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MiFi from 3 UK with iPad?

S

spinstorm

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
1,643
195
I got an iPad off eBay yesterday. I collected it in person from a country lane behing Gatwick airport... bit dodgy but it all worked out :) but anyway I love it but I notice to really use it it requires a data connection.

So what are the options?

Sell it and buy a 3G when it is out? Possible but the truth is I would end up paying extra for a 3G even if I sold the wifi on eBay.

Tether it to a phone? good idea but how much data does the iPad use?
I tethered it for 30 mins to my phone and I download 115MB!
It worked great but the concerns here are

a) eventually I will be charged for going over the fair usage of the "unlimited" date

b) I will kill my phone battery! (If you have any thoughts on those please let me know!)

I then saw the mifi from 3 (portable 3G modem through wifi tethering) is £50 Pay As You Go with 3GB data included and then (I think) is £10 for a topup of 1GB.

Being PAYG I don't have to worry about getting charged for going over my limit (as I assume it will just tell me to top up) and I don't have to pay if I am not using it that much as there is no contract.

Do you guys think it is a good idea?
 
That sounds like your best option, 3mobile definetly have the cheapest dongle plans, bit the only downside is there coverage isn't great everywhere. Make sure you check the 3 coverage for your area before you purchase.

Enjoy your ipad!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B367 Safari/531.21.10)

I'm using the MiFi on Three with mine. Works well but the buttons on the MiFi are annoying.

Nothing to do with the iPad, just Huawei's design
 
Does anyone know when new models of Mifis will be out? I'm thinking it might be an idea to wait for the next generation of them as the current, whilst nice, are a bit big and have pretty poor battery life.

Mifi is the future though, I reckon. I just wish Apple would build it into the next iphones, but they won't - I suppose even carrier crap aside, it would obliterate the battery.
 
Over the last few days, I've been think hard about iPad 3G vs iPad WiFi with 3 MiFi setup. For the record, I have decided against importing an iPad, after thinking about that option as well. Now we finally have the May 10th preorder date, I think I'll wait to check Apple's pricing for UK. I bet the 3G option will cost more than £49.99 for the 3 MiFi though. Plus, I could use the MiFi with MacBook and iPhone on the go. The only disadvantage I see with the MiFi is the 30+ seconds it seems to take to boot up from sleep (I'm basing this on YouTube reviews, don't know for sure).

I already got some helpful information in the "EU News" thread, would be glad to read as much as possible about the 3 MiFi though.
 
Just a word of warning. I have a imported 32gb and the Three mifi. It works but this is the only wifi network with which I get the iPad wifi issues. Basically it won't auto-reconnect after you turn the iPad screen off for a while.

It could be because I am using a hidden SSID but I am not sure.
 
I've been using the Three MiFi with my iPad in the UK and had no problems. I bought a couple of spare batteries from eBay as they only last 3-4 hours compared to the iPad's 10. I've been using it a lot and was worried about going over the 3Gb limit. So...

I've since unlocked the Three MiFi and today I got a T-Mobile PAYG mobile broadband SIM. £2 for the first 30 days, and then £15 per month for unlimited use. Unlimited does have a 'fair use' policy of 2Gb but they say you don't actually get charged if you go over. I'm less worried about it costing extra money now.
 
yogamonkey said:
I've been using the Three MiFi with my iPad in the UK and had no problems. I bought a couple of spare batteries from eBay as they only last 3-4 hours compared to the iPad's 10. I've been using it a lot and was worried about going over the 3Gb limit. So...

I've since unlocked the Three MiFi and today I got a T-Mobile PAYG mobile broadband SIM. £2 for the first 30 days, and then £15 per month for unlimited use. Unlimited does have a 'fair use' policy of 2Gb but they say you don't actually get charged if you go over. I'm less worried about it costing extra money now.
Click to expand...

where did you get the T-Mobile PAYG mobile SIM yoga?
did you have to pay the 8.99 for the dongle and £10 top up.

have the same unlocked MiFi on 3 but coverage ain't great and I would like a sim from another network that I could pop in.
can only get them with dongles though and really dont need another dongle!

Cheers

Mark
 
Littleman said:
where did you get the T-Mobile PAYG mobile SIM yoga?
did you have to pay the 8.99 for the dongle and £10 top up.

have the same unlocked MiFi on 3 but coverage ain't great and I would like a sim from another network that I could pop in.
can only get them with dongles though and really dont need another dongle!

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...

There's always a stack on ebay for a couple of quid.
 
I'm considering this option myself. I have a jailbroken iPhone 3G with MyWi, but obviously I would be using alot of data in a non-wifi zone, which the OP pointed out will more than likely upset O2.

So, I have been looking at the 3 MiFi. The only problem I have is that I live around the country, so some areas have 3G and some don't, so therefore those that don't the MiFi isn't going to work!

But I was thinking, my iPhone still operates on the internet in a 2G area, albeit just for Facebook, and e-mails but this would do me, so would the MiFi still do that?

Or could I unlock it, get a PayGo Sim Card with unlimited internet and use it for both 2G and 3G?
 
If it helps, I needed to get a three mobile broadband dongle a week ago. I do a LOT of web browsing (around 8 hours per day, forums, websites, youtube videos, skype 4 hours a night) and in one week I haven't even used 500MB! I cannot believe how little I've used of my allowance, but I think you'd be surprised how far just a few gigs can stretch. Especially on a device that won't let you download big 1GB files.
 
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