How can I restrict my broadband data usage on the internet

[Page]

I am playing with a mi-fi with a "3" SIM inside

prices are okay for the monthly pre paid usage of 15GB (£18) but as soon as I go over that the over usage charge is £100 plus per GB

The way round this is to only use pre pay - but this essentially works out at £3.50 per GB

All I can think of is some way of stopping usage once I hit the 15Gb and then revert to pre pay for the rest of the month

[Page]

Ah not so bad it seems you can set a data cap with "3" and then when it runs out - it just stops and you can then move over to a PAYG SIM for the rest of the month

[Talay]

Get a 3 phone contract where there is no cap and it is truly unlimited and simply use the phone and not the mi-fi.

Alternatively, hit ebay and http://www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/hot to search for 3 SIM data deals with various GB for low cost.

[sanjiv]

The mobile phone sim internet connections aren't as good as the ones dedicated for dongle use.

[Talay]

Originally Posted by sanjiv

The mobile phone sim internet connections aren't as good as the ones dedicated for dongle use.

Not in my experience with 3. I saw no difference and hence now have one phone on 3.

Care to explain why ?

[sanjiv]

They connect to different APN's. The phone one is designed to work better on phones and the dongle one for a PC. I have a dongle sim in an iPad on T-Mobile and it was also getting consistently better 3G signal than my Blackberry on a motorway journey (streaming YouTube videos the whole way).

Also it is generally against T&C's so they could terminate the contract.

[astutiumRob]

Originally Posted by Page

How can I restrict my broadband data usage on the internet
I am playing with a mi-fi with a "3" SIM inside

You'll get a text when getting close to the limits to the sim in the mifi.
At that point disconnect it and stick it in a drawer until the next bill period, unless you want to pay ~£10/min to read your emails.

[stugster]

Originally Posted by sanjiv

They connect to different APN's. The phone one is designed to work better on phones and the dongle one for a PC. I have a dongle sim in an iPad on T-Mobile and it was also getting consistently better 3G signal than my Blackberry on a motorway journey (streaming YouTube videos the whole way).

Also it is generally against T&C's so they could terminate the contract.

You better tell 3 that they've got different APNs for their data then I'm pretty confident all 3 traffic goes over the same APN and the only reason you saw a change was that you were using different hardware and software to perform your test.

[Talay]

Originally Posted by sanjiv

....Also it is generally against T&C's so they could terminate the contract.

If you care to ask 3 whether tethering is allowed you get an affirmative answer. Whether that is specifically noted and allowed in their T&C I doubt but specifically 3 do allow tethering though they may have some issue if you wanted to download the whole web !

[Page]

Originally Posted by stugster

You better tell 3 that they've got different APNs for their data then I'm pretty confident all 3 traffic goes over the same APN and the only reason you saw a change was that you were using different hardware and software to perform your test.

So I can buy a data SIM limited download usage or a phone SIM "unlimited"

If they are both the same then I might as well buy a phone SIM

On the subject of tethering they say -
SIM plans with All-you-can-eat data do not allow tethering (except for the One Plan). If you would like to tether, you will need to choose a Pay Monthly plan and / or an Add-On that does allow tethering.

The One Plan costs £25 a month - if it was truly unlimited without issues this would be worth it for me - I shall check it out sometime