For the last few weeks I’ve been testing the new 3 mobile broadband service.
For anyone not familiar with mobile broadband, it offers broadband internet without the need for your laptop or PC to be connected to a landline or wireless hot spot.
In theory this means you can get internet access wherever you take your laptop. If you just want to use the dongle at home on a regular PC you can do that too. You just plug a small USB device, called a dongle, into your laptop and you get instant broadband internet access.
Inside the box you get the USB dongle modem, sim card, user guide, USB cable and warranty card. All the necessary PC/Mac drivers are included inside the dongle – no installation CD is required.
The dongle is a very simple device that is easy to use. The dongle has a small compartment inside where you attach a sim card, similar to how a sim card slots into a mobile phone. To start using the dongle you attach it to a USB port on your laptop, the dongle comes with a USB cable if it is not practical to plug the dongle directly into a USB port on your laptop.
Once the dongle is plugged into a USB port it will automatically install the necessary software and then you’re ready to connect to the internet. I was impressed how easy the setup process was. There is no messing around having to use a installation CD to install drivers, all the necessary software is installed straight from the dongle. It truly is a plug and play device.
The broadband speeds you get with the dongle depend on where you live in the UK. According to the 3 web site you can get speeds of up to 2.8Mb, but that is dependant on living in an area where turbo coverage is available.
I tested the dongle out in 3 separate locations in the South of England and was only ever able to achieve a connection speed of 56k. It certainly brought back memories of my old 56k modem I used back in the mid 1990s. 56k is painfully slow.
I’ve read several reports of people getting far better connection speeds than me, so there is definitely good speeds to be had out there, but it all depends on where you live. Turbo coverage is an on going development that will be further rolled out across the UK this year.
The 3 web site shows June 2008 as the next rollout date, but looking at the map there is still a lot of areas shown in white which suggests these areas won’t have turbo coverage this year.
Even though the connection speeds have been disappointing for me, the dongle is not a viable option for me right now; I am still impressed by the device. If the coverage was better in my area I would definitely consider buying one. I don’t think it would make me use the internet more than I do now, but it would certainly offer the convenience of surfing the net when on the move.
I think mobile broadband is an interesting move by the mobile phone companies that has the potential to do well, especially when the turbo coverage matures.
My advice to anyone considering buying one is see if you can ask for a demo in a shop and make sure the connection speeds are good enough for you.
3 also offer a 14 day money back guarantee so if you do find yourself in an area where turbo coverage is not available then you have the option to return it.
There are some good deals with 3 currently if you fancy taking the plunge, especially when used in conjunction with one of their unlimited text plans. If you’re an exisiting 3 customer then you can take advantage of half price broadband until the end of April.
3 offer a choice of broadband packages, from casual users with a limit of 1Gb data allowance per month, up to 7Gb data allowance per month for more hungry users. That allowance might not be as high as some internet service providers offer, but it should be enough for most people, unless you download a lot of movies and music each month.
Overall the dongle is a nice device and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that I get turbo coverage soon.
Update: As of 1st May 2008 the price of the dongles has dropped from £99.99 to £49.99 for customers opting for PAYG. The dongle continues to be free for those opting for a monthly contract. The drop in price is welcome news. I think there is scope for the price to drop further. A further drop in price would make this a very attractive option for those living in a turbo coverage area.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 steve // Apr 29, 2008 at 12:03 am
Be very careful here, 3 (three) mobile have charged me an exorbitant amount for going over the monthly 3GB limit.They mislead me instore by saying this was not possible, and the customer “help” is dreadful, both on the Indian no-help line and instore (Eastbourne branch anyway). I was notified (by being sent 50 messages all at once!!) 2 days after allegedly going over my limit, and later told they couldnt contact me sooner as I hadn’t been online!!! Overall they charged me £39 for one month for allegedly using 3.3GB, just 10% over the 3GB, normally £15 a month, the 7GB bundle being £25. Normally I could only use less than 1GB, the download speed being so slow. Avoid if at all possible.Three 3 mobile internet is a disgraceful rip-off.
2 steve // Apr 30, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Furthermore, I have now been told by 3 that it is possible to cap your limit, after a return visit to the Eastbourne store, where the “manager” Darren said this was not possible (although the salesman originally told me I couldnt go over the £15 a month charge even if I tried) When I phoned him to tell him he said “we just sell the contracts the way we are told to by the company!!” Also T mobile internet do not charge you if you go over, just advise you as any decent company would, not sting you for £100 a GB “overuse”!!I would switch to them but I am stitched into an 18 month contract now, even though they signed me up under false pretenses…some urgent new legislation is needed because these companies are not fit to regulate themselves, and they are taking full advantage of the situation..
3 SteveG // May 31, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Well I just purchased one of these and tested out in a few locations. I do live in an HSDPA area and connect with 4 / 5 bars. However, running a speedtest then I am lucky to get 124Kbps download. So heavens knows how you get anywhere near the mythical 2.8Mbps - which I grant you is the published max - but I am still far from that. I can sometimes see a max burst speed of up to about 400 - 500Kbps but that is not maintained and generally speed is much lower. It took a good 10 minutes to download the accelerator file from 3 web site (about 1.5 MB I think)
I installed the 3 “accelerator” but that just tells me that service is unavailable all the time. So no progress there despite what it says on the 3 site.
I would call support but given previous experience of their Indian call centre then I do not think my blood pressure could cope with this.
May test some more but looks like a return job to me.
4 DaveFoster // Jun 4, 2008 at 9:29 am
Thanks for your reviews ! Coupled with my personal experience of very poor service from 3 I wont be bothering with this now.
5 Rich // Jun 5, 2008 at 2:03 am
using hspda three ‘mobile internet’ albeit via a nokia n95, consistently getting 1mbps or above in various speed tests (more consistent than my “2 mbit” virgin media cable connection!!!) absolutely fantastic in the north west (regular use in preston - liverpool - manchester region) and often used along m6 up to kendal, 8/10 its good value too … was a pain in november last year but since … bloody fantastic!
6 Dean // Jun 5, 2008 at 8:23 am
That’s consistent with the speeds I see. At home it only connects at 56k which is unusable, but at a friends house 8 miles away it connects at 3.6Mbps and various speed tests showed me getting 1Mbps.
7 Sean T // Jun 18, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I have 3 mobile broadband for about 3 months, i have had an excellent connection with it, can even use Xbox live on it with very little lag
only complaint is with the indian call centre, cant give you a straight answer, completely crap service, but as i have very little problems with it i have no reason to cancel
i use the 7gig limit, although i tend to use only 4 gb for internet usage a month and the rest i save for the odd download and xbox live for my kids
can undertand why others have had problems, but i havent up to now
8 Cloudstrife // Jun 20, 2008 at 10:13 am
2.8MB Speed? That’s a wow compared to the one available in the Philippines at 357 kbps! LOL
9 StiffyBiffy // Jun 21, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Just purchased a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle for my Mac OS X and am going through hell to try and find the drivers for it, i didnt get supplied a disk and the mac software isnt on the dongle. im starting to regret this buy already.
10 Dean // Jun 22, 2008 at 9:00 am
You need to download the Mac OSX software from the three web site. It is not on the dongle as you mention. Here is the link:
Mac OSX drivers
The drivers you need to install depend on whether you’re using the ZTE or Huawei modem. Which modem have you got?
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