| Reviewer Name | Rating out of 10 | Review Details | Review Date / Time |
| Jack | 1 |
I have used the same 3 dongle for 2 years now. It started of poor and it continues to be poor. I was promised that the service was going to be improved when I tried to return the dongle.
Living on the fringe of a major city, it should be good, but alas it is not.
I am using a 3 branded type zte mf627 dongle using 2.0.0.80 3 connect software which was showing 1 bar of signal and between 8 and 12 kb/s download speeds. I searched and found an update for the 3 connect desktop software which upgraded it to version 3.0.26.0.
The desktop software now shows me receiving a full 5 bars of signal on H, but alas, the download speeds are the exact same.
So I imagine, all that was changed was the algorithm to show an 'improved' signal where as in fact, its just the same as it ever was. Remember, as nothing was changed on the dongle itself, then it could not have changed the actual signal received, its just showing its better when it isnt.
As a result, I will add to the others that cant or wont recommend using the 3 mobile dongle service. Spend a little bit more and get a proper service.
[Admin Says - Have you tried the dongle at another location? Unfortunately it sounds as though you are not in a 3G coverage area, which will mean low speeds. We know from our testing that 3 Mobile Broadband does offer good speeds when in 3G areas. Thanks for the review.]
| 16/12/2011 20:57:58 |
| lee_lee | 7 |
3 mobile broadband has on the whole been pretty good. However I often notice slower speeds the moment 3 notifies me that I only have 20 per cent of my usage left. Has anyone else noticed this? This is particuarly annoying when I have paid for 15 gig.
Also customer service is poor.
| 02/11/2011 06:47:47 |
| Andy P | 6 |
I use 3 mi-fi everyday as my main work tool as I work from home in an area where BT can only currently offer me 1.5Mbps (Milton Keynes). The mi-fi works fine until 18:00, (17:00 since the clocks went back). I use vpn and connect into work for which I can work fine all day until now 17:00 then boy oh boy does it slow down. I can use the internet fine, but try using a vpn connection into work which is my requirement and the speed is dire. I lose pings all over the place and cannot work. Means after 17:00 now I cannot work, which really is not acceptable.
| 31/10/2011 18:31:05 |
| Mike K | 1 |
Just purchased 2 of these mobile broadband dongles from 3, awful! Terrible coverage, conflict issues with outgoing smtp with our domain provider, never had any trouble with others I've used in the past. When you do eventually get a connection, slow isn't the word! Do your research people, I rushed to buy, it's all they had left in stock, now I know why. Hope this helps.
[Admin Says - When I've tried 3 Mobile Broadband, performance has been fine, but we realise performance can vary greatly with location. Thanks for the review. I am wondering if outgoing SMTP issues could be because your SMTP provider wants to validate against a static IP address, which won't be provided by mobile broadband.]
| 28/10/2011 13:42:05 |
| Elke Edwards | 1 |
i have had my 3 dongle now for several years and have had many problems when moving around due to work commitments. i have been in touch with 3 customer services, who state every single time that it is the dongle over heating. ask me to send it back and they will send out yet another. the first time it happened, i had returned my dongle the day the new one arrived, after several weeks they sent me letter after letter telling me they were going to charge me if i didnt return it. so every time i phoned and checked,i got confirmation that they had indeed received it back. this went on for several weeks. then they sent me the wrong dongle ( same problem again) phonecall after phonecall. then i received a totally different item, looked like a dongle but certainly wasnt one. apart from the constant phonecalls i have really have had enough now of 3, they might give the best for your money but not service to their customers. every time i now switch my dongle on i havnt even got a signal, it keeps switching itself off whilst i,m working on the laptop. enough is definately enough. i,m going else where.
[Admin Says - My own view is that if you are experiencing poor performance from mobile broadband it is usually more likely to be the signal available at your exact location than a hardware failure. Rgds.]
| 14/10/2011 12:27:05 |
| tracey macgee | 1 |
m20 didsbury, ok folks firstly three deliberatly interupt mobile broadband signal so u are unable to use your full internet allowance which makes three a tidy little bundle,also keep a constant eye on your gig allowance as they offer a 15 gig package but r really only giving 6-7 gig,i have had to report them to trading standards for charging me for 15 gig but only actually giving me half that,complete robbing [Admin - language removed],STAY AWAY FROM THESE CON PEOPLE AT ALL COST AND REPORT THEM TO TRADING STANDARDS THE MORE RIP OFFS REPORTED THEY WILL BE FORCED TO ACT AND COMPENSATE,ALSO EMAIL CONSUMER PROGRAMMES TO ENSURE THEY RECEIVE THE NEGATIVE PUBLICITY THEY DESERVE.rEMEMBER IF YOU GO OVER YOUR ALLOWANCE THEY WILL TAKE A 100 FOR EVERY GIG OVER,SO ITS IN THERE INTEREST TO SEND U OVER,DONT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.
[Admin Says - We agree that users should be careful to stay under their usage allowances, but other than that have been satisfied with the 3 service when we've used it. Rgds.]
| 10/10/2011 13:11:30 |
| Kate | 3 |
I have had my dongle for a year and a half. We live on a boat so we are always in a different location. Sometimes it is ok, streaming is possible. Other times it is hopeless depending on where we are (always central London)
I would mostly like to review the customer service I received: I called them to cancel my Dongle because I now have a mooring with broadband. The lady in India (Monica Jaisinghani) argued with me for over half an hour, trying to convince me to keep it, or to reduce the payment to £5 for 3 months with 1 gig. Over and over again. I kept saying No. No thank you, I do not need it, I do not want it. She kept going on and on, not cancelling it and pushing so hard to change my mind. Fair enough, that's their job.
The conversation finally ended with me saying NO for the umpteenth time, I WANT TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT NOW.
6 weeks later when I find they have taken more money and are about to bill me again I call to find she has made a note on my account saying that I had agreed to give my dongle to someone else and continue paying myself.
WHAT!! This could not have been more ridiculous. There is no way she could have misunderstood my million times NO
The man then went on to say that they would could only cancel from 30 days from that day. I said no, I cancelled 6 weeks ago, I am not cancelling today. This went back and forth many times with him saying sorry there is nothing ha can do, he agrees the lady was wrong and I was right but I still had to pay.
After arguing he then stepped down a little and said they could cancel immediately from that day rather than a further 30 days.
I said no, i am not cancelling today I cancelled 6 weeks ago. He was now adament there was nothing more to be done. I would have to pay for their error.
After more arguing He finally said he could actually cancel from the day I had cancelled it, they would send out a letter with the readjusted fees on it.
POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT 3:
1.When you cancel they will go to absolutely any lengths to scam you out of more money. if they managed to make all of the outgoing customers pay an extra month they would make a tidy sum.
2.They will lie about what can and cant be done. You must be persistent and push for what is right.
It may take many hours of pushing back at them.
'oh we cant do that' 20 mins later 'oh yes we can do that, i was just lying the first time to try to squeeze more money out of you.
[Admin Says - Thanks for the review. What you say about service performance just shows how mobile broadband can be very good in some areas but poor in others, i.e. it is totally location dependent.
Regarding the cancellation, I have left it unedited although I don't think the word scam is appropriate here. All mobile companies will try to prevent cancellations, but if you want to be sure you could perhaps back up a phone cancellation with a letter too, although I agree that a phone cancellation should be enough in an ideal world.]
| 23/09/2011 08:48:10 |
| mike | 5 |
Been with 3 mobile broadband for near a year now, and always ive had full signal and great internet speeds no lag or kicks on internet games and now for the past week ive had it all the time, full signal to no signal and back and forth and the odd disconnection. I dont want to ring up because i know il be fobbed off to someone who can hardly understand me and i cant understand them because there somewhere in india or china.Im not a racist at all but please can i have someone english to talk to who understands what im saying!
[Admin Says - A sudden loss of performance can be a sudden fault with your local mast and can be progressed by contacting 3. We've contacted 3 Customer Services a number of times and have always been able to understand them, so we are suprised at your issue. Thanks for the review.]
| 20/08/2011 15:19:01 |
| MS | 1 |
For the fifth time since my contract started I have been using this service away from home for a sustained period and for the fifth time it has performed ok for the first couple of weeks and then slowed right down and become unreliable/unstable. I have asked 3 MANY times why this is and I have never had a straight and honest answer. That leads me to believe that 3 have picked up where I am using it and slowed it down because I am a user who likes to make good use of the 15 gigabyte package which 3 sold me and which I have never exceeded in any given month. I will never go anywhere near 3 again when my contract ends.
| 16/08/2011 21:01:25 |
| Nick | 2 |
I've been using 3 mobile 15gb per month service for over 2 years. There are periods where its good and periods when its very slow. In the last 4 months, its not been possible to stream video and there are times when the speed is bearly enough for browsing.
I think the problem is there are too many users and not enough bandwidth in many areas. Also, I suspect Three can adjust some users speed, for instance new users initially get better speeds (they are probably given higher priority on the network).
I proved this by buying a Three PAYG dongle with 3gb. It was initially much faster than my other Three 15gb contract connection).
[Admin Says - Thanks for the review. The faster speed on the Three PAYG dongle might have been because the modem was a newer model with better performance.]
| 14/08/2011 19:44:02 |
| Michael | 1 |
i got a ZTE MF627 dongle on a two year contract 15GB for £15 a month that was in july 2009 everything was brilliant for about 6 months then came the constant upgrades, maintanence and fixes that have degraded the network from a 300 Kbp/s lovely connection to a 5Kbp/s dead slug in molasses that cannot hold a connection for more than 30 seconds the constant excuses and palming off from the customer services (toung in cheek) over the last 18 months have now forced me to pass details of this facade to the trading standards and ofcom. For this company to advertise such blatent lies about speed and reliability in the 21st century is unacceptable i advise all with this problem to do the same
[Admin Says - Sorry to hear about your issue. Clearly if you only want to use the service in one place, then a local service issue is much more serious. We hope that 3 Mobile Broadband 's procedures for dealing with a customer facing such an issue will improve. In general though, from testing at multiple locations, we have found their service to provide decent levels of performance. Rgds.]
| 28/07/2011 11:33:11 |
| Anonymous | 1 |
I am very critical of 3.
[Admin Says - Review has been edited as we cannot publish in original form for legal reasons.]
| 23/07/2011 20:52:09 |
| Tony English | 1 |
My son is at a school for the visually impaired in Worcester. We took out a mifi dongle with 3 for him to use while away. The postcode checker said that it should be able to be used both indoors and outside. It's on his window ledge which should enable it to get a good reception. At first it seemed on, for the first few days. It was reasonably quick. Then it started dropping out regularly to the point that now it fails to connect to the network and is pretty much unuseable. He's pretty much given up on it. While he is on holiday I'm going to use it to see what resposes I get from it. To be honest I should have gone to a different provider, as his mobile is with three also and the poor levels of reception are shocking!
Based at : WR5 2JX
[Admin Says - Thanks for the review. It does sound as if you are in a poor signal area. If you can put the MiFi device any higher up in the building, that might help. Rdgs.]
| 18/07/2011 10:21:57 |
| Eddy | 2 |
Been using 3 dongle for last three years in London N22 area. Signal hasnt been fantastic over the years. Problems regularly occur with connection. Last 10 have been dreadful. Very difficult to use the internet. Connection keeps cutting out. Spoke to 3 for over an hour. Dia a lots of resetting on the laptop. They sent me a new dongle but the problem is still the same.
[Admin Says - Yes, problems are usually related to phone masts and signal available as opposed to modem hardware. Rgds.]
| 13/07/2011 17:37:02 |
| Bill | 3 |
After seeing adverts for 3's PAYG mobile broadband service, I decided to take the plunge and get a 12GB SIM card as it was too good of a deal compared to my current O2 service to pass up. Got it home, unlocked the dongle and waited for the home page to come up...and waited...and waited. The signal at my flat is solid with full bars at all times, consistently showing a "connected at 7.2Mbps," but the service is painfully slow...generally less than 1Mbps on repeated speed tests over a 48-hour period, with one instance of 2Mbps. Tried a download to verify and was lucky to get 100KB/s. In contrast, the O2 service consistently reports 4-6Mbps.
I then tried to take it back on the third and received considerable resistance at the 3 Store. The sales staff was very nice in saying "sorry, but you bought it, it's yours." After going back and forth for 20-30 minutes and calls to the customer support center, it was finally decided that a return would be granted on a technicality (my post code was too new to verify coverage, although the post code across the street showed excellent signal).
I get the sense that the more recent complaints of slower speeds is, in fact, a systemic issue. As Rob has suggested, I think they've pushed their network to its limits. I give it a 3/10 because it's a great deal if you don't mind sluggish broadband service.
[Admin Says - It sounds as if you got a service that could be used for general internet browsing, but was not a fast broadband connection suitable for video streaming etc. If you only ever want to use the connection at one location, then there is always a significant risk that you won't get the speed you really want, as the best connections are only available in optimum reception areas. Rgds.]
| 10/07/2011 16:27:38 |
| Rob | 5 |
Jon in Manchester M15 is spot on. 3's service has been dreadful for the last two weeks. I've been using their service since 2008 and whilst not always the best for speed in a multitude of locations the connection has always been up. This does not happen now. You have to constant reconnect despite the 3 software advising you have full signal strength and HSPA or 3G. This occurs in all locations , EC1 (London), SS1 (Southend on sea) and E1 (London).
A definite 3 issue probably related to their offer of unlimited all you can eat data that they've pushed for smartphones. Their network cannot appear to cope with all the traffic now. I shall be leaving them shortly!
[Admin Says - 3 has always performed pretty well in the mobile broadband testing we have performed, so we're surprised you are having these issues.]
| 30/06/2011 12:43:30 |
| Mike | 1 |
In a section called "Our Commitment to You" on 3's website it clearly states, "We want to give
customers a great service so we are always looking for ways to improve."
The website also explains that it takes 10 working days (that's 2 weeks) to let you know that they have received you e-mail enquiry and 20 working days (4 weeks) to deal with it.
Does anybody else spot a major contradiction here?
This sums up 3 perfectly - all talk and little action.
3 are a truly dreadful company and should definitely be avoided at all costs.
[Admin Says - In the interests of fairness, I would like to say that whenever I've called 3 Customer Services, they have been quite good. I would expec the e-mail times you quote to be maximum response times.]
| 26/06/2011 20:52:18 |
| Steve | 5 |
I think "3 Connect" is having problems. I have been using my "3 Connect" dongle with no trouble up until today when "3 Connect" would no longer accept VISA credit or debit cards. I telephoned VISA and they have recorded two payments going out to "3 Connect" but the credit doesn't appear on my acount.
The Call Centre at "3 Connect" tells me that they are having difficulty processing VISA payments and that it is currently not possible to top up ones Dongle other than with Vouchers. They expect the problem to last 8 days!!!!
Has anyone else experienced this difficulty?
Steve
WR1 2NT
| 22/06/2011 21:11:19 |
| jon | 1 |
Jon M15 Manchester
Does anyone know what is going on with 3 mobile broadband - as there customer service or second line maintanence team does - and they are supposed to be the experts ! OK, it has always been problematic, working sporadically, regularly disconnections, long periods of maintance etc., but the last two weeks has just been a joke. I can't get any work done and have spent hours on the phone to the 3 CS team who are absolutely useless.
So my problem right now is i connect and it disconnects anywhere between 1 - 10 minutes. The thing is the 3 dashboard says I am still connected, and the dongle light says I am still connected, but it isn't. I can't browse or download any emails. I have to constantly keep closing the app and restarting it, only to last for about 2 minutes. 3 have told me it's my communter - get an expert to sort it out as there is nothing wrong with their system/or transmitter! Trouble is I tell them, I have three different computers in my house and they are all behaving the same so ti really cannot be my computers. They have tried everything, had me deinstalling and reinstalling the software. I had two replacement dongles in as many weeks as they thought it may be the dongle. still same problem.
Now their second line management team in Mungi or Bombay or whereever they are, say I may be hitting traffic congestions at certain times of the day with the transmitter. I told them that it is like that at anytime of the day!
Now they tell me that there may be some transmitter issues and they are going to do some mainatance work on the transmitter. But it wouldn't be done until September ! What? Are they made? So what do I do from June till September - and even worse I think they are just clutching at straws, they just don't know what is causing the issues. I'm at a loss, but definately, something has changed recently to cause this.
BTW, I have noticed - and I told 3 this (they couldn't explain it either) - that if I use itunes to connect to a internet station, the connection works and I can use it as long as I keep the station running. it lasts for a hour or so before disconnecting again, but why? This doesn't make sense. If I connect my computer it disconnects ( or rather the dongle and dashboard says I am connected even though I can't do anything, no browsing, no emails etc), however, if I open itunes and connect to radio station, it stays connected. Weird, But it anyone having the same current problems, try this. Anyone know anything else?
[Admin Says - Thanks for the review. It sounds as though you have been unlucky with your location as when we have tested 3 Mobile at various locations it performed OK for us. To take a guess at the iTunes thing, it could be a result of traffic prioritisation rules. iTunes might use a different internet port which is being given traffic priority. Rgds.]
| 19/06/2011 00:26:25 |
| Archie M. | 1 |
Up until January this year I used to think 3 were offering a excellent dongle service and I have recommended them to lots of people....Oh, how times quickly change!For months now I am unable to stay connect to HSDPA for more than few seconds then drops to useless 3g any time of day/night and I have full signal strengh! I have had promises of Mast upgrades....Latest being May this year.
I am now in the process of seeking legal advice on how to exit my contract....So be warned!
[Admin Says - OK thanks for your review. We also think that 3 generally offers a good service, especially if you are travelling around to multiple locations. If however you are stuck with bad performance at a particular location, it looks as though 3 could be better at addressing these network issues that users encounter. Rgds.]
| 11/06/2011 21:11:58 |