I am convinced that the mobile internet depends not only on signal strength but also what handset you use.
I have friends who have the latest phones, tablets and pa's but my Motorola ATRIX still out performs them. ( you should see some of their faces when I tell them my phone is 18 months old). Never had a problem with the service at T-Mobile.
T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Reviews
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T-Mobile 3 months internet Huawei dongle, for just £29.99 ."Use the internet the way you want everyday without having to worry...." Sure, nice box and nice dongle, 3 months internet, Should we believe them, in these phoney contract and slightly dodgy Mall days? Reality? It's for browsing, nothing else. So no. Aaah, "if it sounds too good to be true"....The Three months internet from T-Mobile is a very recent purchase, sounded just great. Just £29.99 for 3 months free unlimited on a stick. Browsing yes. Much else? No.
Be prepared for big red nag screens when the short allowance runs out. Those nag screens will cancel out whatever you're doing, and you'll lose work/track. Emails and surfing: fine. Just. Very soon after purchase, and a few You Tube visits or a bit of downloading, you'll be restricted to browsing and emails only. Because you "exceeded the Fair Use policy". It's okay, if you have absolutely no other means of Internet at home. Otherwise, avoid. -
Report abuseT-mobile......yes....where to possibly begin?
I've been using this sloppy device of a 120 dongle for almost three years - so in a way, the more I use this ridiculously outdated device, the more I fund t-mobile to carry on providing just the s**ttest service ever.
Customer service is largely either unpleasant, accusatory when there are issues (it's always your fault, whatever the problem), and phoning them? Don't bother. I was promised a call back and never received one, in other forums they try their least best (that is to say, they really couldn't give a f**k) to appear genuinely sincere in their efforts to try and resolve any issues and they fail flat out.
The dongle itself may be reliable, but the software for it is most definitely not. I remember getting this thing for Windows 7, and as yet, there appears to be no fully functional entirely able software to get this thing working. As a result it's usually a mess about with Windows to try and get an initial connection. If you have Windows 8, the news is far worse - it simply won't do anything and you'll have to spend hours longer to get it to work at all.
There appears to be no hardware support for the product, it's not listed as far as I can tell in their website (also the EE equivalent of t-mobile support). I doubt very much that EE is any better than T-mobile. "Polish a turd, it's still a turd" And my GOD T-mobile is just the biggest turd of providers ever.
On the only plus side I've EVER been able to think of, when I did have a problem with my dongle I went to a newly refurbished and done up EE store and the people there were pretty helpful, unlike the people who used to work in the t-mobile store that it once was. But that's been it. There is very little good to say about T-mobile, and I doubt EE is any better.
These people are more about the shareholders and profit, not about the customers and the service. So back off, put the wallet away, and walk out of it unharmed and not disappointed. -
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I was givin a dongle off my sister but she has forgot password and username as she hasnt used it for months I am trying to top it up with a voucher but cant log in as I dnt no username r password what can I do please some one help thnx
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I too have been using my PAYG dongle for 3 years and the only time I had issues was when i exceeded the download when watching YouTube, I could still use email and surf the web. I use it in a very poor area for broadband and T-mobile are the only PAYG BB that has good signal strength. CAn't say I download too much though. Currently I don't have any issues with this so find this somewhat surprising.
I'm thinking of MIFI now so wondered it that might make a difference. -
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I'm on T-mobile mobile broadband PAYG, because I moved into a flat with no landline and don't intend to be here long. So, I'm using my desktop PC as if it were a beast of a laptop.
I'll start with the good: it's 15 pounds for a month, no data limit, on the best PAYG deal. The connection and speed is pretty good. For example, I'm downloading 4 games at the same time as doing this. The games are going to take more than a day doing it this way, but I already know that I can play Need For Speed World on this connection - I've been doing it! That's a 3d car racing game, speeds up to 200mph in a persistent city environment. Pretty damned impressive! I had no idea that was possible on a mobile broadband connection. Occasionally I get dumped out of the multiplayer races with lost connection, but compared to what I expected, that's nothing.
So the good is really good. Unfortunately, the bad is reeeally bad. T-mobile still owes me the 90 days access that I originally paid for. In the first instance, they sent the wrong type of sim with the dongle - it was a smart phone sim, but as it went in 'sideways' I figured it was right, and after finding that the dongle didn't recognise the sim, I was on the phone to T-mobile for help.
They really do answer in that way of reading from a script, rather than listening to what you're saying. One woman tried to tell me I held the dongle so long between receiving it and using it that it had become inactive. (Five hours!? Was that too long?) I know she was trying to say that the sim had gone out of date, but she was also trying to say that was down to me!
One guy told me to visit a particular web page using the dongle - ummmm... problem is it doesn't work!? How am I supposed to do that?
Another woman told me she'd activate the sim for me by putting 79p on it... didn't work, and in fact subsequent phone calls revealed that this never happened anyay.
Another woman told me it was probably the dongle, and she'd put it in the system for replacement, a guy would come and swap mine for a new one. .. this sounded a bit extreme for a payg dongle and sim, and I didn't really believe it would happen. And it didn't. Following the non appearance of this guy at the stated time, I called again. the guy who answered this time said I wouldn't have received anything because they didn't have my address!
Okay, but he adhered to the 'replacement' theory and sent out a new dongle.
Said new dongle came with a sim card, which I immediately saw was twice the size of the sim they originally sent. Now, you'd kinda think they might be interested in checking the batch - these things don't come separately, they're both in the same box.
But no, absolutely no interest in that.
So, I tried the sim, and it worked! I was connected to my account page on T-mobile, but obviously on the wrong number so I had no credit. Okay, cool, I thought it was getting easier. I called again to have the 90 days transferred to the new number.
Nope, despite assurances, it hasn't happened.
T-mobile also, curiously, have a website that seems mobile broadband unfriendly. I can hardly ever load the T-mobile site or look at my account, and every couple of pages the site dumps me out, and I have to log in again which is absolutely ridiculous - these are the pages where my money becomes theirs! Suuurely they'd make more effort!?
And there's a rather odd little thing called 'content lock' that T-mobile apply. It's a 'feature' .. a 'free feature!' at that... it basically blocks unsuitable content... like Facebook, and MSN, and YouTube. Now check this out, there's four ways to get around this: One is simply to use a proxy service of some kind, which while a tad awkward means that any under-16 year old with half a brain will bypass this thing anyway.
the other three ways are the official methods: 2) go to a locked website, the T-mobile message about content lock appears, and you can put in a credit card details and have the lock removed. Only, that doesn't work. It never works. Even if you use the same card details of the card which is registered on your account for the PAYG top ups.
3) you dial T-mobile numbers from your T-mobile phone. Okay, but I haven't got a t-mobile phone. I've got a T-mobile sim, in a dongle, attached to my PC. I have a smartphone with a 3 sim in it, which is locked to the machinations of my T-mobile sim.
4) You take ID to a T-mobile store. While the store-finder on their website is friendly enough, and works, I'm informed that I@m going to have to travel 9.6 miles to do this.
A thoughly mixed review then, and they still owe me 90 days of internet access that I paid for but haven't got. I'm online because I topped up my account with another payment.
So, I guess, this is about fantastic coverage, but it seems mobile broadband customers get kinda bum deal from customer services.
And... I'd also say never, ever, use the online help system. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was manned by bots. The text replies to your queries and information actually don't make any sense and include things like, 'I'm so happy to be helping you today.'' .... wtf? Well get on and do so then! -
Report abuseHaving purchased a T-Mobile 'pay as you go dongle' a couple of months ago, I find that it is very reliable and loads webpages efficiently with 3G (4G not available where I live yet).
Still learning about the usage for listening to 'live' radio, but should be able to listen to my favorite radio program for 2-3 hours a day as long as I remember not to 'download' up-dates which will use-up my monthly usage. Very happy with T-Mobile. -
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DO NOT BUY T-mobile 90 day internet for £30. Its a con you get 1G download a month but it uses it within a few hours, then they slow it down so it becomes unbearable to use. Complete pile of CRAP you have to disable automatic downloads and if you use Norton you have to disable that as well otherwise it eats all your allowance.
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I'm a bit surprised about all this fair-use policy stuff: I thought T-Mobile were pretty clear about how it operates. Once you get to 80% of your monthly fair-use limit they send you a message to warn you, and then once you hit 100% of it you can't do heavy-use stuff like downloading major files, watching videos and so on between 4 pm and midnight. Given that there's a nominal 3GB limit on your monthly use (or I think it's 2GB for more recent contracts), obviously you can't do much in the way of video or audio files, but it should be sufficient for most other things.
I've been using my T-Mobile PAYG mobile broadband dongle with a 3GB monthly limit for over 3 years now for my business and personal use. I can be online up to 16 hours a day, but in that time, with email constantly on and significant amounts of general surfing, I don't think I've ever exceeded my limit except when I've been watching video, so I'm surprised to find people exceeding their limit in a matter of days, if they're not watching video. And as T-M point out, you're still able to do even that, just not in peak hours (and I'm not aware of anyone else who actually allows you to go over your monthly allowance on PAYG. That's why I went for them). Program updates seem to take place quite happily during those peak hours, though.
What I'm not so happy about, though, is the download speeds at times, I admit, but I'm wondering if any of you have actually rung the helpline to find out whether there was a problem? I used to sit there during peak times and get very frustrated at how slowly pages were downloading, but just assumed that there was too much load on the transmitters, and this was how mobile broadband had to work. It was only when it got totally ridiculous and I had to ring them up that I discovered there was actually a problem with my local transmitter and so we had twice the number of people trying to use one further away which was causing the problems! Now, if I find things are suspiciously slow, I ring them up and alert them, because there may be a transmitter problem they're not yet aware of. -
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I used to be a T-Mobile mobile broadband monthly customer. After my second 18 month contract I told them that I wanted to change to another provider. They told me that I could not change, and that I could not 'cancel' the contract, even though I did not renew after the second 18 month contract had expired. They threatened me with court action, debt collectors and all kinds of BS before finally giving up. I recently bought a T-Mobile dongle from Asda as a kind of stop-gap. They have this 'fair usage' thing that says that after you have used 1gb, they choke you down to VERY SLOW speeds and stop you watching video clips. Fair enough? Not when they send you an SMS after just two days of very normal browsing claiming that you have already used you 1gb. Total BS outfit that I shall never use again even if they offer everything FREE!!!!
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I switched to T-Mobile as part of a company policy to move from O2. I use this on train for about 3 hours a day on the Bristol to Paddington line. The O2 would drop the signal now and again but reconnect. The T-Mobile drops much more frequently, is slower and for some uknown reason re-initialises the dongle a few times each trip. It's a demanding job for the hardware to keep connected on a train and the O2 service was not perfect but it was MUCH better than this. And of course the T-Mob includes access to the Orange network.
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I'm continuing to pay for this because I have no alternative. T-Mobile's claims of 4.5mb speed are complete lies; on a very good day it very very rarely tops 2mb and usually settles around the 1-1.5mb area. The connection keeps randomly dropping out or speeds dropping to 0 for long periods of time, even when it's reporting a full signal. Also if you don't have a credit card then enjoy your content lock. Unless you have a T-Mobile store nearby (which I don't), there is no way of removing it because of their idiotic requirement that you HAVE to have a credit card. No other network demands this, I don't know why T-Mobile insist on it.
Overall, not worth the amount I'm paying but sadly I have to make do as I have no other option. -
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Please people , do not bother wasting your money on this product !! We have been stuck with a product that , to be fair , is not fit for purpose . In fact borderline trading standards being involved for what they say you get with contract and what you actually get . In fact our salesman actually lied by insisting that we would always be able to download for free ( without using any of our allowance ) between 12am and 8am no matter what , even if we had reached our limit . Only 1 month to go 'til contact is up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I've been a Tmobile customer since 2006, with handsets on both payg and contract, I have an old tmobile broadband dongle that i use in conjunction with a payg sim, until recently I was topping up just a fiver a month and buying a month web booster, however this option no longer seems to be available and all they are offering is 5 days net for 2.50 or 15 quid a month for net, come on tmoble thats a little exsessive? I use a lot of internet and am constantly over my fair share, however as im using an old sim it just slows my speed between 4pm and 12am otherwise I was downloading at speeds close to 2mbps however since tmobile has become EE and my speeds have droppped to an average of 50kbps. please sort it out tmobile you used to be good.
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Purchased a t-mobile mifi wifi last week with 5GB of monthly data on a 30 day contract for £15 a month. Works well up to now with no problems. I have been cheating 3 for the last 2 years by putting a phone sim card in my three wifi and just paying the £5 unlimited internet access add on (2GB fair use). Even though it was the 3 shop who put me onto this they have now caught up with me and card will now only work in a phone not wifi. Speeds on t-mobile are average (not far from mast), not looking for using out and about, just at home (no phone line in house) and unlike 3 which switch you off when limited reached apparently t-mobile still let you browse (what that involves, I wait to see). One fault is no where to check where you are up to on data within month (unless you count the counter on mifi index page). They only email you once your limit is reached.
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Bought this dongle for occassional use when travelling. Have had trouble with signal and topping up. Final straw now is that it has been unregistered from the network and i can no longer use it or find out why it has been unregistered or how to reregister. Definetely NOT reccommended for casual use.
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I bought my Dongle back in 2010. Because of this, I was still on the ''Unlimited Downloads Between 12am & 4pm'' Deal until recently. They started to Text me deals. One of them said that I could get Unlimited Free Texts, just for topping up £10 Per Month. As I have been topping up £15 Per Month since 2010, I thought I could jump onto this deal and continue as I am. Turns out though, that it would replace my old deal. So suddenly I had a Dongle that was pretty much useless for being online.
The joke has ended up being on T-Mobile however. I had £18 just sat on my Dongle at this stage. So I tried something in a last ditch attempt to get internet again. As you may know, on Mobiles, you can Text ''MonthWeb'' to 441 and for £5, you get 30 Day's of Internet with a FUP of 1GB. So I tried it and huzzah! For 2 Months now, I've been paying £5 for the very same service I used to pay £15 Per Month for. The only issue I have to look out for, is when it's been a month. I am not told that my internet has expired. It just keeps going, but charges me at whatever rates they charge people for using the net. A way around this though is to simply have no credit on the Sim. It can't take what you haven't got.
Overall, if you like to browse the web a lot (But not download much) then you're best off sticking to T-Mobile. They offer Quantity over Quality. If however, you're a downloader or rare user, look for another provider. Any one will do. But not T-Mobile. -
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I bought a £15 dongle yesterda being Friday, I also paid the shop £15 to top it up. my total spend now £30. Following day I use the open university website. I am on this for three hours, when a message pops up telling me that I have exceeded my data limit. I am now going to bin this dongle and warn people of T Mobile .... BBC . Big Bloody Con
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I bought this Dongle because I needed access and this was the only way available. It was okay at first, wasn't the fastest but it was tollerable. Did disconnect alot at first. Then I had absolutely no problems and it seemed to go faster. But for the last week or so I keep getting disconnected every minute and quite frankly, I'm sick of it. I'll be looking at another company to try because how are you supposed to do anything getting disconnected every minute!!
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The connection is extremely slow, slower than my old 56K modem until after midnight. Pretty crap considering the cost. We all know the main joy of a fast internet connection but you'll have to stay up late if you want that. Good way to kick the addiction and save the wrists.
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T-mobile sucks!!!
Who rates this dongle? 4/5 stars for nearly everything! yeah right..
I wouldn't give you 1/100 let alone 1/5!
If i could of found my receipt i would of taken back my 3mth pre pay dongle under the sales of goods act!
There slow, you used to be able to still DL during of peak hours i.e 12am-4pm now you cant at all till you re-top up! & if you've paid for 30 days at a time then your stuck some times for 2-3 wks with out being able to use the internet for what you want to use it for!
DON'T BUY!!!
RUBBISH, RUBBISH, RUBBISH... -
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I am using T-Mobile last couple of years for simple reason and that is ... they don't cut you off after using that gigabyte of data. In my scenario, the longest I've stretched it was ONE week, but usually it goes within 2 or 3 days, if I am gentle with usage ;-)
Regarding signal reception: I couldn't agree more with above ... It is terrible and disappointing ... very often slow which makes doing ANYTHING with internet VERY VERY FRUSTRATING :-(
I am looking for at least 30Gb (preferably 40Gb or more), but no luck so far :-( -
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Just got this message.
You've consistently used a very large amount of data, far exceeding your Fair Use Policy on a number of occasions, as previously advised. To be fair to other customers who may be affected by your usage, we will be closing your account on 20 Sep 2012.
7.5gb this month most of which is in the early hours ie. off peak. 3 month topup was supposed to end 9 Oct. Wish they gave a final warning or somthing. Oh well. -
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Extremely disappointed with T-Mobile and their mobile broadband. I also use Orange and 3 mobile, and both are lightening fast compared to the pathetic slow page loads, with T-mobile, even within my monthly allowance, I have yet to experience download speeds from T-Mobile which are greater than 300kb/s and uploads barely exceed dial up internet speeds, even in the early hours of the morning, with full signal strength.
If that wasn't bad enough, The 'always browse and email' policy is throttled back even more, to make it slower than dial up, so you can go off and make a coffee whilst google loads. T-Mobile should re-brand themselves as 'The retro broadband provider' because their service gives you an excellent taste of what the internet was like surfing with a fax-modem back in 1997. So if you are considering T-mobile then don't, hit your back button immediately and avoid them like the plague. There are many other Mobile Broadband providers out there and they all do it far better than T-Mobile.
In short, its a blessing I tried their 'service' (if you can refer to it as that) first with a PAYG sim, because I would hate to be locked into a contract for a service like this, which even ten years ago, would be considered third world. Right now, their sim card only has one useful purpose - bin fodder. -
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trust me if you yous your brain T mobile is the best mobile broadband dongle going unlimited internet and i mean unlimited only bean using it for a couple of months and must of used about 500gb of allowance and you don't get chard extra £ for going over your 1gb monthly allowance and if your speed slows down just re connect.
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T-mobile in one word is a CON, please do not by,
They lied in the shop saying my area had very good
signal, so when I got home it came up with 2G service
which comes up with a green light, now let me tell you
it took 5 minutes to log into yahoo and kept on logging me
out say problems with DNS? this dongle is a joke and I will be
reporting them to trading standards for selling products that does
Not provide a service they advertise and lie about the coverage
to get a sale. PLEASE save your money. -
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I want to warn people about the extortionate overseas charges levied by mobile phone operator T Mobile. We recently returned to the UK from a trip in Turkey to find that we had been charged just under £500 for calls made from Turkey on the Turcell Network.
Many of these calls included a connection charge of £1.50 for 0.00 minutes used which racked up the bill tremendously. If you have T-Mobile set up for roaming internationally you would be well advised to cancel the international roaming and just use it as a UK phone. -
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i have a t mobile dongle and want to top it up can you please tell me how to do it on line
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Ive now tried two T-Mobile dongles since they launched mobile broadband. One early on and now recently.......simply put, JUNK JUNK JUNK... Stick with 3, costs a little more, but you'll keep your hair!
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Have used T-mobile broadband for about 4 years but recently the signal quality has nosedived to make the internet pretty much unusable - slower than the old dial up - it took me 2 hours to pay a credit card bill online. For me this seemed to be linked to the shared network with Orange - I seemed to automatically pick up an Orange signal - and it was very poor. I have called it quits and got a better deal with 3 with speedy and reliable internet and a big data allowance.
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