EXPIRED - 3 HALF PRICE BROADBAND FREE DONGLE IS BACK 18 MONTHS CONTRACT FOR EVERYONE!GO THROUGH QUIDCO

18-month contract is just shocking IMO.
A friend of mine forgot to pay his BT bill, and instead of paying them off to re-enable his account, he just went for one of these. Which is all good and well, except he primarily used his internet to play his 360 online. Now the only game he can 'play' is command and conquer (1 vs 1) - not only that but now he's stuck in an 18 month contract!

I don't know, maybe these are useful to some people, but I could easily use that 5gb limit in a day, let alone month!

It's not a replacement for home broadband.

Hi, does anyone know what counts as an 'existing customer', does it have to be someone with a 3 contract or could you be just using their PAYG? thanks

"Offer available direct from 3 only until 30th September 2008 on a new Mobile Broadband Lite, 5GB or 15GB price plan when either: (1) an existing customer on a Pay Monthly phone or mobile broadband price plan later subscribes to a new Mobile Broadband plan; or (2) when a new approved customer subscribes to a new Pay Monthly price plan and a new Mobile Broadband price plan at the same time; (3) when a new approved customer subscribes to a new Mobile Broadband price plan and subscribes to a second Mobile Broadband price plan at the same time; or (4) when an existing Pay Monthly customer upgrades to a new Pay Monthly price plan and subscribes to a new Mobile Broadband price plan at the same time. The new/second Mobile Broadband price plan must have a minimum term of 18 months. Customers will lose their continuing eligibility for the half price mobile broadband plan if they terminate their existing plan prior to the end of their Mobile Broadband minimum term agreement. In other words the two plans have to run concurrently. Offer must be mentioned at the time of order as it cannot be applied later and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. 50% discount will be forfeited if either contract is in arrears or disconnects from the 3 network (for whatever reason). Terms apply. See instore or three.co.uk"

So Pay Monthly only. Plus if you cancel your phone contract you lose the 50% discount.

I'm more tempted by the Vodafone deal already posted (3GB x 12mth contract @ £15 - £90 Quidco plus free ****** Nokia PAYG phone)

Assuming Quidco tracks, £90 for free modem and 12mth contract with no dependency on a phone contract sounds better to me.

That said if 1GB/month is enough the 18month x £5 = £90 deal is OK if you are sure you will keep up the phone contract.

wow, I didn't think the name of an American dice game counted as swearing

dont forget £15 raf! I've got a three number if anyone needs it.

btw this is perfect as an additional line, it can't replace home broadband as the ping is too high for online gameplay.

what's the difference between the available dongles ?

Nothing, really you can have a look here:

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/help...t_/devices.omp

I will probably get the thinner huawei e160g because they have good compatibility with linux.

Personally I'm surprised he could even play that the latency on mobile based "broadband" would be worse than an old 56k dialup connection.

I have used 3 mobile broadband for about 6 months on the 3gb for £7.50. If you are a heavy downloader pointless but good if you only surf the web and are not addicted to youtube (video quickly eats up your 3gb). In the evenings the level of service can go down to the point where you can barely get it to load a page (this will vary from place to place) so be wary. Generally for the money and convience I am happy with it though I wouldn't pay more than what I do pay for it.

Bit worried now as when I signed up to mine I was sure you could cancel your phone and still keep the broadband at half price, which is what I intend to do in a couple of weeks.

No certainly not. I started out well at around 150k/ps (still under but ok) but weekdays it would barely go above 20k, and even then you didn't want to move incase the signal fluctuated. Even with a full signal it was impossible to get anything near old 512kbps broadband. (To make this clear, I had a 3.5g full signal at all times, it just seemed to sometimes work faster in different parts of the room).

Also I had an issue where I topped up £15, went to add it on as 3gb via my 3 account online but constantly got an error. I then called 3 on 444 to find out why. What they didn't tell you is 444 is charged so by calling them I ate into my £15 top up and they said I could only top up £10 now as I didn't have £15, more like £14.xx. Naturally I was furious but they would not budge and the delay on the line between me and the call centre wherever in the world did not help, as were the language issues. It's not made clear that PAYG net topups are ONLY activated on the first my3 page and NOT on Buy Add Ons on any other 3 page. I know this only applies to PAYG but I suspect the same 'help' desk is the point of call for subscribed users too.

I switched to Be and pay £28 pm inc phone for 24mbit u/l. I know the 3 solution offers freedom and no phone, good for say, uni. But try if you can the PAYG first, see the speeds you get. You can always sell the dongle, on ebay mine went for £3 under what I paid for it.

Its worth mentioning if you exceed your bandwidth allowance - you can hit a bill over £1000 without using twice your allowance in some cases.

Look it up to check - the worst I have heard so far was in the £30 000s.

I had this problem earlier in the year when I bought mine I was told in the shop that it would not be affected if I cancelled my phone contract. I sent htem a message through my online accout saying if this was not the case then I wanted the broadband contract cancelled. I was phoned by 3 and was told that it did noy matter if I cancelled my phone it would still be half price , I got them to email me confirming this. I am sure there will be a problem as I cancelled my phone contract 2 weeks ago and I am in my notice period, but if they do try to up the price they will have a fight on thier hands