Mobile Broadband rant !!!

Gremlin

Gremlin

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Really annoyed with Tmobile, I've had a mobile broadband dongle for a while now and use it when I'm away from home and when my internet goes down, which is rare these days
I always keep some credit on it for emergencies etc.
I'm away from home at the moment and the night before I left I thought I'd see what credit there was and top it up, came up not found WTF !!!
Called into the shop in Norwich today, only to be told that if you don't use it for a while they block the sim for security reasons !!!!
Why ???? It's PAYG and I have a card that I use when I need to top up, just go into a shop and pay cash so where's the security risk ?
He couldn't answer that one but seems that the money I had on it is now been swallowed up by tmobile and I can have a new free sim card but I have to put a minimum amount on it so they can activiate it !!!
Like that is gonna happen, popped into carphone warehouse and got a new wirelss one on a different network, works better.
Can't wait for my mobile contract with tmobile to finish, had nothing but trouble with them :bang:
 
Yep same with pay as you go phone sim. If you do not use them for more than 6 moths the block the card and you lose the number. Happened to me with Asda Mobile, no notice just blocked. :-(
 
sep9001 said:
Yep same with pay as you go phone sim. If you do not use them for more than 6 moths the block the card and you lose the number. Happened to me with Asda Mobile, no notice just blocked. :-(
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Not true of all carriers. My Orange/EE payg sim gets used at most once a year and it's never been blocked. Had it for nearly seven years now.
 
Perhaps that's what's happened with my Vodafone dongle then. Went to use it when we were away in the caravan and got nothing.

Di
 
If you only need very occasional mobile broadband it's probably best to just "share" some data from your regular voice sim once in a while.

I normally get 1gb each month included as part of my £10/month Tmobile payg "smartpack" and normally only use about 500mb of my allowance so there is plenty left over if I ever get an FTTC outage on wired broadband.

A lot of newer phones have "enable personal hotspot" in the menu which makes it easy to share data from a voice sim. If you don't have this then you could always put the voice sim in the dongle (with an adaptor if it's a smaller sim) as a stop gap.
 
Bristolian said:
Not true of all carriers. My Orange/EE payg sim gets used at most once a year and it's never been blocked. Had it for nearly seven years now.
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You were lucky. Orange policy is definitely 6 months without use = disconnection.

From the Orange website:
We will disconnect your Device if during the previous six months, you have not Registered a new Top Up or you have not made chargeable calls from your Device or received incoming calls on your Device.

For the avoidance of doubt calls shall include but not be limited to voice calls, data calls and text messaging. On disconnection your mobile telephone number will be reassigned.

On Reconnection you will be assigned a new mobile telephone number.
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I had this with my South African SIM on Vodacom (Vodafone subsidiary), because I hadn't been there for a while and forgot to keep it active. I did manage to get my number back, because it hadn't been reassigned, but it took a bit of persuasion.
 
On 3G you loose any credit after 30 days but I have yet to be cut off not used for a while.

O2 appeared reasonable for a daily access charge.
 
DrRusty said:
On 3G you loose any credit after 30 days but I have yet to be cut off not used for a while.

O2 appeared reasonable for a daily access charge.
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If by 3G you mean 3UK (3G is a technology offered by all the networks, 3UK or Three is the name of the network), they work on the same 6 month rule as Orange (and T-Mobile, and O2).

• We may also suspend our Services or disconnect you if you have not activated a Pay As You Go Voucher on your account or undertaken any chargeable events or activities (for example, made telephone calls, sent text or photo messages, accessed content or the internet or any other 3 Services for which a charge is made) using any credit on your account during the preceding 6 month period.
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Three
 
T Mobile did exactly the same to me so the dongles gone in the bin and I'll just get another from someone else, infact BT Hotspots are getting bigger coverage all the time so I might not even bother.. looking at it they may have done me a favour:)

Simon
 
boliston said:
If you only need very occasional mobile broadband it's probably best to just "share" some data from your regular voice sim once in a while.

I normally get 1gb each month included as part of my £10/month Tmobile payg "smartpack" and normally only use about 500mb of my allowance so there is plenty left over if I ever get an FTTC outage on wired broadband.

A lot of newer phones have "enable personal hotspot" in the menu which makes it easy to share data from a voice sim. If you don't have this then you could always put the voice sim in the dongle (with an adaptor if it's a smaller sim) as a stop gap.
Click to expand...

That's ok but it soon runs out if you connect a laptop to it, then the large bills soon add up, and the providers aren't keen on that if you have the unlimited one
Oh well suppose I'll just have to get a new sim every few months when I want to use it.
 
Gremlin said:
That's ok but it soon runs out if you connect a laptop to it, then the large bills soon add up, and the providers aren't keen on that if you have the unlimited one
Oh well suppose I'll just have to get a new sim every few months when I want to use it.
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three have a deal ('the one') with unlimited data + tethering, £18/month on a 30 day contract.
 
I have a Vodafone PAYG for backup and hasn't been blocked due to lack of use, so it must be a provider thing.
 
viv1969 said:
I have a Vodafone PAYG for backup and hasn't been blocked due to lack of use, so it must be a provider thing.
Click to expand...

I think it's more down to luck, they all have the 6 month rule, but some seem slightly more inefficient at enforcing it.
 
Found out that as I hadn't used mine in 180 days, vodafone have the right to deactivate the number. They then give you until something like day 240 to reclaim the number otherwise tough, the account and any money on the dongle is gone too.

I would have expected an email as a reminder, but no, it's not their responsibility to remind customers of their accounts.

Di
 
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