[BMR]

Hi all, can anyone help me? I'm looking to get Three PAYG mobile broadband, but have 3 () questions.

1) You pay £10 for 1 gig, I believe. If you've used this before the month is up, does it cut you off (that's what I want so I can keep track). Can you then buy another gig for £10?

2)"1GB of data lets you:
Send 650 plain text emails AND surf the web for 30 hours AND download 30 two minute videos AND download 60 music tracks."

I only surf. What does 1 gig equate to in terms of pure websurfing?

3) What speed do you get on the regular 2 and 3 g networks?

many thanks in advance

[Mr Cable]

Hello!

Hopefully this goes some way to answering your questions;

1) They don't cut you off, they continue the serivce but take it out of your credit at £1 per mb. If you don't have any credit, I guess it'd stop.

2) If you mean 'Pure' web surfing, with little youtube, music & stuff - then 1Gb should be more than enough.

3) In 3.5G areas you get Up To 2.8Mb. In 3G areas 384kb. In 2G Areas around 30-50k (but a couple of times that if the Orange Cell you are using has EDGE enabled).

[BMR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Cable

Hello!

Hopefully this goes some way to answering your questions;

It does , apart from question 1)

Quote:

1) They don't cut you off, they continue the serivce but take it out of your credit at £1 per mb. If you don't have any credit, I guess it'd stop.

So if I got cut off, and topped up by £10 at this point, would they then start taking it off me at £1 a mb ( ) or would I be given a fresh gig's worth?



Is anyone here actually on the service? Is it a suitable replacement for a landline?

[Mr Cable]

Well, for pay monthly customers with the Add Broadband add-ons they start being charged (the much smaller rate of 10p per Mb) once they go over their quota.

It's the responsibility of the Customer to ensure they have chosen the correct package.

To be fair to 3, they do have an excellent 'My 3' feature which shows you how much data you have left.

All I would say is if anyone ever planned to do more than fairly basic browsing - with a smidge of multimedia - then they should consider more traditional BB methods.

[BMR]

I've currently got a landline with dial up (yes, I know!) so I'm really looking to compare it with that. I currently pay 12.50 a month for dialup and 11 quid for the landline which I don't use for calls really.

[wavejockglw]

In Scotland we have HSDPA on the 3 network but it's far far less than the 2.8Mbs they state as the maximum potential download speed.

I have checked it when in good coverage with www.speedtest.net using Maidenhead as the ping target and the best 3 have managed is about 700Kbs download and 150Kbs upload.

The above is not too bad and proably as much as you need for browsing but there is an issue with lag to 3's DNS which seems to stall for lengthy periods before loading sites.

It's come a long way but it's no substiute for landline hard wired broadband. As a mobile service for those who need access on laptops it's useable where there is coverage.

[surfsnake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMR

It does , apart from question 1)


So if I got cut off, and topped up by £10 at this point, would they then start taking it off me at £1 a mb ( ) or would I be given a fresh gig's worth?



Is anyone here actually on the service? Is it a suitable replacement for a landline?

EDIT...... Sorry, just seen that question is regarding PAYG service and not contract.... my comments don't apply for the most part!!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________



They DON'T cut you off.... your £10 plan allows you to a data limit of 1GB. If you exceed this you are charged for anything in excess of that.

I personally went for the £15 / 3GB package as it gave me PLENTY to spare in my data limit. So far, 10 days into the usage, I have used 2.8 gig out of my 3 gig limit (according to the "My 3" website.

In my area (Southend-on-Sea), the "Turbo" network has not yet arrived and yet I still manage to get HSDPA coverage... maximum dowload speed achieved so far has been 924kb/s which I don't think I used to get on a "2MB" wired broadband package.

Personally for me, without a home phone package, this is ideal but I realise it's maybe not a direct replacement for "proper" home broadband.

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Last edited by surfsnake : 11-12-2007 at 13:40. Reason: Re-read OP question!

[markrduk]

How can they charge you at £1 per megabyte if you have no money on it though? This is the one thing I don't understand!

[koantemplation]

I'm with 3 Mobile PAYG BB. When you add another topup, it gets queued onto your data allowance and doesnt become active until your first topup has been used up.
Im not sure what happens if you use up your allowance. But I got a warning email when it got low.