7.50 a month, The 3gb seems fine so far but will watch this and update to 5gb if req the signal has been great and so far bill spot on. Maybe its too soon ,but am pleasantly surprised. After 12 months will review the market but as its just for travelling away from home its ideal. I DONT work for them just thought it would be nice to post when something actually works out, which doesnt happen often

lyndhurst25

I was thinking of getting a Three PAYG mobile broadband modem. However, the article on mobile broadband says that the excess use charge for Three's PAYG service is £1024/GB (100x their normal data rate)! Is that correct?

Firstly, if it is that much, then surely that is an unfair and disproportionate penalty charge and could be challenged in the Courts, similar to unfair bank charges?

Secondly, if it is a PAYG service, how would they collect the penalty charge if you declined to top-up your account? Or do they keep hold of your bank / credit-card details and help themselves to the cash?

My idea of a PAYG service should be is that once your credit has expired then you are cut off until you top up and are not free to keep on using the service and accumulating penalty charges. That's the whole point of PAYG and is the way that it works for phones. If it realy is over £1000/GB for excess useage then that's a risk that I'm not prepared to take.

Can someone please clarify? Thanks.

mcascadd

Sorry if this has been dealt with before but I am looking to get an internet dongle (my contract for broadband is up at end of May and I don't want to get another contract as I may be moving!) and want to know where I can get the best deals. Ideally, I am looking at any company bar Orange (just had a run in with them over bills - still unresolved so don't want to be paying them more!!).

Also, I'm incredibly impatient so need a fairly fast connection and would download maybe an album/movie a month but not a lot more. Does anyone have any advice on where does the best deals??

Thanks!:j

laydee_2

We have the three mobile broadband £15/month deal, but may as well be throwing our money down the drain. The coverage site says that our signal should be 'good', but at most we get 2 out of 5 bars (which is rare) and it really can't handle even the most basic of internet uses. We don't even attempt iplayer or youtube. We are tied in for 18months, but if you ask me Three have already broken the contract by not providing any sort of a service. I don't think we can get out of the contract and I know that there are lots of people in this situation even in the 'Turbo Coverage' areas, perhaps because so many people are using it at the same time. Given the current financial times, it is especially painful to see no small amount of money being wasted each month.

If there's any way you can use regular landline broadband go with it - this is unbearable.

Plushchris

lyndhurst25 wrote: »

I was thinking of getting a Three PAYG mobile broadband modem. However, the article on mobile broadband says that the excess use charge for Three's PAYG service is £1024/GB (100x their normal data rate)! Is that correct?


Secondly, if it is a PAYG service, how would they collect the penalty charge if you declined to top-up your account? Or do they keep hold of your bank / credit-card details and help themselves to the cash?

My idea of a PAYG service should be is that once your credit has expired then you are cut off until you top up and are not free to keep on using the service and accumulating penalty charges. That's the whole point of PAYG and is the way that it works for phones. If it realy is over £1000/GB for excess useage then that's a risk that I'm not prepared to take.

Can someone please clarify? Thanks.

I was wondering exactly the same, how do they charge for you going over your allowance on PAYG?

If I buy a top up with cash how can they possible charge me for going over the allowance?

espresso

Plushchris wrote: »

I was wondering exactly the same, how do they charge for you going over your allowance on PAYG?

If I buy a top up with cash how can they possible charge me for going over the allowance?

No credit - no connection!

Plushchris

espresso wrote: »

No credit - no connection!

Exactly how I thought it would be.

Maybe Martin should change that article then, it says PAYG customers will be charged £1 per Mb if they go over their allowance but thats impossible.

Cloudane

Nice tip in the email. I've been pondering one of those Three dongles.

I noticed the guide here says "one per household" but the 3dongle4free.co.uk site says "one per applicant" suggesting it might be per named individual (I'm assuming they go by billing name and address, tied to the credit card for ID). Not sure if anyone has tried, but my dad is after one too and we'd both be legitimate paying customers so we'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.

As people have said, avoid Three for contracts, or if you want any kind of half decent support. I'm going for this deal because it's PAYG and I know what I'm doing and who I'm dealing with, and as it's a free dongle I don't stand to lose much if it's faulty or whatever. No way I'd get a contract though, they're almost impossible to cancel (I had to write a termination letter and send it recorded delivery when I cancelled my mobile contract with them, as they would NOT take 'no' for an answer over the phone).

Swampmonster

Plushchris wrote: »

Exactly how I thought it would be.

Maybe Martin should change that article then, it says PAYG customers will be charged £1 per Mb if they go over their allowance but thats impossible.

I just been checking through the T&C's for this and unless i'm having a blonde moment it seems right.

But how will they collect it?

Is there anyone who works for Three out there who knows the answer?

Thanks SM

Unhban

Another thing to watch with the 3 offer is that they supply a ZTE dongle, not the more popular Huawei.

The ZTE does not work with Linux (now that more and more are using Ubuntu which seems as good as Windows yet is free) unless you play around with files - the Huawei works out of the box with Linux. And as there are many Linux-based minibooks out now (ideal for broadband-on-the-go) the ZTE certainly won't work with those, whereas again the Huawei does.

Also, I too am perplexed how 3 can get money out of a PAYG unless you do have to give name/address/bank account for 'improper use' reasons? e.g. so the Police can see what you've been up to.... :eek:

Unh.