T-Mobile Launches £2 Per Day Mobile Broadband

Mark.J writes "ISPreview reports that T-Mobile UK has launched an interesting range of new off-the-shelf Mobile Broadband products that do not require customers to sign-up under a long-term contract. The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) style products cost from only £2 per day for 'unlimited' access (3GB Fair Usage Policy applies). To access T-Mobile pre-pay Mobile Broadband, customers simply need to purchase a USB (Modem) Stick 110, which includes a memory card, for just £49.99 and plug it into a laptop to access their favourite websites. Credit can be topped up direct from the laptop and customers are able to select whichever package suits them at the time." For American readers, that's about $3.66 right now -- plus shipping yourself to the UK.

The daily rate is outrageously expensive

[BadAnalogyGuy (945258)]

Assuming you check your webmail once a day on your phone, the daily rate will run you 60lbs a month.

The only package that really makes any sense is the 30 day plan:

30 Day
For customers that will use mobile broadband regularly but do not want to commit to a year-long contract, Mobile Broadband 30 Day is the option. Mobile Broadband for thirty days offers unlimited broadband access for only £20.

Still, you're living in the UK, so it's not all wine and roses.

Re:The daily rate is outrageously expensive

[Computershack (1143409)]

Still, you're living in the UK, so it's not all wine and roses.

Could be worse. I could be living in the USA where the next 300 years taxes my family will be paying will go straight into the pockets of the fat cat investment banks.

Re:The daily rate is outrageously expensive

[Tim Browse (9263)]

You lucky bastards. Here in the UK we dream of YouTube not being illegal and being able to watch it ourselves!

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[gbjbaanb (229885)]

those surveillance cameras are entirely there solely to provide the next generation with episodes of Police Camera Action to keep them docile. Nothing to do with checking up on us or keeping us safe.

Except of course, the ones on the roads, they're just there to raise revenue.

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[clang_jangle (975789)]

This sounds more like an aircard deal, not for broadband on the phone. I pay $70/month now for my (s-l-o-w) verizon aircard, if T-mobile brought this deal to the US I'd sure try it.

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[clang_jangle (975789)]

I meant the monthly rate, of course. Much better deal.

Re:The daily rate is outrageously expensive

[mr_matticus (928346)]

Yes, but it's absolutely fantastic if you travel frequently to the UK for short stints. Paying £7 for a week's worth of fairly generous 3G data access, or £2/day, or any other tiers they may have is a great option for those of us where this is the case. This is especially true of corporate accounts that have disabled international data roaming in the downturn, leaving overseas cell and data usage to a tedious reimbursement system (designed to drive people mad before actually cutting any checks/cheques).

At £2 a day, it can come out of the per diem and no one will miss it enough to file for reimbursement.

For vacation travelers, they've got Internet access without being nickel-and-dimed with usage charges based on kB.

I'm not aware of anything competitive with this in the US, or in most European countries, for that matter--usually I've just seen monthly unlimited plans (for cheap enough prices that it's worth paying, even if you're just there for a week, but still).

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[PopeRatzo (965947)]

Seriously, the daily rate sounds good. I find that I don't really need broadband access to my mobile every single day. This way, I can pay (a lot) for what I use.

I wouldn't mind hourly metering, to be honest. Not at home, mind you, but on the road, sure.

this is for travelers

[jipn4 (1367823)]

This is a good deal for travelers and occasional users; the alternatives are roaming or WiFi hotspots, both of which are much more expensive. If you use it more frequently than a few times a month, you can get much cheaper subscriptions.

I'd love to have this deal available in the US. Right now, I need a monthly subscription even though most of the time I just use WiFi at work and at home.

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[I confirm I'm not a (720413)]

...but if you're checking your email every day you won't be going for the GBP 2 per day option, you'll go for the GBP 20 per month option. I can see the 2 quid a day option being useful for frequent business trips; use regular land-line ADSL for regular use, and buy 6 quid's worth of mobile broadband for that trip to London.

...and 20 quid a month for 3GB? I'm paying about that ($50 NZ) for 1GB (that's 1GB per month). Damn Vodafone NZ.

Re:The daily rate is outrageously expensive

[commanderfoxtrot (115784)]

Orange have had a better deal for years.

£5 per month for offpeak internet, then £1 per day if you use it onpeak.

My broadband was out of action for two weeks, so for £10 additional cost, I was able to work over my phone. (Normal Nokia N70, via bluetooth). 3G is more than fast enough.

No limits: I did 3GB in a fortnight.

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[blackest_k (761565)]

your missing the point, it's fair to say most people who want broadband have it at home it's fairly cheap too.

Occasionally you want broadband elsewhere and this is quite a good deal but T-mobile tends to limit service in terms of ports and content. for example youtube is blocked by default till you demonstrate you are over 18. as are other social networking sites (but not slashdot).

Some might think its to stop users using too much bandwidth but its to protect the children.

To be honest 3 offer better rates a

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[PReDiToR (687141)]

Call me daft, but doesn't Orange PAYG still have the "pay £1 for 24 hours (max, ends at midnight) unlimited access @ 384kbps?

I have been using that for years. It actually did say "unlimited".

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[clang_jangle (975789)]

In the US it's all cheap beer and

Depends what part -- where I live it's all moonshine and lilacs.

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[Firehed (942385)]

Naturally, but that's how almost the entire cell industry works. You can get overchanged a couple of times a month for features you rarely use (and get heinously shafted if you end up using them frequently), or you can get overcharged by more once per month for unlimited-use features. See text message plans - $10/mo for unlimited, or 10c each (or whatever). Both are stupidly expensive for what you get, but it's quite obvious that after 100 texts you'd be foolish not to switch off the per-message plan.

Tha

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[digitalchinky (650880)]

$4 per day with a 3 gigabyte cap per month. I'm not sure which part of the world you live in where you are ok with throwing away $100 USD per month for internet on your phone - in real world terms it costs the network provider a tiny fraction of that to support you - so this is a crazy amount of money for such a small return.

In Asia I pay a little over $30 USD per month for unlimited data on my phone (3.5g) I run bittorrent on my N95 and regularly fill up the 8 gigabyte memory stick. Starbucks has free inte

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[mr_matticus (928346)]

$4 per day with a 3 gigabyte cap per month. I'm not sure which part of the world you live in where you are ok with throwing away $100 USD per month for internet on your phone

I'm not sure what part of the world you live in where you would pay a daily rate for 30 days when a monthly plan at a third the price is available.

Or you could go with Orange, who has £5/month mobile data, but you give up 3G speeds (GPRS only, last time I used it).

Keeping in mind the general high cost of goods and services in the UK relative to Asia and the United States, not to mention the unusually low cost of Internet services in Asia, their $55/month 3G isn't bad at all. Not everywhere can match

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[stfvon007 (632997)]

RTFA. it only charges you on days you actually use it. You can use it once or twice a month and only pay a small amount, but still be able to have it for when you want it. they have weekly and monthly rates too if you want that. (less than $20 for a week, less than $40 for a month)

Good for occasional use but modem too expensive

[IAmAI (961807)]

I think it's aimed at occasional users. I like the idea that I can pay a couple of quid and use when I'm travelling occasionally. However, what puts me off is the outrageously expensive USB stick you need to get [t-mobile.co.uk]. It claims to be a 'memory stick' as a well as a modem but it is really a microSD card adapter and it does not appear to come with a card. I would not pay more £20 for such a device.

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[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

For an HSPDA modem that's not bad. The price is dropping fast but £20? I bet the chips in there cost that. It comes free if you get a contract.

There are laptops with HSPDA built in coming out and if you have one of those you won't even need to pay that.

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[maglor_83 (856254)]

It's HSDPA, not HSPDA. Anybody know if this card is HSUPA as well? That would make it an even better deal.

The £20/month deal is better

[damburger (981828)]

Because any self respecting nerd would use the Internet more than 10 days out of a month

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[GuldKalle (1065310)]

But any self respecting nerd also has wired internet at home. This is great if you need mobile internet now and then due to traveling, but would rather use your home line at home because of greater speeds (3G usually lands you 2-4 Mbit/s, at least here in Denmark), or greater flexibility (e.g. getting your net from ethernet instead of USB)

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[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

Exactly. I have one (on a better deal IMO) and use it only when on holiday.. it plugs into the eeepc just fine.

Compared to hotel internet/wifi it's dirt cheap.. I don't need it when at home though.

Will the dongle work with my Eee PC?

[IAmAI (961807)]

I'd want to use the USB model with my Eee PC which has the standard Xandros OS installed. I wonder if it will work?

Re:Will the dongle work with my Eee PC?

[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

Probably. These dongles pretty much all pretend to be serial modems and you just need to do some mucking around with AT commands and run pppd.

Some of them need some hackery (eg. the one I have needs a kick to switch from storage mode to serial mode) but you won't be the first to try it so there will be a HOWTO somewhere.

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[lilo_booter (649045)]

Don't know about T Mobile, but three.co.uk have a 49 quid modem with PAYG and it works fine on Ubuntu (little bit of googling will reveal all).

I think the three deal is better anyway...

What is broadband in this context?

[pembo13 (770295)]

What definition of broadband is being used here?

Re:What is broadband in this context?

[thermian (1267986)]

What definition of broadband is being used here?

I'd take a stab at 'Outrageously priced broadband' myself. It sounds ok for business people who may need access to the tubes at various times whilst on the move. Until this the only way to get mobile broadband via a dongle was to get either a monthly subscription or a pay as you go in which you bought blocks of Gb then had 30 days to use it or lose it. Neither appeals to me.

I may get this and keep it in my laptop bag to use if I find myself in need of internets access but unable to find any, but never for routine use.

Vodafone in Spain

[jackd (64557)]

Using a similar service from Vodafone here in Spain, where I'm staying for a couple of months. 59 Euros per month, unlimited usage, no contract. Just showed my drivers license, and purchased the Vodafone USB HSDPA/3G modem stick and they activated my subscription in the store. Works amazingly well, able to reach download speeds of 1.5 mbit, and coverage almost anywhere.

What I found particularly interesting, was how much bandwidth you use with just "minimal" use, ie. having it plugged in all day while working for emails, using Web sites and various company Web apps. So far, in 20 days this month, I've used 1.2 GB of data. A lot more than I would have guessed. .. and nope, no movie or music downloads.

Re:Vodafone in Spain - details please?

[petes_PoV (912422)]

Having a house out there, in the middle of nowehere without even a landline, this is just the sort of thing I've been waiting for. Can you tell me the name of the service and what the price of the modem stick is? Thanks

Expensive

[by Anonymous Coward]

Here in finland you get usb 3G modem and unlimited traffic @ 384kbps for 9,80euros /month

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[rml1997 (929311)]

You can get a similar deal here for around 10/15 pounds a month from most operators. The difference here is you are paying for a single day's usage.

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[GigaplexNZ (1233886)]

You can get a similar deal here for around 10/15 pounds a month from most operators. The difference here is you are paying for a single day's usage.

Where exactly is "here"?

Vodafone Egypt

[johndmartiniii (1213700)]

We've had something like this in Egypt for a while now, probably in response to the limited availability of broadband internet through DSL at one time. Vodafone Egypt does a 3G service for mobile devices and you can buy both USB and PC card adapters. The problem is similar though, the hardware is prohibitively expensive--equivalent to 500USD--and the service isn't really intended to be used regularly. It costs 1LE per MB tranfser (about 0.20USD) or you can buy a plan which includes up to 5 GB transfer per month for about 500LE (100USD). Kind of on the expensive side in the end. There are several other providers here now doing similar things, but their prices are almost exactly the same across the board.

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[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

Then again with those kinds of plans at least the underuse carries over.. with my DSL provider I've currently got 8.5GB of carry over and it's going up by about 2GB a month - should really think about reducing my plan...

When I would use it

[shawn443 (882648)]

Prove to the client that the Internet is not down. Please lets upgrade the blinking blue box.

"Unlimited" T+Cs

[Bazman (4849)]

"If you use more than your fair use policy amount, we won't charge you any more, but we may restrict how you can use your plan, depending on how often you go over your amount and by how much"

Is anyone on /. going to sign up to something so vague?

Considering costs in Australia that's not bad

[AbRASiON (589899)]

3gb a day is more than enough for me, if that was about half the cost and 2/3 the bandwidth it'd seriously be worth considering to replace my standard ADSL internet connection.

It can't be both UNLIMITED and 3Gb!

[splodus (655932)]

I can put up with all the 'only £1.99 a day!' and 'from just £49.99' style marketing speak. It's jarring, but at least it's not dishonest.

However I am absolutely sick of hearing 'Unlimited usage! (fair use policy applies equal to 3Gb of data in any 28 day period subject to change)

I'm happy to pay for a 3Gb per month limit. I'd be delighted with an unlimited usage package. But I am fed up with providers advertising 'unlimited', when it is is clearly, unequivocally, NOT unlimited!

I'd urge any UK readers that agree to generate a gentle trickle of complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency [asa.org.uk] and the Office of Communications [ofcom.org.uk].

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[thetoadwarrior (1268702)]

I was just about to post something similar. I can't believe this tactic has been allowed to continue.

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[splodus (655932)]

Before anyone claims that T mobile say no such thing;

September Offers [t-mobile.co.uk]

It says "UNLIMITED* internet access with no run-on rates"

Further down there's a link "* Subject to fair use"

Following the link lists 15 different tariffs with their various terms and conditions. There's quite a lot of small print there...

Re:It can't be both UNLIMITED and 3Gb!

[Dogtanian (588974)]

Before anyone claims that T mobile say no such thing; It says "UNLIMITED* internet access with no run-on rates". Further down there's a link "* Subject to fair use"

So in essence they're claiming that it's unlimited then using the small-print to claim it's unlimited via an indirect and vague reference to a "fair use" policy.

Small-print should be used to clarify things and make clear the boring details, not to allow companies to outright lie and then weasel out of it without even having the "explanation" on the same page.

Anticipating a possible response to this post, anyone (including the telcos) who claims that the "unlimited" means "unlimited connection time" or some similar BS is being disingenuous. The companies *know* and are operating on the assumption that people will take "unlimited" to mean "unlimited downloading", if only because clearly that *is* what people have already shown they believe such claims to mean. IANAL, but I assume that this is how the advertisement would be judged legally and/or by the advertising standards bodies.

(This isn't to say that the offer of 3GB for a regular fee of £15/month is bad value by mobile standards- but the advert *is* intentionally misleading, like it or not).

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[lattyware (934246)]

Interestingly, Sky actually don't do this, if you check their pages, it says Unlimeted* - and it actually has *No Fair Usage Policy Applies at the bototm of the page. That said, you have to be within their network to get that deal. (I, for one, am not.) That said, they are about the only ISP that doesn't. It's criminal.

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[CrackedButter (646746)]

Sky spelt 'unlimeted' wrong btw, you should inform them.

Nobody said unlimited...

[Manip (656104)]

If you actually check T-Mobile's site instead of reading the article you'll find no use of the word "unlimited" anywhere on the pages.

In fact next to each plan it lists "3GB fair use amount - without any run-on rates."

In fact the only reference I can find to "unlimited" broadband is on ISP Review.

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[calmofthestorm (1344385)]

So I doubt it's technically possible to download 3GB in a single day, but for doing so over the air, that seems like an extremely good price to pay.

though I'd rather pay that per-byte price on any amount I download:-)

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[splodus (655932)]

I was looking at this one;

September Offers [t-mobile.co.uk]

It says "UNLIMITED* internet access with no run-on rates"

Further down there's a link "* Subject to fair use"

Following the link lists 15 different tariffs with their various terms and conditions. It's not immediately obvious which applies to the one you were just looking at.

Which site were you looking at? Was it the UK one?

Price + Shipping = Escape!

[centuren (106470)]

For American readers, that's about $3.66 right now -- plus shipping yourself to the UK.

CLEARLY worth the price, considering the benefits of leaving the US. ;)

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[calmofthestorm (1344385)]

I'd suggest switching to a provider that lets you create virtual card numbers, so if they ever pull this again you can simply cancel the "card".