3 launches "Turbo" mobile broadband from £10 a month

HSDPA connectivity via dongle on your laptop

3 launches

23 August 2007 10:42 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Three has announced it is set to launch a new mobile broadband service for consumers in the UK.

Available in certain areas from the 3rd September, the service will cost from £10 per month - 3 is claiming this new service is cheaper than rivals offerings.

Aimed at today's "mobile generation" rather than just business users, the upgraded Mobile Broadband service will offer download speeds up to 2.8Mbps.

3 is calling this its "Turbo Network" - although it's HSDPA for those of a more technical nature.

Consumers have a choice of Lite, Plus or Max tariffs offering data allowances of 1GB, 3GB or 7GB for £10, £15 or £25 per month, with 10p per megabyte charges over their allowance.

3 has provided guidelines for what these limits should mean for consumers - they say 1GB will give you around 40 hours surfing, plus 280 text e-mails, plus 80 music downloads plus 20 Hours of video streaming.

3 will deliver this to your laptop via a USB dongle that starts from £99 if you opt for a year contract, but is free if you sign up for Plus or Max tariff on a 24-month option.

The roll-out schedule will see 50% of the UK population covered initially, with 85% covered by December, the schedule is:

Phase 1 - 3 Sept: Northern England (north of Birmingham), Scotland, Northern Ireland and inside the North/South Circular in London
Phase 2 – October 07: Above plus population inside the M25
Phase 3 – November 07: Above plus cities in southern England of over 200K population
Phase 4 – Dec 07: Above plus other cities in southern England

Full tags
Phones, Laptops, Broadband, 3G, HSDPA, Software, Mobile broadband, 3
UK Shopping
mobiles.co.uk, three.co.uk, carphonewarehouse.co.uk, Nokia.co.uk, o2.co.uk, orange.co.uk, phones4u.co.uk, t-mobile.co.uk, vodafone.co.uk, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
bestbuy.com, ebay.com

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Comments

  • I Just got my 3 mobile Broadband Dongle a few days ago, on prepay. Initially I paid 10 pounds for 1 Gig, after 3 days and using 500 Meg on some very heavy surfing, I topped up 15 pounds to get 3 Gig. That should last me a bit longer, my3 tells me my 3 Gig is still queueing to be used as my first top up still hasn't run out. I have to say that I'm totally delighted with the performance, even though though i'm running XP with just 512 Meg of RAM on an ultra portable laptop that's a few years old, I haven't had a single hang! In fact my broadband runs so fast I can see the limitations of hosting servers, and the fact that I live in a block of flats where voda and o2 have moderate signals, and I can't use a Tmobile or Orange Phone at all, It makes it even more impressive!!! Heartfealtedly recommended Posted by Paul B, UK
  • Couldn't disagree more with the previous reviewer. I've been struggling with this for months, and have NEVER had satisfactory service from it. Well over half the time - often for days on end - the 'service' simply won't connect at all. Today's the first time I've been able to connect for **3** days. It's left me in the lurch business-wise, socially, it's ruined my Ebay rating because I can't communicate with buyers... this service has COST ME MONEY. When it does connect, the 'line' usually drops within 5 minutes (I'm expecting it to go any minute, now, actually... I'm amazed that I'm still typing - it's a miracle), or - incredibly - it'll only let you access the 'three' website (which is basically an advert for the '3' mobile broadband service... ironically). The Mac software is appalling, far less fully featured than the PC equivalent, and the 'support' - a call centre in Bombay - is staffed by people who are technically inept and, with due respect, don't actually speak coherent English. Please, please, PLEASE do not give these people your money. You'd be better off with dial-up... or an internet cafe... or literally getting on your bike and cycling over to whoever it is you need to email. This service is a CRIMINAL RIP-OFF. If I'm wrong, let them sue me. You've been warned. Posted by A McGuire, UK
  • I totally agree.It is the most horrendous slow service you can imagine.speeds of 17kbps are the norm.total rubbish. Posted by ryan, uk

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