Mifi on 3UK

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-Dec-11 00:12:30)

Nice.
For people in the places where ADSL is poor but 3G is better then mobile broadband has to be a real consideration.

I used to dread wet and windy weather, the BRAS profile on the line would drop and take several days to come back up to just 1.5 Mbits. Rotten old BT line with squirrels eating through the cable is no longer an issue for me, or indeed BT sending out engineers to find the fault and it taking until the fourth visit for them to find the fault, then BT trying to charge me for the first 3 visits when they didn't find the fault even though it was eventually found on their network. I had to get my MP involved to sort that out & eventually I had a phone call from the BT Chairman's office admitting I didn't owe them for those 3 engineer visits because the fault was on their network about 400m from my home.
I can't see myself ever going back to a land line at my location unless by some miracle they install fibre optics directly to my house. Wireless 4G is much more likely in the next few years.

The thing is, you can buy a Mifi or dongle & test it where you're going to use it and if it's better you can dump ADSL (and even the line) when the contract expires. No more BT line rental increases or engineer call out charges.

BTW, how did you get 30GB/month ?

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-Dec-11 10:21:03)

Also worth pointing out that people are seeing good signals from MiFi in cases where their phone gave a poor signal...

Another advantage you can leave the MiFi sat on a window sill with a good signal, and the WiFi to hook up your machine.

I've also found some of the other mobile broadband routers to be pretty good. They make a good addition to the keeping connected everywhere travel bag

Impressive.

At that rate in another 2 days you will have used up your months allowance and excessive usage charges will kick in!

What are you going to do for the remaining 24 days this billing period?

Like you I have the new HSPA+ 3UK MiFi (Huawei 856). I got some amazing speeds while taking the train up to family in Bucks, 8Mbs/3.5Mbs while on a moving train. Managed to watch iPlayer on the go. Unfortunately my home must be in some kind of 3G blackspot as I can just about manage 1.5Mbs/1Mbs It's a great device with very good pricing, I have 15GB/month for £15.99 on a one month rolling contract but am disappointed that due to the postcode lottery I lose on speed in my house

I now use the MiFi primarily to watch streamed Sky Go/iPlayer/Demand5 on my iPhone with a much better signal than my phone manges.

Edited by deleted (Fri 23-Dec-11 22:32:36)

After working out where the nearest 3 transmitter is and positioning the MiFi on the correct side of the house on the window sill:

ThinkBroadband Mobile Speedtest:
2.28Mbps/1.53Mbps

speedtest.net:
2.17Mbps/1.72Mbps (63ms ping)

Not too bad at all as a backup to my ADSL.

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Dec-11 16:20:58)

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Dec-11 16:24:10)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

In reply to a post by MaxNRG:

I have 15GB/month for £15.99 on a one month rolling contract

15GB OR 5GB? there is no package on offer for £15,99 apart from 5GB - if you got 15GB on a 1 month contract then I am going to ring up and ask how!

You are right, sorry typo from me, it's 5GB for £15.99... 15GB for that price would be nice though!

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I'm not far from the nearest cell. I am geeky so I know exactly where it is and I can see it when I drive out of my house every day.

It's sort of up and down all day but right now I am getting this 10.0mbps/3.01mbps

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1666782320.png

Not complaining!

Pretty nice... how fast was your ADSL?

hi there both my brother and mother in law get 15GB for £15.99 a month on the three net work and it is a very good deal but has gone up to £17.01 a month for 15gb but is still good

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Dec-11 20:54:34)

Hi, I've just moved to a new flat and there is no FTTC here yet (holding out for it), so I haven't ordered any broadband yet and instead I'm making do on 3's One Plan 30-Day sim in a friend's N95 8Gb, tethered to my PC. The speed is barely 1meg down and 0.4meg up. Is it worth upgrading for £87 to a Huawei E586 in the hope of getting faster speed? Will my sim be accepted in the Huawei E586 or will 3 block it like they did when I put it in a 3 dongle? Thanks in advance!

I've got 10 gig a month for 15 pound a month,

In reply to a post by GeorgeLloyd:

I've got 10 gig a month for 15 pound a month,
[/quote

Is that on a contract?

In reply to a post by Khan:

Hi, I've just moved to a new flat and there is no FTTC here yet (holding out for it), so I haven't ordered any broadband yet and instead I'm making do on 3's One Plan 30-Day sim in a friend's N95 8Gb, tethered to my PC. The speed is barely 1meg down and 0.4meg up. Is it worth upgrading for £87 to a Huawei E586 in the hope of getting faster speed? Will my sim be accepted in the Huawei E586 or will 3 block it like they did when I put it in a 3 dongle? Thanks in advance!

Will almost certainly be quicker... the N95 is a pretty old bit of kit! If they blocked a dongle, I'll bet they will block for use in a MiFi too. Does anyone know the tethering APN for three that one could try with a 'One Plan' SIM in a MiFi?

Agreed. Three's network is ridiculously good. I'll regularly get speeds of 10Mbps and above from my iPhone 4S. So glad I chose these guys and their One Plan over other operators and their frankly ridiculous 500Mb caps.

I just tested on my iPhone with 3... 0.9 mbps down and 1.49 mbps up.

Here I have 1 or 2 bar signal...

& near London I always get around 1 mbps, but 4 mbps at good times. (not very often)

I feel like I'm missing out! I'd love 10 mbps!

In reply to a post by MaxNRG:

You are right, sorry typo from me, it's 5GB for £15.99... 15GB for that price would be nice though!

That's precisely what I have - actually I pay £12.00 dead on for 15GB. Perfecto. Have 8 such MiFi's on said tariff in fact.

One month rolling contract so not much differnt to PAYG. The daft thing when I signed there was an option for 5 gig a month for £15.95 or 10 Gig for £15.00 which I thought was a bit odd. I went for the 10 Gig of course.

In reply to a post by GeorgeLloyd:

One month rolling contract so not much differnt to PAYG. The daft thing when I signed there was an option for 5 gig a month for £15.95 or 10 Gig for £15.00 which I thought was a bit odd. I went for the 10 Gig of course.

Good deal, I think 3 are running out of bandwidth hence the less lucrative deals these days...

In reply to a post by MaxNRG:

In reply to a post by Khan:

Hi, I've just moved to a new flat and there is no FTTC here yet (holding out for it), so I haven't ordered any broadband yet and instead I'm making do on 3's One Plan 30-Day sim in a friend's N95 8Gb, tethered to my PC. The speed is barely 1meg down and 0.4meg up. Is it worth upgrading for £87 to a Huawei E586 in the hope of getting faster speed? Will my sim be accepted in the Huawei E586 or will 3 block it like they did when I put it in a 3 dongle? Thanks in advance!

Will almost certainly be quicker... the N95 is a pretty old bit of kit! If they blocked a dongle, I'll bet they will block for use in a MiFi too. Does anyone know the tethering APN for three that one could try with a 'One Plan' SIM in a MiFi?

I've been trying for days to get my One Plan SIm to work in a MiFI.

No joy.

Was going to try it in a stadard dongle on OS X as you can edit the APN in the system prefrances.

But dont fancy sticking a Micro SIM into a dongle and never getting it back out