3 Mobile

I spent around 20 months getting my internet coverage from the mobile contractor Three. The reason I originally signed up with this contractor was because, at the time, they were one of the only providers offering competitive deals on the mobile dongle, but now a lot of others are offering more competitive deals.

How much did you pay?

Within my 18 month contract (which continued to roll on once it had expired), I paid £18 per month for 7GB of internet access and I received a free mobile dongle when I signed up to the contract. My bill would have been £3 cheaper if I'd opted for the direct debit option of payment, but I decided to call up and pay each month.

I only exceeded my allowance once and because I opted to continue using the net, I was then charged per MB and had to settle my bill the following month.

The software

I am not very good with technology but it was easy to set the internet up on my computer and nine times out of ten I connected to the internet without any problems. Occasionally my computer would fail to connect, but I usually found that restarting my computer solved the problem.

I found the dongle quite easy to set up and I had no problems with the software provided. However I was given a large white dongle, that didn't look great but seemed to be more reliable than the model pictured. Two of my friends both had the slim black dongles like the one pictured above and they had numerous problems. One of my friends went without internet for about four months while she tried to solve the fault with Three and my other friend had to return her dongle on three separate occasions. In retrospect I was very please that I was sent a different model, because although it didn't look great it did the job.

Mobile Coverage

In general the Three mobile coverage is quite good, however the speed of the service changed depending on where I was sat in the house and I have heard that other providers offer better, faster coverage.

Customer Service

I don't think that Three are aware of what 'customer service' is, because I've received a terrible service from them since I initially signed up, in fact I often wonder why I stuck with them for so long... My main issues with the company follow:

1) Long waiting times: If I had a query or I wanted to pay my bill then it wasn't unusual for me to be waiting 45 to go through the process. In my opinion this is totally unacceptable, especially when you have to call a premium 0845 number.

2)Many staff members speak very little English and I had lots of problems understanding them. Also, if you do manage to speak to somebody that you do understand then don't expect them to be able to answer your query, because most of the staff seem clueless and they will try to fob you off and transfer your call so you can expect to wait for another ten minutes while they do this.

3)I only felt like Three cared about my custom when I tried to leave. They offered me a new dongle and unlimited internet for a fiver if I stayed, or a new computer... the department (that had obviously been set up to retain staff) is also based somewhere in England (rather than Mumbai) so the staff can be understood. Shame Three didn't care so much when I was paying them for a service each month.

Overall

I would not recommend Three as a mobile broadband provider because I think they are only interested in money and cutting costs, they really don't give a damn about their customers.

Although I didn't suffer with software problems, friends of mine did, which were a major hassle to sort out.

If you are looking for mobile broadband then search for a company that cares about their customers and stay well away from Three... you have been warned...