High usage tethering options?

matt100

matt100

matt100

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Joined
31 Jul 2004
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Surrey
Well for starters **** BT.. I hate that company with a passion...

I'm moving house in 3 weeks, I currently have infinity. I called them 2 weeks ago to arrange a move, they seemed very very helpful, its a new house meaning they had some difficulty working out what I could have.

Anyway they left it that I'd get a call back from an escalations team person within 5 working days.. needless to say that never happened and now after speaking to them again they've gone back to parroting their website saying I can only have 6mb copper broadband (despite the entire street being fibre ready, same exact issue as I had in the flat I'm in now) etc etc

And now in for the bargain as they held out hope of something else based on a call back and told me not to progress the order whilst they sorted themselves out (then did FA) I'm now going to be in the new house with no connection of any description for 2 weeks.. the 2 weeks they just fannied about doing sod all.

Gotta love BT.

Anyway, in for the bargain I work from home a LOT so they've properly scuppered me here. My choices are to work in a starbucks or a regus for a couple of weeks ignoring all the deliveries I'll be needing for the new place or stump up for a tethering setup.

Sorry, I am aware this is more of a rant than a question but as usual an interaction with BT has me shaking with anger.

The question is, my work will likely let me expense some sort of tethering setup until my **** poor copper broadband gets installed (presumably at exactly the same time they start nagging me to watch their stupid football cannel) but I see Three have stopped their all you can eat tethering for new lines and have capped it at 2gb.

Anyone know what happens after 2gb? Can I pay for more? Anyone any idea what happens with Vodafone on this? My work line is with them and I'm half tempted just to spank that line but the info available as the what happens after caps or if you can prepay much more data is very patchy..

Any sim only offers anyone is aware of? I have spare 3g phones so thats not a problem, I just need something that isn't going to slip off a 2gb cap onto £10 per mb and get me sacked!
 
Three do a rolling month broadband sim or Mifi thing, my only issue with them was their data services when used through Mifi was very hit and miss, dropping or hanging. I use a sharing SIM on my EE contract with one of their Mifi things and that works very well.
 
I get those options but I'm finding it nearly impossible to find a simple comparison of over bundle usage charges.

or for example is there any sort of business tethering option where I can buy 50gb of usage allowance, basically the retail options seem to max out at 2-4gb which is useless, I'll be over that in a week for work, maybe quicker.
 
EE do a 20GB and 50GB but it does cost fair bit and they also send you a second sim card to share the dats with another device where you use a Mifi device with it to not use the phone as tethering if you wish.

and if take out their home broadband +home phone line deal which is £18 a month together they will also give you free 10gb extra on your mobile phone line contract, so potentially 60GB a month
 
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That's their top phone tarrifs and you pay 5 a month for the sharing SIM as that's the tarrif I use for my work phone and mifi.
 
Its what really annoys me about BT - when stuff goes not quite right your either left trying to deal with it through the normal channels as though its a normal issue and hope it works out differently this time or escalate it right to the top (which is a bit of an over the top response but often the only way to get a moderate issue actually dealt with).

Can't really give that helpful advice on the mobile side other than avoid giffgaff - while they were once fairly good these days I barely get dialup speeds on 3G with a full signal (HSDPA+) and roughly ISDN speeds (200kbit/s) with a slightly higher upload (upto 1Mbit) on 4G!
 
I may have missed something here but why not a'One Plan' 30 day sim only deal from Three? You can tether your a**e off :D No 2gb limit. My contract was up with Three and signed up on the One Plan sim only at the weekend.
 
Richy888 said:
I may have missed something here but why not a'One Plan' 30 day sim only deal from Three? You can tether your a**e off :D No 2gb limit. My contract was up with Three and signed up on the One Plan sim only at the weekend.
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exactly :), I signed up last year and pay, £15 a month unlimited internet + tethering plus all the other stuff 5000mins etc.
 
Richy888 said:
I may have missed something here but why not a'One Plan' 30 day sim only deal from Three? You can tether your a**e off :D No 2gb limit. My contract was up with Three and signed up on the One Plan sim only at the weekend.
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It's been changed, any new contracts now have a 2GB tethering limit.
 
Who does the 2GB Personal Hotspot or “tethering” limit apply to?

For new customers ONLY who have signed up for a 24 monthly phone contract effective March 18th 2014 with All-you-can-eat data.

Is there anyway I can keep my unlimited Personal Hotspot or “tethering”?

Yes. If you are a customer on The One Plan – the only plan that offers unlimited Personal Hotspot – then you will continue to enjoy unlimited tethering for the duration of your current plan.

At the end of the minimum term of your current contract, you have two options:

1) Continue on your existing contract on a “rolling” basis, with your existing allowance.

2) Downgrade to a SIM Only plan which includes All-you-can-eat data with tethering (The One Plan is still available on a SIM only basis).


http://blog.three.co.uk/2014/03/18/three-make-0800-numbers-free-on-new-pay-monthly-plans/

So it looks like you can join 3 on the sim only and still enjoy unlimited tethering?
 
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Luke said:
Does anyone successfully use these plans as a long term broadband replacement?
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I have plusnet home broadband and the 3 one plan on my phone... I renewed my broadband at xmas for another 12 months which I now regret as I use my one plan tethered from my laptop far more than I use the Plusnet option..
at the next renewal the home phone line and broadband will be getting switched off

I upload large image files and the plusnet broadband is about 300kb the One plan on my phone is around 3mb which instead of taking near on an hour using plusnet to upload my work files using the one plan it is 10x faster taking a only a few minutes

I must have had a brain fade when I renewed my broadband and it wont happen next time
tethering with 3 is great

must also add My phone is only 3g at the moment so when 4g does arrive here things will be really good
 
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Luke said:
Does anyone successfully use these plans as a long term broadband replacement?
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It seems strange that Three cap 24month contract tariffs and not the sim only One Plan. I wonder if there are new sim only plans on the horizon from Three with tethering (personal hotspot) restrictions? Three would say they have mobile broadband tariffs that should be used instead of a phone plan - but then why give unlimited tethering?

As asked above then it would have worked not so bad for me at one time but recently Three's speeds have suffered and now a lot slower than our broadband - which is a slow country line. It may be down to congestion and support suggested it was down to 4G upgrades. Not convinced on supports answer but has picked up a little of late and still remain the fastest in the area. So no, it wouldn't be a success here.
 
Luke said:
Does anyone successfully use these plans as a long term broadband replacement?
Click to expand...

I've been using Three's The One Plan with my Samsung GS3 for the last 18 months for the sole purpose of internet usage. I'm staying in college halls and the eduroam setup they have is terrible and badly configured, so internet usage is terribly restricted. Phone tethering gets around that! :)

You get days where the download speeds are atrocious, but 90% of the time they're more than acceptable. I'm living just outside of Edinburgh as well so it will be very high usage around here!
 
So can anyone confirm not infer that you can get a rolling 30 day contract from 3 with unlimited tethering?

Like a new contract, not an existing one?
 
Err, yes u can. Just wander into a Three shop and some helpful sort will sort u. I've just done the same but a 12 month contract to save 3 quid a month. Sim only of course. Just ask for the One Plan.
 
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