Three Mobile Broadband Ready to Go 3GB Preloaded Data Standard SIM for 3G Tablets

Ever since the beginning of Pay-as-you-go I have been irritated by the notion that, according to providers, it is perfectly ok to take back paid-for product that remains unused after a period. I think it is close to dishonest. What if you were to fill the tank on your car and then, a month later, had to give back any unused fuel that remained before filling it full again. Yeah, right, you'd do that, wouldn't you - not. The beauty of these 3gb 90-day 'starters' is that if you do take longer than the usual 30 days to use up your 3gb you do not lose the remainder (until you reach 3 months). Personally, I've been using broadband sims for quite a while and find that my average consumption rate is about 5 weeks to use up 3gb so instead of buying a top-up voucher I discard the sim and use a new one of these. For anybody who takes longer than 30 days to use 3gb this is the most cost-effective solution currently available. Hopefully, providers of mobile broadband will eventually catch on to the fact that consumers are not stupid and abandon time limitation entirely (as Virgin, Tesco, and probably a few others have done with PAYG phones) but sadly, I fear that it will be more likely that 3-network will withdraw this 90-day 'starter' instead - so get them while you can, folks. By the way, there's also 1gb versions that run for 30 days. Be careful about the way these are sold though. I recently bought a couple of these as they were advertised at £0.10 plus p&p and I figured that if I bought more than one, the p&p would cover both because there's only one delivery - wrong, I still got charged p&p on each so if you go down this route you need to add the advertised price and the p&p together to get at the real cost. It's still very good value though, especially if you only need a short burst of use.

Initial Comments EARLY JUNE 2013 I bought my 3G sim and the package arrived OK. I had intended to have it ready in my possession and keep till my holidays in a months time. Today I opened the package,which clearly states it is a 3GB lasting up to 3 months. However when I got it up and running it says on the 3 website, when I checked it's status, that it is a 1MB expiring on the 12/9/13? I may have misunderstood but is this correct? ................. You've still got the following allowance left to use: Internet allowances (MB) (1) Internet allowances (MB) Valid until Remaining Starter Top-up* Expires 12/09/13 3072 Total mobile broadband (mb) 3072 UPDATE 4JULY 2013 Having tried this out on holiday I can honestly say I am very pleased with the product and it's performance! Rather dubious at first because I was uncertain how long it would last? (I should also mention here that I bought an o2 mini wifi pebble, which I originally used with an o2 sim, but decided it would be more versatile if I got it unlocked to all carriers - I can recommend doing this to accommodate a 3 sim. It is worth the £10-£15!) I spent a week in Cornwall, where my o2 mobile signal was abysmal where I stayed. However, not only was the 3 signal coverage good, I was able to check emails and surf the web with complete freedom. At one point I ended up using TuGo app as a phone device from a wifi ipad mini, via a 3 sim, which worked; rather than a useless no signal o2 mobile phone! I have upgraded my 1 star to 5 for this product. I must get some more!

( after update have changed rating from 1 to 4 star ) Have used these SIMS in a Three branded Huawei E586 router for about 2 years - no problem and great product. Apart from the price hike I've now had 2 SIMs stop working well within the 90 days period with loads of data left. The first SIM ran from late November but stopped working early Jan even though only used about 300mb of data. The second I put in about 10 days ago and it was working this morning, then stopped saying no data allowance left. I've checked the online account and it just says no allowance - but I only used 40mb out of a 3gb 90day SIM !! I'd read the Three tightened up last year for contract customers on what they can use it's SIMs in, and wonder if this is a similar move to prevent PAYG customers using the SIMs in routers. Has anyone else had a problem recently with 3 PAYG data SIMs in routers Update 31/1/14 Having now contacted the three call centre, they checked and initially gave reasons why I might use lots of data , none of which apply when I was only using it for a few hours over the 8 days it worked. But they were most helpful and put back a full 3gb in 3x1gb add-ons to my account, then stayed on line while router rebooted, and I confirmed I could connect and also checked my data allowance online. Having read some negative comments about 3's call centre I was pleasantly surprised at well this was sorted out. I don't now why the SIM stopped working but they sorted it out. Have revised to 4 star. Though the SIM is more expensive than it was , it still is reasonable value, and speed is good.

Buying four of the 3GB SIM cards is much cheaper than buying the 3 Mobile Huawei E3231 Dongle Ready To Go - preloaded 12GB . It's also cheaper than topping up your pay as you go broadband with Three. If you want 3GB from them, you have to pay more and it needs to be used within one month which isn't good for people who don't use the internet that much. As long as you have a Three dongle, you just need to put in the SIM card and away you go! There's no need to download any software or run a start-up program. You just plug it in and you can start browsing straight away. This SIM card can be used for any Three device which means you can use it in your mobile phone or your tablet (if it takes a normal sized SIM card). This would work out much cheaper than a mobile phone contract and will be very handy when there isn't any free Wi-Fi available. It will come in handy if you have an Android phone/IPhone because you will be able to download loads of apps. The 3 GB dongle lasts for 3 months which is a good time limit because 3GB can last quite a while if you don't use the internet that much. It also means that you'll be able to use up all of the data that you have purchased. The only problem that I've noticed is that the price seems to fluctuate quite a lot.

A brilliant bit of kit, other reviewers have commented on how they use this sim card in tablets but I use it in a Smartphone. How you ask when this is specifically a data card and will not provide a voice connection. The answer is to buy a smartphone with 2 sim slots. Mine is the DracoTek V1277 also purchased from Amazon. I simply have a Vodafone PAYG sim in one slot for voice and texts and this in the other slot to use specifically for data. A very cheap way of getting PAYG data, I have had this card for about 6 weeks, whilst at home I normally use WIFI but I have been away a couple of times in December and have used this card for mobile internet access and have even used in to connect a Laptop and tablet to the internet by using my phone as a wireless hotspot. Even with this use I have used only about 1GB so 3GB for 3 months will be ample for me.

Works well, and can top it up online so need to buy a replacement when your data runs out. Loses a star because of the tricky online interface. It took me a few attempts to get registered with the My3 page. Email verification did not work at first. I think it is very dependent on the type of IE / Chrome you have. Once set up it is very convenient and works great with the 3G router I bought it for. Loses a further star now two months in as email verification did not ever work properly, (tried from 3 computers), and I am now locked out of my account. I need to access my account so I can copy my receipts for expense claims / tax. FAQ is not the same as proper support and I will run out of time available to sort this issue out.

Good

The card arrived well before stated arrival date from Amazon. I placed it into my ZTE MF60 WiFi hotspot unit and it worked. I have come back to add to my review about four weeks later after writing the above. I have now used up two SIM cards and just about to order a third. I must say I expected the first card to last 3-months - the first card lasted ONE week. Now, I did download about 20 songs from youtube and my desktop (which utilises WiFi from the SIM) downloaded about 20 microsoft upgrades. So I thought, "fair enough" - a lot of downloading has been done therefore the SIM data bank will be used up. I bought another SIM card from Amazon - again with reasonable delivery service. This time I only downloaded one song and controled microsoft updates. I did however use my desktop a lot, checking out emails and surfing the net via google for various projects. This time the SIM lasted TWO weeks. I have ordered another SIM card because the mobile hotspot unit really works well but because of the high usage of SIM cards I have also ordered an unlimitted broadband service via my landline - the MONTHLY fee for this is much less than the WEEKLY cost of using the SIM. I am going to use the mobile hotspot for work away from my office base only, from now on. Perhaps one should think twice if one is thinking of using the SIM based WiFi as a permanent source of net access. If you do, prepare yourself for fairly hefty SIM card bills - possibly.