Are so-called HSDPA 3.5G Sim cards a Con?

point3

Is there any difference between a 'standard' 3G sim card and one labelled as a 'HSDPA' or '3G Broadband' sim card? A number of comments on various fora would suggest not, yet there are a number of Ebay sellers who insist that there is a difference and are charging £5 for a sim card that other sellers are offering for 99p for 2

The packaging looks identical. The sim cards look identical and work in exactly the same way - I can't get either to connect yet at HSDPA speeds

Are we being ripped off, 'cos we don't know any better? Please discuss.

d123

there are no differences in the sims (definitely not, with a T-Mobile or 3UK sim), any sim in an HSDPA handset will give HSDPA speed, and if you put the "HSDPA" sim from Ebay in a non-HSDPA phone you will either get normal UMTS or GPRS speed, depending on handset.

point3

Thanks for the reply.

Yep, I do believe this to be the case with Vodafone as well. I confirmed instore that the only difference between a standard Vodafone PAYG 3G sim card and one set up for data transfer via a broadband modem is that the broadband sim card is already set up with the £20 3G per month data tariff. This requires a direct debit to be set up, but the payments are still on a PAYG basis. Vodafone were perfectly happy to set this up instore.

Interesting you should say 3UK sim cards are identical too - I spoke to a young girl instore who said that she didn't know, but she thought they were different

Please, do not buy the "special" HSDPA broadband sim cards on Ebay - they are no different from standard 3G sims. The only thing that may need to be changed is the tariff

d123

point3 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.



Interesting you should say 3UK sim cards are identical too - I spoke to a young girl instore who said that she didn't know, but she thought they were different

I have a 3UK PAYG sim, had it for some time too, long before HSDPA was even in use and when I put it in my N95 it runs at HSDPA speed and has the 3.5G icon on screen, to confirm the connection.

Browntoa

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point3

Oh, Browntoa

I though this question was most relevant to the Internet discussion thread, as this was about getting a sim only deal for mobile broadband for your laptop or PC

Browntoa

I'm not sure but thought this was either a better home, or techie if you want

Hopefullyuseful1

Hello everyone.

There is no such thing as a HSDPA SIM and 3G SIM.

HSDPA and 3G is a variant of the network. You can put any SIM card into you handset and as long as the phone supports the service and there's network availability you can connect using either method.

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafne UK

diamonds

^ there is on Orange

littlewhitey

And on O2 .. T-Mobile and Vodafone allow any sim to use either GSM or UMTS/HSDPA though.

diamonds

at least o2 upgrade you to 3G sim on request, Orange dont which when you have a K800i and most your local CELLS are 3G as numerous old broken 2G ones are being replaced with 3G, its f'in stupid