Free wireless internet and cheap 3G broadband article discussion

kwikbreaks

Cashback rates can change on a daily basis. If you don't see it (and I don't either on Quidco which looks like it's only £5 at the moment) then you were too late. It may return of course. Then again the £5 may vanish too.

chris1973

One word of warning if you are considering signing up for a contract to any of the providers. Bear in mind the nature and shortfalls of the mobile network in general. This means that the quality and stability of any signal will be dependent on several factors, including the distance from the nearest mast, the geographical location of you in relation to the mast, the output power of the mast, plus any surrounding hills, trees, large structures and even the thickness of walls and metal content in any building where you intend to connect!.

In other words, the situation is highly variable and pardon the pun - Mobile.

Also don't take for granted that just because you may have a wonderful signal and service today, that it will be the same tomorrow. Networks are continuously rolling out, and coverage is supposedly being improved, but don't immediately think that any future changes to the network will always benefit you - sometimes masts can be relocated to another area, or the owner of the building or land can change and permission for a mast be retracted by existing or new building owners where they are currently situated. There are even rumours circulating that masts in some areas are simply being de-commissioned never to be replaced, essentially leaving an entire area without a signal, where previously there was one!.

I am speaking from some experience of this. I signed up for a '3UK' 3 Broadband service, at the start the service was excellent, 5 bars of signal strength and unbroken HSDPA high speed connection (which got me about 400 - 500kps in practice). Then on 12th May, for some reason, there was work carried out on the mast, and since then, there has been no 3uk 3G coverage in my local area whatsoever, just as if the switch as been thrown.

Had a have signed up for a long term contract, then basically I would be committed to spending £xx a month for a service I can no longer receive, fortunately, i'm on PAYG so i'm free to move around and change networks as I wish.

However this is a stark example of how volatile and variable the networks are, or at least 3uk!. So if you have a signal and usable service today, be thankful because it may not be there tomorrow and it may be days, weeks or months before it comes back, if it does at ALL.

So personally, I wouldn't recommend that anybody considers anything but PAYG or a short 30 day contract before throughly testing the service, connection speed and general satisfaction. You wouldn't buy a car or take a holiday without doing the research would you?, so why not try before you buy with PAYG before committing to Mobile Broadband, because its not the same nor as stable as conventiona landline broadband.

Of course, this is more relevant if you only intend to connect from home or one or two 'regular' locations. If you travel around a lot then you are less likely to be affected by loss of signal or no coverage in one single area. However if you do intend to use it at home / work in place of regular broadband, then it is highly relevant, and you should at least test the service and connection first, with the smallest PAYG top up possible.

At least on PAYG, if it all goes belly up then all you have lost is the £10 or £15 top up, not 12, 18 or 24 months paying for a service you cannot connect too, or which is not 3G, but 2G which is slower than I remember 56k dial up being in 1997 and not something I would willingly pay £10 - £30 a month for

Omega_1

Can anyone advise how I can use my netbook in menorca avoiding eating into my UK allowance and subsequent extortionate roaming etc charges ? As wi-fi hotspots are so few and far between (if you can even find one) then can I buy an unlocked dongle and am I then able to buy a spanish PAYG Data sim on its own when out there ?

TRICIA2753

Omega_1 wrote: »

Can anyone advise how I can use my netbook in menorca avoiding eating into my UK allowance and subsequent extortionate roaming etc charges ? As wi-fi hotspots are so few and far between (if you can even find one) then can I buy an unlocked dongle and am I then able to buy a spanish PAYG Data sim on its own when out there ?

I will bump this thread up as
I too am interested in this as I am about to go to Ireland even though they have a sister comapny there I am with "3" it still costs £125 mb have tried to get some info from the "3" customer service but they say they dont have "3" over there but I have seen it for myself on a search but they say no what can I do? would appreciate some help on this thanks Tricia

cliffh

Hi all.

in the article when it talks about PAYG Broadband on 3 it states:

"There's one major major caveat though; to get anything like the full value of your top-up, you must convert it to an 'add-on', using the my 3 service online. Otherwise, you'll be charged £1 per MB you use - that's just 10MB from a £10 top-up, or 100th of the 1GB you paid for. The conversion process is quite simple (here's Three's guide), though it's irksome to do it each time you top up. You can avoid it entirely by taking out a 30-day rolling contract instead, which costs the same."

I've tried finding out more information on exactly HOW to do this as I've just spent £40 on top-ups as it sounds like I've not been getting the best value for money (I've just been topping up without converting to the 'add-on' as I can't find step-by-step instructions for doing so).

Is there someone that does it this way that could help me please?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

S0litaire

Cliffh
do you register your topup's on the PC or mobile?
Think there's an option when you register the topup on the PC to buy an "Add-on" rather than add to your balance.
I've not used the payg system for a while so not 100% sure

cliffh

Hi Sol,

I've got a MiFi dongle and I've been doing it through my PC. I don't see anywhere the option for buying/ converting the Top Up as an Add-On (I do see this option for Texts). More than a little confused :-(

Donnie

If you re using a mobile telephone SIM:


Has a FUP of 500MB

With a modem:



Perhaps you can purchase via the Interface:

cliffh

Maybe I'm getting confused here and the reason I'm not seeing the Add-on for data is I'm using a data SIM. Can anyone else with one of these please clarify?

Donnie

cliffh wrote: »

Maybe I'm getting confused here and the reason I'm not seeing the Add-on for data is I'm using a data SIM. Can anyone else with one of these please clarify?

Buying a top-up at My3

Before you can access the internet you need to top-up your dongle or wireless modem. To know how much top-up credit to buy you first need to select how much data you think you’ll want.

500MB of data: £2
1GB of data: £10
3GB of data: £15
7GB of data: £25

My3 then lets you top-up quickly and securely. Start off by going to http://three.co.uk/My3

Alternative: http://www.three.co.uk/topupmbb

Buying a top-up at the shops

Before you can access the internet you need to top-up your dongle or wireless modem. To know how much top-up credit to buy you first need to select how much data you think you’ll want.

1GB of data: £10
3GB of data: £15
7GB of data: £25

Look here for more info.