Trying to get my head around Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband

"Roger Mills" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> I get "Service unavailable - please try later" when using IE, and
> "Secure Connection Failed" on Firefox.
>
> Any ideas?

You need to be logged in to your Three account to access the page DieSea
gave?

---

› See More: Trying to get my head around Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband

"DieSea" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Try this link
>
> [badly wrapped link snipped]
>
> Then choose
>
> 1 ) activate your voucher
>
> 2 ) activate your 16 digit number
>
> 3 ) enter your 3 mobile number
>
> 4 ) choose your add on
>
> Here you select your 1 , 3 or 5 gig voucher

You get charged £1 per MB if you don't convert your top up to an add on,
from which I suspect you buy the same top up vouchers as you would to
add voice minutes or texts to a normal phone. http://snipurl.com/3bbfaq
should redirect to their FAQ. From there click Data allowances and
billing, and then How can I top up?

Also, if you go to https://my3.three.co.uk/ it should redirect to the
account logon page, with an Activate a Voucher link on the right-hand
side. Click that and you get a page in which to enter the voucher code
and phone number of the SIM card in the modem.

That said, I see a whacking great fly in the ointment. You've used some
bandwidth to get to that page; bandwidth I guess that has been charged
at £1 per MB so by the time you get to a point where you can convert
your top-up to an add-on your top-up isn't worth enough to make the
conversion. For example, if you buy a £15 top-up with the intention of
converting it to 3GB of bandwidth, you'll use at least a few kilobytes
by the time you get to activation screen and so your voucher will only
have £14 left on it and you won't be able to convert it to 3GB.
Hopefully, I've got that wrong - and Three will let you browse to My3
free of charge. Can anyone tell us whether that's the case? If it's not,
and you can't browse to My3 FOC, I guess that you have to activate the
voucher from a public library or internet café etc.

Geoff

"[Lnz]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 27 Aug 2008 12:55:02 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Having a Tesco or O2 number on the Three phone makes the Three phone much
>>cheaper to call from landlines.
>
> Do you mind explaining this a moment?
>
> Does it mean that the number appears to be a Tesco/O2 number and
> therefore will attract whatever in-network advantages there are when
> calling from other Tesco/O2 numbers and conversely, will NOT attract
> in-network rates when called from a Three number?
> This is mind-boggling.
> Lorenz
>
>
Mobile networks know which mobile network the call came from
and charge accordingly.

Landline networks don't know which network the mobile number
belongs to and so charge by the prefix.

Check your Landline networks rates to particular mobile networks.

Calls will be charged at the of the rate for the ported mobile number,
not the true networks rate.

Steve Terry

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
DieSea <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Roger Mills" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>
>>
>> In another post, you say how to do it - but I can't make the link
>> work. Would you care to elaborate on how *not* to do it?
>
> Try this link
>
> https://my3.three.co.uk/mylogin//log...nt%2Findex.jsp
>
<SNIP>


That link doesn't work with FF, but it *does* work with IE - which the
previous one didn't.

Since I don't possess a 3 mobile or any vouchers, I can't get beyond the
logon page.

Assuming I had these, are you saying that this method is ok?

What is the method which is *not* ok, and which costs an arm and a leg?
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

In uk.telecom.mobile Geoff Lane <[email protected]> wrote:
> "DieSea" <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
> You get charged ?1 per MB if you don't convert your top up to an add on,
> from which I suspect you buy the same top up vouchers as you would to
> add voice minutes or texts to a normal phone.

Yes.

> That said, I see a whacking great fly in the ointment. You've used some
> bandwidth to get to that page; bandwidth I guess that has been charged
> at ?1 per MB so by the time you get to a point where you can convert
> your top-up to an add-on your top-up isn't worth enough to make the
> conversion. For example, if you buy a ?15 top-up with the intention of
> converting it to 3GB of bandwidth, you'll use at least a few kilobytes
> by the time you get to activation screen and so your voucher will only
> have ?14 left on it and you won't be able to convert it to 3GB.
> Hopefully, I've got that wrong - and Three will let you browse to My3
> free of charge. Can anyone tell us whether that's the case? If it's not,
> and you can't browse to My3 FOC, I guess that you have to activate the
> voucher from a public library or internet caf? etc.

I just tried it:

Check my remaining balance on my phone: 774.84MB
Kill the phone browser session (phone can't cope with two data sessions at
once)
Start a Bluetooth connection from the computer
Browse to https://my3.three.co.uk/, click on 'Activate topup'
I don't have a topup, so not much I can do here but hopefully that was some
bandwidth taken.
Close the Bluetooth connection
Use the phone browser to check the balance: 774.84MB

Of course it's possible that the session was less than 10KB so didn't
show on my bandwidth usage, but it's fairly unlikely.

Theo

On 2008-08-28, Geoff Lane <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> That said, I see a whacking great fly in the ointment. You've used some
> bandwidth to get to that page; bandwidth I guess that has been charged
> at £1 per MB so by the time you get to a point where you can convert
> your top-up to an add-on your top-up isn't worth enough to make the
> conversion. For example, if you buy a £15 top-up with the intention of
> converting it to 3GB of bandwidth, you'll use at least a few kilobytes
> by the time you get to activation screen and so your voucher will only
> have £14 left on it and you won't be able to convert it to 3GB.
> Hopefully, I've got that wrong - and Three will let you browse to My3
> free of charge. Can anyone tell us whether that's the case? If it's not,
> and you can't browse to My3 FOC, I guess that you have to activate the
> voucher from a public library or internet café etc.

As I understand it, MyThree is free. However, and this is the bit I'm
wary about - when you connect, what's to stop Windows Update, your
antivirus etc, from calling out and using some chargeable bandwidth?

--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System
MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter
Second Number - http://secondnumber.matrixnetwork.co.uk/

"Roger Mills" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> DieSea <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> "Roger Mills" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>
>>>
>>> In another post, you say how to do it - but I can't make the link
>>> work. Would you care to elaborate on how *not* to do it?
>>
>> Try this link
>>
>> https://my3.three.co.uk/mylogin//log...nt%2Findex.jsp
>>
> <SNIP>
>
>
> That link doesn't work with FF, but it *does* work with IE - which the
> previous one didn't.
>
> Since I don't possess a 3 mobile or any vouchers, I can't get beyond the
> logon page.
>
> Assuming I had these, are you saying that this method is ok?
>
> What is the method which is *not* ok, and which costs an arm and a leg?
> --
> Cheers,
> Roger



I seem to be able to connect to that page OK using FF as does the link on
the right to "activate your voucher".

I still think that they have made the whole system complicated for someone
new to it and must put off many potential customers. The £1 / 1MB
definitely must put people off even if it does really affect them.

If do buy a mobile broadband dongle then they probably will not make a lot
of money out of me but I suspect that many might upgrade to contract
service so it is in their interest to make the service as simple and
attractive as possible to potential users rather than try and make a small
extra bit of money out of them through things like "£1 per 1MB".

I was talking to a local dealer, he sells at quite a bit more than the £50
in Argos etc but he says that many people need his help to get their system
running. One man comes back every month for him to activate the
top-up/add-on because they can't manage it.

MB

"Soruk" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 2008-08-28, Geoff Lane <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> That said, I see a whacking great fly in the ointment. You've used some
>> bandwidth to get to that page; bandwidth I guess that has been charged
>> at 1 per MB so by the time you get to a point where you can convert
>> your top-up to an add-on your top-up isn't worth enough to make the
>> conversion. For example, if you buy a 15 top-up with the intention of
>> converting it to 3GB of bandwidth, you'll use at least a few kilobytes
>> by the time you get to activation screen and so your voucher will only
>> have 14 left on it and you won't be able to convert it to 3GB.
>> Hopefully, I've got that wrong - and Three will let you browse to My3
>> free of charge. Can anyone tell us whether that's the case? If it's not,
>> and you can't browse to My3 FOC, I guess that you have to activate the
>> voucher from a public library or internet caf etc.
>
> As I understand it, MyThree is free. However, and this is the bit I'm
> wary about - when you connect, what's to stop Windows Update, your
> antivirus etc, from calling out and using some chargeable bandwidth?


Good point because many people are likely to be using the mobile broadband
when not connected to the Internet as much as usual whilst away from home.

MB

"Soruk" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>> voucher from a public library or internet caf etc.
>
> As I understand it, MyThree is free. However, and this is the bit I'm
> wary about - when you connect, what's to stop Windows Update, your
> antivirus etc, from calling out and using some chargeable bandwidth?
>
> --
> -- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System
> MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter
> Second Number - http://secondnumber.matrixnetwork.co.uk/

You turn off your windows update

DieSea

In article <[email protected]>,
"Richard" <[email protected]> writes:
> "Roger Mills" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Very valid point! The Maplin blurb claims 91% *population* coverage - but
> > I realise that that doesn't mean 91% *area* coverage. Is there any way of
> > finding out where coverage is *actually* available, in order to see
> > whether my usual caravan destinations are covered? When in a mobile-BB
> > non-coverage area do you get nothing at all when using the dongle, or does
> > it still work - albeit at a much lower speed?
>
> O2 have a post code driven _Broadband_ coverage checker on their web site
> ..... other suppliers may have something similar.

But they're undoubtedly all as rubbish as Vodafone's. The first argument
from the V retentions office was that according to their coverage map,
where I was standing, I should have fantastic coverage... ...So I moved
a few feet, the dodgy coverage fell to 0 and the call dropped. Next time,
they said `well, your phone is quite old---maybe it isn't working properly'
(15 months). I pointed out that it worked perfectly well with competitor
SIMs installed.

The _only_ way to do this is to actually check it, for yourself, in places
where it matters to you. I spent a year doing this, with several spare
phones, and it was occasionally a complete pain, but I have sufficiently
good coverage now that I haven't missed a call since I changed, as far as
I'm aware, and I haven't needed voicemail at all.
--
SAm.

My problem with the "3" USB mobile broadband dongle.

I think it must be a clash with something in the laptop.

Checked the SIM card and OK in a phone.

I have a different dongle and the same as the original.

When I try to Manually Select Network I get this message

No device with SIM card is configured. Can not access the SIM card.

I tried in my desktop and I get the normal message for selecting message
i.e. not the above error message. Not gone any further on the desktop but
will try investigating possible incompatibilities in the laptop.

Any ideas?????


MB

DieSea wrote:

> I bought my dongle from 3 g in the Trafford Centre ,
>
> where they were less than helpful , it cost me £99.99
>
> A couple of weeks later it dropped to under £50.00 guess who was peeved

They're £35+VAT from CPC nowadays.