I've just had to cancel mine for the same reason as Paul.

I thought it would work using Orange but apparently not. This did take the operator nearly half an hour to work out though! I dunno what coverage map he was looking at though... lol

I would guess that for a lot of people that is a bonus - no roaming means no extortionate costs.

It isn't roaming - with Three's phones when they can't get a 3G signal they fall back to 2G just like any other operators - but as Three don't have a 2G network they 'piggyback' on Orange's which Three pay Orange for but the end user doesn't.

And i'm guessing that Orange would charge 3 a fair bit if you used all of your 5gb allowance!

I'm guessing 3 got a better deal from Orange than they used to get when they used o2 as their backup network.

can any of you answer a few questions to a newbie on this sort of stuff. I never really use "mobile internet" as i have free data on my phone and have wireless broadband in my house but: im going to uni in a month or so, would the 3 deal be suitable for reading web pages and downloading the odd song and getting emails etc as if i want broadband in my house next year im gonna have to pay £120 for BT to fit a phone line.

Also, i know i can use my SPV M700 as a modem for my laptop, will i incur any data charges from Orange for doing this and if so how much?

I'll be going to uni at the end of september, and will most likely be using a mobile data connection - the 3 stick shoul be good for standard internet browsing like you describe.

I have web 'n' walk standard on my TyTN II which gives me a gig of HSDPA access, but considering I get through about 6-700mb of data just on my phone every month, I think I'll be going either for one of the big 7 or 10gb/month packages or the three pay as you package that gives you 12/24gb to use at any timeyou feel like within 12/24 months respectively.

The only thing putting me off 3 at the moment is that they only have 3.6mb/s support, and I'd quite like the higher potential speed to eek as much speed as possible out of the connection.

The only other thing I'm annoyed about is that I don't want an 18 or 24 month contract for the damn thing, considering I will only be at uni for 9 months...I know you can get 12 month contracts, but that isn't really the point...

As Three's speeds are slow anyway I wouldn't worry about the lack of 7.2mb/s. Make sure you have Three 3G coverage and it should be OK for casual use but I wouldn't expect blistering speeds. If you want the fastest then you need T-Mobile or possibly Voda if they have coverage.

Thanks for that conf'.

I'll be in the centre of birmingham (Aston Uni), I don't know about Eric, which basically means the network doesn't make a difference to me.

However, T-Mobiles mobileinternet tariffs are, at the moment, utterly terrible (£44 quid a month for 10gb if you don't want a minimum term of more than 12 months!), but vodafone will only let me have 5gb (i think)....so its a bit of a catch 22 unfortunately

T's website is £35 on a 12 month mobile braodband for 10gb? Here

ooh so it is

slightly more tempting....still overpriced though i think - though i spose i'd possibly be able to get some money off for being an existing customer

My brother has recently taken out that very plan, as his new house is a none TW/Virgin Media area, and as the last occupant had cut the BT lines into the house on the outer wall when fitting new UPVC windows, BT wanted to charge him a silly amount, just to have the existing line re-connected and ran into the house.

So he (read had me do it for him) shopped around looking at the current Mobile Broadband deals, and checked signal strength for web browsing via the rest of our clan, and our T-Mob, Orange, and O2 phones and Internet connection at his home.

He found (ok I found) T-Mobile to be the best mix of coverage and speed for him, as well as a more reasonable 10GB usage limit.

So he went for said package above, and has been plenty happy with it, it can be reported here.


Best advice I can give though, albeit just a snapshot, but I would advise anyone considering mobile broadband, for use also as their home access, to get friends on various networks with 3G to come and actually TRY their internet on their phone, at their home address.

You could even briefly go against the usual Terms and Conditions, and tether the phone to the laptop and see how it runs via the laptop, if you really want to test it. Only problem there is, a lot of people find tethering a phone with 3G/3.5G can provide very different and poorer results to actual real mobile broadband sticks, for some reason. Additionally, even tethering a phone varies, such as whether you use Nokia PC suite, or the new Nokia "Connect via Mobile" tool, which seems slower than standard PC Suite tethering.

But certainly, at least test the SIGNAL strength/reliability, at your home address, by inviting a friend to come with their handset, before choosing ANY form of Mobile Broadband!

Good advice from Shad (as usual) - it might be worth seeing if you can get by with 3Gb (download large files at T-Mobs WiFi Hotspots?). 3Gb is quite a lot - mind you, if you can get through 6-700Mb on your phone, maybe not....

Mine arrived yesterday and have just installed it, drivers didn't install properly first time but after a reboot and re-running the set up they did.
Speeds are not blisteringly fast but are fast enought for most things - I've disabled my WiFi and am now only connected via Three


I might just keep it and chuck the SIM in my Athena and keep the stick for emergencies...

Just run the speed test again and got so it does vary - but is acceptable for me. Just such a shame it doesn't have a 2G network to back it up.

On the speed front, it wasn't many years ago everyone was getting 512Mb broadband but it wasn't available in my village so I was still using ISDN at 64kb/s (you could double up but had to pay the ISP twice and as I was already paying something like £70/month...) so 1Meg OTA for £7.50/month is pretty good

Update to my above post about T-Mobile 12 month 10GB £35 a month.

I've today been informed by my brother that he is NOT actually on that package. As when he went on to place the order, he was asked which package from a range of options, that he wanted. And when he mentioned the 12 month deal, he was asked did he not want to save money (per month of course, not over the duration) by going for an 18 or 24 month deal instead.

When he mentioned the T-Mobile site doesn't mention any 18 month deals, the girl said they do offer them. So he had a chat with her, and ended up electing for:

18 Month deal, 3GB Data Allowance, for £15 a month. Also including Wi-Fi Hotspots, on the faster speed USB stick. Forgot to ask him if there was a fee for the faster rated stick, as opposed to the slower modem adaptor, so I will update here once I check with him.

Overall, this sounds a much better deal for him, as Facebook and Email are his primary uses of the net (he's a Boy in Blue, so not likely to be hitting Torrentz any time).

And for large downloads he needs, he can use good old Ronald MacD's or one of the inclusive wi-fi Hotspots it comes with.

So as the link to the page included by the posters above don't mention 18 month deals, though thinking back, I remember reading up on them myself SOMEWHERE, then bear this in mind, if you are after a lower cost option folks.

They also offer the 10GB on the 18 month deal, if you need the higher allowance.

Footnote/Useful Advice: The two modems offered by T-Mobile... ONLY the dark coloured USB STICK will give you the higher speed of 7.2Mbps and HSDPA and HSUPA. The white cheaper adaptor only offers 1.8Mbps max speed and no HSUPA. Bear this in mind folks, as it's a heck of a lot more than a cosmetic decision you make!

Can't really complain about that speed. I'm guessing you supposed to be covered by their "Turbo" network? Can anyone post any other tests from other networks?

Does anyone know if the 'distance selling directive' applies to this kind of purchase.

If one signs up for the 18 month contract and gets a modem, and then finds that the reception is poor where they need to use it most - would you be able to cancel the contract and return the modem within 7 days?

I've tried asking three, but their online chat is busy...

You get 14 days to return it so long as you have not used the data SIM for more than 3 consecutive days. according to their T&C

OK - Using my T SIM in my Three data stick I only get about 380K - I'm right on the boarder of HSDPA coverage from T here - I'll have to give it a go at work where I have T HSDPA coverage.
What's the best speed checker to use on a phone (as it doesn't have Flash I cant use speedtest.net)? I used to know one but can't find it!

I tried putting my Three SIM in my Athena and it works fine but won't change to 2G so I tried it in my C600 and it says invalid SIM so it looks like the SIM is defiantly 3G only and not the data stick.

I've yet to find an area that doesn't have 3G for T-Mobile to try it in!

Try this one:

http://text.dslreports.com/mspeed