3-2-1 Three Sim In a MIFI

N-I-C-KN-I-C-K Posts: 3,268
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I've bought a Three MiFi and it comes with 1GB of data with expires in 30 days. Each time I want to topup, it only lasts 30 days.

Could I put in a pay as you go sim in, on the new 3-2-1 plan - topup £10 which would give me 1000mb of data (1p per mb), which would then last until I use all credit - the way im going to use it, 1000mb will last me 3-4 months.

Or would putting a 3-2-1 pay as you go sim in a mifi device be classed as tethering.

Comments

  • JustinThePubJustinThePub Posts: 3,521
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    its not allowed unfortunately. Thats what I want to do but Three say you can't.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    I remember the old PAYG sims where you could buy a bolt on for £5 within "my3" and get 2gb of data and they worked in Dongles. Hmmmm happy days.
  • ItsallaboutyouItsallaboutyou Posts: 1,306
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    Chris1973 wrote: »
    I remember the old PAYG sims where you could buy a bolt on for £5 within "my3" and get 2gb of data and they worked in Dongles. Hmmmm happy days.

    Can you still get the old sims and get away with it? My WHSmith has a few of the old ones.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    I was using one upto a few months ago, 'my3' still had the original tariff within the dashboard and allowed the £5 monthly data add on to be selected and used, so it looks like its still being allowed, (at least it was earlier in the year)

    Although this was an activated sim which was in use for a few years, whether they'd let a brand new sim be activated now and still use the old tariff I have no idea, but they do seem to appear on Ebay from time to time.

    Mine was one of the original ones, which came with £10 free credit, when Three were a new network!.
  • ItsallaboutyouItsallaboutyou Posts: 1,306
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    Chris1973 wrote: »
    I was using one upto a few months ago, 'my3' still had the original tariff within the dashboard and allowed the £5 monthly data add on to be selected and used, so it looks like its still being allowed, (at least it was earlier in the year)

    Although this was an activated sim which was in use for a few years, whether they'd let a brand new sim be activated now and still use the old tariff I have no idea, but they do seem to appear on Ebay from time to time.

    Mine was one of the original ones, which came with £10 free credit, when Three were a new network!.

    I have noticed that myself Chris1973. I wouldn't dare buy one off EBay with the credit, could be a scam.

    I might try it, failing that it's a good back up sim, and I do have a good backup 3G phone as emergencies.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    I have noticed that myself Chris1973. I wouldn't dare buy one off EBay with the credit, could be a scam.

    Even if it wasn't a scam, if it has never been activated the sim may have been expired or revert to the current PAYG tariff as the genuine ones date back to at least 2010, I got mine in the Spring of 2010

    If you can't justify the current unlimited data tariffs then £5 for a 2gb data use which can be used in phones, mi-fi, dongles etc still remains a very competitive deal, at least if you can get one of the old sims and they still work
  • heskethbangheskethbang Posts: 4,280
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    N-I-C-K wrote: »
    I've bought a Three MiFi and it comes with 1GB of data with expires in 30 days. Each time I want to topup, it only lasts 30 days.

    Could I put in a pay as you go sim in, on the new 3-2-1 plan - topup £10 which would give me 1000mb of data (1p per mb), which would then last until I use all credit - the way im going to use it, 1000mb will last me 3-4 months.

    Or would putting a 3-2-1 pay as you go sim in a mifi device be classed as tethering.

    Have you tried using the 3 data sims you can buy on amazon? I buy them for my iPad2 and they give you 3GB for 3months for about £11.00.
  • SkipTracerSkipTracer Posts: 2,959
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    if your making a Gb last 3 months have you thought about giving Sambamobile a try.

    It's easy to earn a Gig per month for just watching some ads.

    More than ITV give you who only give us SD pictures unless we subsribe.:D
  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    If a gigabyte is 10 quid and can last 3 months, perhaps it is worth just buying the 3GB mobile broadband SIMs of ebay. They are about 12 quid and last 3 months, and it doesn't matter what device you put them in.
    I have noticed that myself Chris1973. I wouldn't dare buy one off EBay with the credit, could be a scam.

    I might try it, failing that it's a good back up sim, and I do have a good backup 3G phone as emergencies.

    I've bought lots of SIMs from eBay but from reputable dealers who have loads of them to sell, not once have I been ripped off - the SIM is always sealed and unused and contains exactly what was promised.
  • SkipTracerSkipTracer Posts: 2,959
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    Out of interest has anybody applied for one of these sims?

    I put an order in last Monday and nothing heard since. Most networks I have applied to before get the sims back in one or two days. I only applied for sim only with no top up so I assume if I ordered one with a tenner on it, it would be delivered straight away.

    Just want to see if it’s any good and of course to see if they cut me off should I do a bit of tethering.:p:D

    If their a bit faster coming forward with a top up included I might re-apply but checking to see if anybody have actually managed to get a 3-2-1 sim only or sim plus top up from them.
  • Zee_BukhariZee_Bukhari Posts: 1,335
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    SkipTracer wrote: »
    Out of interest has anybody applied for one of these sims?

    I put an order in last Monday and nothing heard since. Most networks I have applied to before get the sims back in one or two days. I only applied for sim only with no top up so I assume if I ordered one with a tenner on it, it would be delivered straight away.

    Just want to see if it’s any good and of course to see if they cut me off should I do a bit of tethering.:p:D

    If their a bit faster coming forward with a top up included I might re-apply but checking to see if anybody have actually managed to get a 3-2-1 sim only or sim plus top up from them.

    I've ordered a sim card pay as you go from them before and it took about 2 days so last Monday maybe it got lost in the post. You could get one from your local mobile phone shop or reorder.
  • thebtmanthebtman Posts: 706
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    I've no idea why anyone wants to run a MiFi now when plenty of cheap wifi / tether capable phones exist...eg Alcatel OT 903.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    thebtman wrote: »
    I've no idea why anyone wants to run a MiFi now when plenty of cheap wifi / tether capable phones exist...eg Alcatel OT 903.

    A mobile broadband plan will use the 3broadband APN, will get a public IP, some say it's provisioned as broadband, so has a different capacity pool reserved on the cell network. Battery life and also my Three mifi comes with all sorts of settings for the wifi that you don't get on a phone.
  • thebtmanthebtman Posts: 706
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    A mobile broadband plan will use the 3broadband APN, will get a public IP, some say it's provisioned as broadband, so has a different capacity pool reserved on the cell network. Battery life and also my Three mifi comes with all sorts of settings for the wifi that you don't get on a phone.


    Are you saying better battery life, faster connection, more robust connection??

    And what kind of "settings" ?

    I'm getting 15Mbps - 18Mbps on Speedtest.net in a rural setting.....
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    thebtman wrote: »
    Are you saying better battery life, faster connection, more robust connection??

    And what kind of "settings" ?

    I'm getting 15Mbps - 18Mbps on Speedtest.net in a rural setting.....

    DHCP settings, firewall, port forwarding etc, you'll get a public IP using the correct mobile broadband APN and that means if you wanted to share something you can.

    If you're on a congested cell the tethering from a phone could get lower priority that the premium paid and specific mobile BB service. A couple of people that know a lot more than me have indicated that proper mobile broadband contracts and devices are given priority over tethering when the cell capacity is low.

    I have been able to replicate this in my cell, which gets congested and mobile BB gives me 10Mbps + but tethered on the phone very low speeds. Sometimes later the tether speeds will improve when the cell is less congested.

    After all you're paying more for specific mobile broadband with a 5, 10, 15 GB allowance, the unlimited tethering may get a lower priority on the network when resources are sparse.
  • thebtmanthebtman Posts: 706
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    DHCP settings, firewall, port forwarding etc, you'll get a public IP using the correct mobile broadband APN and that means if you wanted to share something you can.

    If you're on a congested cell the tethering from a phone could get lower priority that the premium paid and specific mobile BB service. A couple of people that know a lot more than me have indicated that proper mobile broadband contracts and devices are given priority over tethering when the cell capacity is low.

    I have been able to replicate this in my cell, which gets congested and mobile BB gives me 10Mbps + but tethered on the phone very low speeds. Sometimes later the tether speeds will improve when the cell is less congested.

    After all you're paying more for specific mobile broadband with a 5, 10, 15 GB allowance, the unlimited tethering may get a lower priority on the network when resources are sparse.

    I can do all that anyway. I use my tethering device for everything that I used to use landline broadband for (including occasionally bittorrent) and as I say I already get a much faster ul/dl rate than other rural people in the area.

    All I'm saying is that for most people (I have an unlimited all you can eat package) there is no need to buy a Mifi.

    You can see some of my speedtests at https://twitter.com/Rural3G
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    As it's rural there's probably less chance of cells getting overloaded. You may find it's a bit different in a more built up area. Good results though.
  • thebtmanthebtman Posts: 706
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    As it's rural there's probably less chance of cells getting overloaded. You may find it's a bit different in a more built up area. Good results though.

    Thanks :)

    And, isnt there a hack for Android APN...I know that there is a for a Jailbroken iOS device
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    Remember it's not just the APN, but whether the sim is registered as a mobile BB or a phone sim too.
  • SkipTracerSkipTracer Posts: 2,959
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    I've ordered a sim card pay as you go from them before and it took about 2 days so last Monday maybe it got lost in the post. You could get one from your local mobile phone shop or reorder.

    I re-order a sim yesterday and my original order came today, and I know it’s the original one and not the one from yesterday because it has a time stamp on the envelop from when I first ordered so it took 8 days all told. I did see when ordering the second time that it said it can take between 2 to 5 day’s.

    They also put an extra sim (for a friend) in the package and going by how long it took for the sim to register there must be a lot of punters apply for 3-2-1.

    It’s nice to see that 3 still give you a 150Mb free for each top up so another little bonus I was not expecting but it expires after 30 days so at least I can do some speed checks with this sim without charge.:)
  • thebtmanthebtman Posts: 706
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Remember it's not just the APN, but whether the sim is registered as a mobile BB or a phone sim too.


    Lol "remember", I didnt mention APN you did!

    Anyway I dont believe it. I think speed is dependent on device spec...DC or not DC and nothing to do with contract type.

    I think that is backed up by the kind of speeds I am getting.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    I've no idea why anyone wants to run a MiFi now when plenty of cheap wifi / tether capable phones exist...eg Alcatel OT 903.

    Perhaps to use two different networks for Data without having a dual sim phone. For example I have a virgin mobile sim in my phone, however in areas where virgin speeds are crap, I switch on '3' in the Mi-Fi and switch my phone to wi-fi.
  • JustinThePubJustinThePub Posts: 3,521
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    Chris1973 wrote: »
    Perhaps to use two different networks for Data without having a dual sim phone. For example I have a virgin mobile sim in my phone, however in areas where virgin speeds are crap, I switch on '3' in the Mi-Fi and switch my phone to wi-fi.

    Or if you already have a Mifi device.
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