As we first mentioned here, 3 have now released their USB Modem as a Pay As You Go (PAYG) offering. Simply head over to their website, buy the modem for £99.99 (in Black, White and Pink as mentioned here or the Black ZTE version), and then topup with 1Gb, 3Gb, or 7Gb data packs for £10, £15 or £25 respectively, which are valid for 30 days (charges of £1 per Mb apply once the allowance is used up, although you should be able to topup again).

In comparison, Vodafone charge £9.99 for 24 hours access, with a 500Mb limit, so if you plan to use the USB modem a little more frequently (but not enough to buy one), or want a little more headroom in the bandwidth limit, then this deal may well be for you. You also get the modem for the same price directly, without needing to quote special discount codes.

3 have released a couple of limited edition versions of their USB Modem. The hardware and mobile broadband plans are the same, but the modem is now available in pink and black. These two new colours are available now, and at the same price as the original white.

Have you got yourself a 3 USB Modem, or a Vodafone USB Modem, and fancy making it look a bit different?  If you look at the 3 Accessories section, you’ll see that they have a link to 3Skins,  which is a 3 branded version of the Skin4Things website. This company sell skins, basically stickers, to apply to your mobile phone, but they also include a few other devices, including the USB Modem (they also have skins for games consoles and laptops).

Picture courtesy of SMSTextNews.

Although 3 may well launch their USB Modem soon, Vodafone already offer their USB Modems with a PAYG option.

More details and pricing (including an offer) in the rest of the article.

(more…)

Over at AutomatedHome, Keith has been using the 3 USB Modem for some while now, and has written a lengthy review. It’s well worth a read, especially in light of 3’s plans to have a PAYG (Pay As You Go) USB modem option in the future.

If you look at the CD that comes with the 3 SkypePhone, you’ll discover you can install USB drivers that allow you to use the phone as a modem via usb. This will result in you getting a nice fast internet connection wherever you can get a 3G signal. You can also connect via Bluetooth to achieve the same thing.

There are a number of payments options open you to for Internet access. If, for example, you have chosen the PAYG 3 SkypePhone, then you can use your £10 topup (which is needed every 30 days to keep Skype working) for the Internet Add-ons, which are:

• £5 per month if you are a regular user
• £2.50 for a week
• 50p for a day

Now, 50p is nothing compared the charges for WiFi, unless you are a regular traveller, in which case you will either have an unlimited WiFi package, or a 3 USB modem already. Any spare credit you have, you can use to make calls (12p/min) or send SMS texts (12p/text).

Remember, without the Internet Add-On, Internet Access is £1 per Mb, so even the 50p per day is very worthwhile.

However, despite the fact that people are using their 3 SkypePhones this way, and despite the fact that people have mentioned this in the 3 SkypePhone forums, we should point out that the conditions attached to the Internet Add-Ons state you cannot use it as a way of getting Internet access on a laptop (ie another device tethered to the phone, whether via a wired or wireless connection). As such, please be aware this method is likely to be against 3’s T&Cs.

Update: Having said that, if you buy the 3 SkypePhone on contract, you can add X-Series or Broadband Add-Ons to the service, of which some of these options seem to allow use of a tethered device. Please confirm this directly with 3 though, as we have been unable to confirm this so far.

Thanks to Chris at Tamebay for the inspiration for this article.