Bargain mobile broadband from 3 - £7.50 a month with free modem!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

How about this for a bargain?

5 GB per month Mobile Broadband from 3, on an 18 month contract with a free dongle, for only £7.50 per month!

Pretty amazing I reckon, and impulse-buy-tastic i've ordered one for myself, lol! :D

6 different modems are available, click one of the following links for details:

Modem: 3 USB Stick Modem Black

Modem: 3 USB Stick Modem White

Modem: 3 USB Modem (Hauwei E220 While)

Modem: ZTE USB Modem

Modem: 3 USB E160 Stick Modem Black

Modem: 3 USB E160 Stick Modem White

I went for the bottom one (3 USB E160 Stick Modem White), and my order has been processed for dispatch already. Nice! :D

P

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

IIRC the Huwai E220 can easily be firmware unlocked / upgraded to 7.2 capability. '3' can't do this speed though. The ZTE modem can't be firmware upgraded ( actually I'm sure it can - but there are no files out there yet)

If you look hard enough the ZTE black and Huwai E220 are available new on PAYG with three for about £30 on Fleabay. Any danger of a similar sim-only tariff from three then if I've already got a modem?..

M.S

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Probably your best bet would be signing up and ebaying the modem?

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Seems the Hauwei E160G can do 7.2!

P

[Guest hotphil]

Ooooh. It would almost be rude not to get one of these, yes?

Can anyone save me the hassle of reading the specs and highlight the differences between the models available? I'd be using an XP machine.

Edited July 22, 2008 by hotphil

[Guest Dr Who]

Anyone have any info on which of these modems is the 'best'? Probably most important factor would be signal strength as opposed to portability, so perhaps the E220?

I am buying this for the mother-in-law and although I am fairly sure that there is no way she could get anywhere near 5Gb a month in normal use I am slightly concerned that no matter how secure I have made the laptop she might still be able to join a bot-net. So, what happens when you reach the 5Gb limit? Do they throttle? Cut you off? Or do you get stung £1/Mb?

[Guest Confucious]

18 Month contract puts me off a bit - not sure I'd actually use it -but at that price... Soooo tempting.

Why did you go for the E160 Paul? Rather than the E169G which, for some reason, I thought was better (not sure why)

[Guest NikLP]

Note that these items are all marked "This offer is available until 31st July 2008"!

Also, I researched this a little the other day (hoping to find this very offer which I knew had been offered to a friend) and discovered lots of people being mis-sold 3 mobile broadband and that the coverage has been deemed "questionable" or "unusable" in certain areas.

I would probably buy this regardless if I could only get my hands on an Eee 901 :D

[Guest Mark]

I just bought one of these... I ran into trouble as I live in a pub and the website wouldn't allow me to select it as it is classed as a business premises.

After calling I was advised to just select another address in my postcode then give them the reference number so they could change it....

I'm presuming the credit check went through as I have had an email to say its been processed! :D

[Guest Confucious]

Recommend a friend and as a thank you we'll credit each of you with up to £45 on your bill

We're always thinking up ways of saying thank you for being with 3. In fact, our appreciation knows (almost) no bounds. Which is why we're giving you the opportunity to benefit from sharing your network with a friend. Or three.

You can't put a price on friendship

(Actually you can. £45)

Love your network? Love your trusted, old friends? Why not bring them together?

Here's why it could be good for you:

Recommend a friend to 3 and, as a thank you from us, you'll both get some credit on your account. If your friend goes for a phone you both get £30 credit. If they go for Mobile Broadband, you both get £15. And if they choose both, that's £45 each. Nice.

C

[Guest hotphil]

Note that these items are all marked "This offer is available until 31st July 2008"!

Could they be clearing stock for newer 7.2 "out the box" models ?

[Guest Confucious]

On Three's phones they text you and tell you to stop using it and if you don't they block you for the rest of the month - nt sure how it works with these though.

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

Seems the Hauwei E160G can do 7.2!

P

Three can't...(yet)

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_s...tion_speeds.omp

"When mobile companies talk about 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps they are referring to these theoretical maximum speeds, not speeds you can actually experience ? that's why at 3, we say "up to 2.8 Mbps", even though our HSDPA Network has a theoretical maximum speed of 3.6 Mbps. But your distance from a mobile mast, trees and other buildings between you and the mast, and the number of users can all influence the speed you experience. Most people on our HSDPA Network can expect a speed ranging from 1Mbps to 1.5 Mbps, allowing you to download a 3-4 minute music track in 30 seconds or less. "

M.S

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I bought the white one for all the right reasons: it'll match my white wind nicely when I get it :D

I had a Huawei modem before and was happy with it, and it does 7.2, so all good!

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Three can't...(yet)

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_s...tion_speeds.omp

"When mobile companies talk about 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps they are referring to these theoretical maximum speeds, not speeds you can actually experience ? that's why at 3, we say "up to 2.8 Mbps", even though our HSDPA Network has a theoretical maximum speed of 3.6 Mbps. But your distance from a mobile mast, trees and other buildings between you and the mast, and the number of users can all influence the speed you experience. Most people on our HSDPA Network can expect a speed ranging from 1Mbps to 1.5 Mbps, allowing you to download a 3-4 minute music track in 30 seconds or less. "

M.S

Oh yeah, that's fine :D

P

[Guest Confucious]

The '3 USB Stick Modem White' is the E169G I believe - and it's also white....

[Guest Dr Who]

On Three's phones they text you and tell you to stop using it and if you don't they block you for the rest of the month - nt sure how it works with these though.

Cheers Confucious. If its just a block then a don't mind, but since it will be paid for out of my account I am keen not to have any Vodafone style charging applied.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Hmmm, yeah, the first white one is the 169G.

Wonder if I should have gone for that one instead, lol!

P

[Guest Confucious]

Hopefully it's just a block - it is on the phones.

Just checked http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/view.do?id=462 and the E160 isn't listed . The E169G has a microSD card slot and is Quad band for GPRS.

Does anyone know if you can get voice/texts added?

How do you find this from Three's site, I can't! If I get a 'recommend a friend' I think you have to get to it from their site...

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

OK, so it looks like the E160 is the one with the microSD slot!

From 3:

Huawei E160G Stick USB Modem

Get freedom from wires and hotspots and super quick access to the Internet and your email. Our hottest new dongle comes in black and white, and has a MicroSD memory card slot, so it can double up as a memory stick.

The E160G is an even simpler plug and play dongle, as it’s preloaded with the new Birdstep dashboard, which gives you a link from their desktop straight through to My3 and a broadband dashboard which automatically updates itself to a new version when available.

Everything auto-installs so you get on the web even quicker than before. And when you're in a Turbo Network you can get broadband internet access speeds of up to 3.6MBps.

To use your sleek Stick USB Modem you'll need a few things. Your computer or laptop needs a minimum of 50MB hard disk space, 1 free USB port, a Windows 2000, XP, Vista or and Mac OSX operating system. And the great user-friendly Modem Manager interface not only manages your connection, it displays all the messages you receive on your mobile broadband number. You can even reply to your text messages while logged in.

Nice! Found a use for my 8GB micro now I have a Diamond :D

P

[Guest Dr Who]

How about this for a bargain?

5 GB per month Mobile Broadband from 3, on an 18 month contract with a free dongle, for only £7.50 per month!

Pretty amazing I reckon, and impulse-buy-tastic i've ordered one for myself, lol! :D

P

I assume you are not an existing 3 customer, or if you are you didn't input your number at any point in the buying process? Just been in an online chat with one of their support agents who seems to think I need to be an existing customer. Since I got all the way through the process up to hitting purchase I suspect they are wrong, but thought I would check. Actually I was trying to get the out-of-bundle costs from them and they suggested it was 10p/Mb over 5Gb. Not sure I believe that either.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I am not an existing customer (except on PAYG), and I didn't put any details in to that effect at any point.

P

[Guest Dr Who]

I am not an existing customer (except on PAYG), and I didn't put any details in to that effect at any point.

P

As I suspected. How did you find the offer BTW? Can't get to it through the main site as far as I can see.

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

A mate pinged it to me on IM!

P

[Guest Confucious]

Does he get cashback for having his linkid in there? If not, I think I'll remove the ids before ordering (if I do)