Impulse browsing
UK mobile network operator Three is offering an innovative mobile broadband alternative to committing to long term monthly contracts: Pay Per Day.
It pretty much does what it says on the tin - you pay two quid and you get a day's worth of 3G mobile broadband access. Furthermore, while it is capped, the ceiling is a pretty generous 500MB. If any HEXUS readers find themselves using more than 500MB mobile broadband per day we'd like to hear from them.
"Three's Pay Per Day deal is the ideal proposition for business travellers, iPad owners and students who have a fixed broadband connection at home but also want the flexibility of being able to snack on mobile broadband whilst away from their home," said Three director of mobile broadband Joe Parker.
The press release implies you can get the micro-SIM card required for the minimum payment. Assuming this will be used primarily for tablets and notebooks, just £2 gets you the ability to buy a day's worth of mobile broadband whenever you need it. You will, however, need to be able to get online in the first place, but there is apparently no credit needed to access My3 for a top-up.
A quick look at the Three site reminded us that Three already has some decent no-contract mobile broadband deals with the iPad in mind. Firstly you can get 1GB per month for either £7.50 on a monthly rolling contract or £10 on a 30 day PAYG deal. Alternatively there's MiFi - a standalone Wi-Fi hotspot that uses the Three 3G netowork, that has an initial cost but then can be used by up to five devices at a time.
Meanwhile Orange customers, for example, can get a 3G dongle for as little as £5 per month on an 18 month contract. So this deal is definitely for the impulsive mobile broadband user, and doesn't make financial sense if you even use mobile broadband only once per week.
Here's Three's graphic illustrating what 500MB gets you. The numbers seem surprisingly low to us; surely emails without attachments are a lot smaller than 1MB...
