By Alex Lane on Thu, 8th March 2012
The good
- Pay-by-the-day if you want
- Up to 5GB on a monthly deal
- Browsing and email not in allowance
- 80 per cent UK 3G coverage
The bad
- No home broadband or phone
- Hard to compare with other providers
- PAYG dongle is 3G-only
- No pay-monthly on WiFi dongle
T-Mobile is part of the Everything Everywhere mobile giant with Orange, but it has its own mobile broadband packages and products.
The advantage is that you can use both their networks for surfing and they’re investing heavily both in making the 3G network faster and preparing for next-generation 4G technology.
There’s a standard 3G dongle for pay-as-you-go and and a high speed dongle for pay-monthly customers, plus a mobile wifi hotspot, called the Wireless Pointer, which can share your 3G connection with up to five other devices.
Pay monthly is available with 1GB or 5GB per month, but it’s an 18-month contract. Pay-as-you-go isn’t charged by usage, it’s charged over time - £2 for a day with a maximum of 250MB, £7 for a week with 500MB and £15 for a month with 1GB.
There are also micro-SIM tariffs for iPads and tablets with 3G connectivity, and you can buy an iPad 2 if you don’t mind a 24-month contract.
Our rating: 
3
User rating: 
4
T-Mobile’s take a different approach to mobile broadband, combining download allowances with a guarantee that even if you use up all your allowance downloading files and streaming video, you’ll still be able to browse the Web, access email and keep in touch with Twitter or Facebook.
Since the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in Everything Everywhere in 2010, their networks have been increasingly combined, and later in 2012 will become the UK’s largest 3G broadband network, covering 80 per cent of the UK and with extensive HSPA+ coverage (allowing maximum speeds of 21Mbps). In Ofcom’s 2010 mobile broadband survey, T-Mobile’s network delivered an average of 1.7-2.1Mbps download with uploads of 750-850kbps.
Packages
Pay monthly deals come in two flavours, both with 18-month contracts: 1GB per month for £10/month or 5GB per month for £20/month. They both come with the MF192 USB dongle, which supports HSPA+ (max 21Mbps), with capacity for microSD memory cards up to 32GB.
Pay-as-you-go is charged by the day, week or month instead of by the byte. A day costs £2 with a 250GB limit; a week costs £7 with a 500MB limit, and a month (30 days) costs £15 with a 1GB limit. Pay-as-you-go devices are delivered set to the daily tariff, with a £10 compulsory top-up, but you can change to a different tariff using T-Mobile’s supplied software.
The MF615 costs £19.99 with pay-as-you-go broadband and is standard 3G-only (max 7.2Mbps), with capacity for microSD memory cards up to 8GB. It comes in black and pink.
If you want to connect to several devices with WiFi, the Wireless Pointer gives up to 7.2Mbps via 3G for up to five devices, and has capacity for microSD memory cards up to 32GB, although it’s pay-as-you-go only.
The black MF615 also comes on a pay-up-front plan for £29.99, with 1GB of data that lasts for 90 days, after which it’s pay-per-day, week or month as you choose.
iPads
If you want an iPad2, there’s a special discount for T-Mobile customers, and a special tariff. If you’ve already got an iPad, you can get a free micro-SIM on the pay-as-you-go tariff - you just have to buy a £10 top-up.
The iPad 2 comes in black or white, with the 16GB model priced at £199 for T-Mobile customers or £229 for new customers. The 32GB model costs £249 for T-Mobile customers or £279 for new customers.
You’ll sign up to 24-month pay-monthly price plan costing £25/month. You'll get 1GB of data to use a month, but you'll also get an extra 1GB 'quiet time' allowance to use between midnight and 10am.
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