Using '3' Network mobile in France and Spain

[Dave and Ginny]

Hi all

To get ready for our next venture down to Spain this year, and following good advice from fellow members, I got myself an un-locked phone and a PAYG sim from 'Three'. Having now had it a few months I'm very pleased, it clearly will have benefits travelling through France with the same costs as using the phone at home. I also see the same benefits will apply also in Spain from April as well.

Even better is being able to purchase 'Add Ons' before I go and gain unlimited data usage for 30 days. That's where I have a question that I cannot seem able to see an answer to on the 'Three' web site.

Is it straightforward to top up my PAYG account whilst abroad and renew the Add On whilst in either France or Spain? The answer on the 'Three' site seems to suggest this needs to be done from a PC or Laptop?

If anyone has an answer I would be most grateful, also of any other pitfalls I should be aware of.

Cheers Dave

 

[lunarman]

If you register a credit card on your account you will be able to top up and buy addons online. Thats what I have done with my payg mobile.

John

 

[jumar]

Smartphone, or Tablet using your telephone as a 3 HOTSPOT, see other thread on same subject currently running.

 

[pappajohn]

Smartphone, or Tablet using your telephone as a 3 HOTSPOT, see other thread on same subject currently running.

From the 3 website.......

Whats NOT included in feel at home section..........,
You can't use your phone as a personal hotspot (tethering) while you're abroad.

Scroll down to "whats included.......whats not included" near the bottom of page.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home?intid=3main_fah_stc1762

 

[chaser]

No it will not tether, and getting in touch with them online or phone is honestly nearly Impossable from Europe , I know others might say different but our experience was that it was near enough impossible, so as we were there for five weeks and had paid for a month before we went we used the 3 credit then went on to the O2 phone for the last week

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[Minxy]

AFAIK you can only use the Feel At Home benefits on PAYG if you buy an Add-on first, otherwise you will pay normal roaming charges, even in the Feel at Home countries.

The 3 'FaH' equates to 10p per minute to call the UK from abroad but ONLY when you've got their add-on and in one of their 'FaH', so Spain at present will be approx 19p per minute.

We've just re-looked at all of this for our current trip and hubby has just bought some T-mobile sims at 99p to be collected from Argos:

http://www.ebay.co.uk - Tmobile sim

They come with £5 credit on them, so the costs are in effect a fifth of what they would normally be (ie £1 for the sim with credit on instead of £5 for the credit only) so the cost of calls will actually be 4p per minute and therefore the £5 gives me 26 minutes per sim (assuming I don't use some of the credit for texts or incoming calls). Using 4 of these sims at a total cost of £4 gives me the same amount of minutes for calls to the UK as the '3' FaH 'Add On' at £10! Obviously it just means that I have to keep changing the sim and activating another when I've used up the credit on each, but that's not a problem.

 

[chaser]

AFAIK you can only use the Feel At Home benefits on PAYG if you buy an Add-on first, otherwise you will pay normal roaming charges, even in the Feel at Home countries.

Quite right , and if you get near the border of a non feel at home country remember to switch off your roaming or they will hit you with a Fiver a day out of your allowence and then tell you after

 

[Judge Mental]

Thought I read on here somewhere that if on thre contract you van teather....

 

[chaser]

Thought I read on here somewhere that if on thre contract you van teather....

Don't know about that , but you definitely can't on pay and go

 

[Minxy]

Thought I read on here somewhere that if on thre contract you van teather....

Info here:

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI...nternetapps,varset_subcat=3582,Case=obj(3599)

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[jumar]

Perhaps we can get together and have a tether, very happy with 3 Mobile DATA PAYG. Tethering Hotspot setting on Droid Smartphone. Simple.

 

[pappajohn]

Thought I read on here somewhere that if on thre contract you van teather....

Perhaps we can get together and have a tether, very happy with 3 Mobile DATA PAYG. Tethering Hotspot setting on Droid Smartphone. Simple.

See my previous post (#4) with a link to 3 webpage can's and can'ts.

You cannot tether a payg 3 phone.

You may be able to set it up but 3 will block it.

 

[Judge Mental]

Info here:

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=internetapps,varset_subcat=3582,Case=obj(3599)

Thanks Mel..so I guess I can tether depending on data limit as on contarct. cant seem to log on as forgot details..have emailed them

 

[pappajohn]

See my previous post (#4) with a link to 3 webpage can's and can'ts.

You cannot tether a payg 3 phone.

You may be able to set it up but 3 will block it.

I have just been informed you can tether in a feel at home location.

My source is in france now and they sent me a message, written on an android tablet tethered to an android phone using a 3 payg sim with a data add-on.

They are under the impression 3 cannot tell if its android to android tethering....ipad etc may be different

 

[DJA]

Hi Judgemental

You could be referring to an entry of mine earlier today where I said that I had only learnt today that you can Tether on a "3" Monthly Contract. The link Mel has mentoned is where I got the information from.

I had not picked up elsewhere that they were saying that you cannot Tether when using the "Feel at Home" facility. If this is correct then they are apparently not always applying it in all cases as Jumal has been doing it with no problems over the last year. Also Pappajohns contact is confirming what Jumal has said. I can see the logic of Android to Android being difficult to detect but I seem to remember when thet was put forward before someone said they had been blocked under those circumstances. Don't know if they said which provider was involved

They may be saying that you cannot Tether under these cirumstances because their Partners in the various countries may not wish to allow Tethering.

At least with a MIFI you don't have the will they won't they worry.

Doug

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[jumar]

Hi Pappajohn, I do not know what experience you have with 3 (Three) Mobile Date sims, but they do work as a Tethering Hotspot, thats the setting on my Droid Smartphone, I have been using this on my travels around Europe 2014. I have read your latest posting before writing this, no problem, one thing I will add is that, In 2 or 3 weeks time this question will be asked again, and the same answers will be given, but I can tell all the funsters on here for the last time that IT WORKS.
Any further postings on this subject I will ignore totally, we use, we are happy with this system, keep the wheels rolling.

 

[Chockswahay]

I have used my 3 payg phone in Europe and tethered every day for a short while to send emails and update my blog. I think it really depends on how much data you use. I certainly would not recommend streaming tv or radio but for casual use it would appear that you can get away with it

Another point worth mentioning is that for phone calls your friends and family in the UK can call you at their standard mobile rates AND you don't pay to receive the call.

If you are in a 3 feel at home country there really is not much to compete with 3 quite frankly.

Note: I also carry a Toggle sim card for non 3 countries............ cheap at 3p per minute but data very expensive.

 

[chaser]

The clue to all this is,, you have to have some sort of DATA addon or be on contract , I was there for five weeks this autumn and xmas markets in dec with a bog standard pay and go sim with the £15 goody bag, and it wouldn't tether for a second, worked fine in the android phone calls , texts , and Internet but no tether but that was to an iPad, some say if you have two androids it works but couldn't try that.

 

[Dave and Ginny]

I have used my 3 payg phone in Europe and tethered every day for a short while to send emails and update my blog. I think it really depends on how much data you use. I certainly would not recommend streaming tv or radio but for casual use it would appear that you can get away with it

If you are in a 3 feel at home country there really is not much to compete with 3 quite frrankly

Chockswahay, are you using an 'Add on' when in europe? What I'm reading on their site is that it's a requirement when roaming and feel at home country?

 

[Dave and Ginny]

Thanks for all the helpful comments. I don't want to be tethering as I got a phone with 4.8 screen so as to avoid it but have a big enough display to look at the odd web site and send the occasional email. The Three add for £15 that gives as much data as you want for up to 30 days would seem to be the way to go, as long as I get a signal, but then that's an issue with any mobile network and I've had a few over the years. Dave

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[chaser]

Thanks for all the helpful comments. I don't want to be tethering as I got a phone with 4.8 screen so as to avoid it but have a big enough display to look at the odd web site and send the occasional email. The Three add for £15 that gives as much data as you want for up to 30 days would seem to be the way to go, as long as I get a signal, but then that's an issue with any mobile network and I've had a few over the years. Dave

For this, you will have no problem, it works anywhere and well, we just left them on all the time and incurred no extra expense, but I will say again make sure you turn your roaming off before getting near a country that isn't feel at home , because the first you know about it is a text saying they have taken £5 out of your allowence.

 

[Dave and Ginny]

For this, you will have no problem, it works anywhere and well, we just left them on all the time and incurred no extra expense, but I will say again make sure you turn your roaming off before getting near a country that isn't feel at home , because the first you know about it is a text saying they have taken £5 out of your allowence.

Cheers for this Chaser, I will watch out for this before leaving France for Spain. An email I've had from Three says that Spain will be a feel at home country from April, which is great news!

 

[Dave and Ginny]

As we're going next month we will not get the benefit of feel at home in Spain. Whats the best option? Should I go for taking another SIM like the T Mobile Minx suggests or get a SIM in Spain? Dave

 

[callumwa]

You can tether an iPad with an iPhone whilst in a "Feel at Home country".
You can also tether to an Android device.

The key is to use mobile data (ie, the APPs) If you use Safari or Chrome which is a normal browser it will cut you off as you are now not using "Mobile data".
There is however a work round to this which will allow you to surf on an iPad.

I do it all the time whilst travelling and have done so in several Euro countries covered bu "Feel at Home" as well as the USA and Hong Kong.

 

[Judge Mental]

all to much..must ga and

You can tether an iPad with an iPhone whilst in a "Feel at Home country".
You can also tether to an Android device.

The key is to use mobile data (ie, the APPs) If you use Safari or Chrome which is a normal browser it will cut you off as you are now not using "Mobile data".
There is however a work round to this which will allow you to surf on an iPad.

I do it all the time whilst travelling and have done so in several Euro countries covered bu "Feel at Home" as well as the USA and Hong Kong.

please explain . are you saying you can tether an Ipad from an android phone?

nice lad from India phoned me from three this morning and explained a few things after I emailed them yesterday. As someone else said officially tethering not allowed in"feel at home" destinations. this down to their partners in those countries. Tethering is allowed in the UK if on monthly contract..I used to teather on TMobile and never heard anything from them

three: I have 4gb data in my 600 min, unlimited texts, £15 contract plan. but I dont use anything like 4 GB as mainly on wifi as I'm retired. I can change to all yo can eat data for £20 a month plan, or stick with what i have which is more than enough here, and buy the odd 1gb data bundles when I run out when away for £5. I think three actually pretty good.....

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[chaser]

You can tether an iPad with an iPhone whilst in a "Feel at Home country".
You can also tether to an Android device.

The key is to use mobile data (ie, the APPs) If you use Safari or Chrome which is a normal browser it will cut you off as you are now not using "Mobile data".
There is however a work round to this which will allow you to surf on an iPad.

I do it all the time whilst travelling and have done so in several Euro countries covered bu "Feel at Home" as well as the USA and Hong Kong.

You were good enough to give me the details of this a while ago but I'm afraid I never got it to work, but the thing is , if you have got a phone with a biggish screen you can just about manage for normal day to day stuff, and there are quite a large amount of free wifi places now that you can use ipad on if need be.
Tourist information offices have it and most bars and of coarse the good old maccyds

 

[Chockswahay]

Chockswahay, are you using an 'Add on' when in europe? What I'm reading on their site is that it's a requirement when roaming and feel at home country?

Yes, I top up with £15 then use that to purchase an 'all you can eat' add on...... 300 mins......3000 texts......unlimited data

All for 30 days

 

[pappajohn]

Yes, I top up with £15 then use that to purchase an 'all you can eat' add on...... 300 mins......3000 texts......unlimited data

All for 30 days

I top up (3 payg) £10 and use 90% of the credit on data....900mb. (1p mb), very few calls or texts.
last as long as i have credit remaining.
A £10 bundle, if i ever bought one again , gives me 3000 texts, 150mins talk and 500mb data.

i would never text 3000 times in a month (thats four texts every hour of every day) or use 150mins of talk time so effectively paying nearly £10 for 500mb data each month

But im only in the uk

 

[Chockswahay]

I top up (3 payg) £10 and use 90% of the credit on data....900mb. (1p mb), very few calls or texts.
last as long as i have credit remaining.
A £10 bundle, if i ever bought one again , gives me 3000 texts, 150mins talk and 500mb data.

i would never text 3000 times in a month (thats four texts every hour of every day) or use 150mins of talk time so effectively paying nearly £10 for 500mb data each month

But im only in the uk

Out of 3000 texts I have only ever uses about 30 to 50. The minutes I have always used because being away in the van means I can not use my home phone. The data may be unlimited and in practice I have never used more than 4 gigs..........

However, for the sake of £5 I never have to worry about using up my credit and can stream Radio 4 and Spotify music as long as I want and not have to worry about using up my credit.

Each user will have different needs, mine is for data streaming therefore the 3000 text messages is of no real practical use to me. The minutes however are good value especially from abroad.

I think the £15 bundle is good value if you need data

 

[gibbon]

No add on necessary in a feel at home country if you have a 3 contract with data included.

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