Found this deal on e-bay for a virtual network operator using the 3 network.

They are Dida Mobile and are offering a 6 month time limited USIM with 18GB of data allowance for £28.88 inc P+P (direct from Dida)

They also offer micro sims for iPads etc.

Sounds like a good deal at under 35 a month for 3GB of use.

A nice find.

That is a good price, especially as Dida Mobile are selling the same package for £39.99 (http://www.didamobile.com/en/mobile-broadband/product/25-3g-mobile-broadband-18gb.html). The 18GB is useable in 3GB/month lots, with an with an out of bundle charge of 15p/MB - I presume they'll charge that if you burst the 3GB in a single month.

They have 1, 3 and 9GB plans also --> http://www.didamobile.com/en/mobile-broadband.html

Stuff like this could be really useful to the flat dweller or someone who only needs a short term rent.

I'm not sure if it has a cap on the monthly use, need to check the T+Cs but the main point is its time limited from its first use. I can't imagine 3 would bother if you used the lot in a month as you would then need to buy a top-up or another USIM!

Lets hope not too many flat dwellers opt for this as there could be major problems with capacity if a few folks decide to use Netflix, Sky Go, BBC iPlayer or do torrent downloads at the same time. The latest published white paper from Ericsson states that networks using 21Mbs HSPA+ can cope with an average use of around 1GB per subscriber, hense the 02 and Vodafone limits and prohibitive pricing beyond those levels. 21Mbs HSPA+ apparently delivers around half of that in reality as a max speed although 3 are rollling out a new multimode HSPA+ this year with a theoretical 42Mbs speed (probably about 1/2 of that also) although customers will need new equipment to take advantage of that standard.

Interestingly LTE which has speeds of 80+Mbs Ericsson state as being able to serve the average user with 3GB of data per month. A lot lower than I considered but that speed is now increasing also so perhaps by the time we get it rolled out in the UK it will be good for 5GB a month per customer?

I just upgraded my Vodafone 3G dongle and gave 3 another go with their new HSPA+ version (unlocked of course). I bought a 3GB 3 month USIM for starters as I only use it occasionally and can tether with Vodafone using the Galaxy S when needed but I am thinking of switching to Giffgaff when the contract expires saving me £20 a month and if I can cover data needs for less than a fiver i'm still £15 a month ahead with no loss of connectivity. We shall see what the Galaxy S3 is like! i'll update with some speedtests when i register the new SIM.

Three (appropriate to this thread as Dida are an MVNO of theirs) have put their stake in the ground during 2010/11 to be the de facto mobile data provider. A bold step that none of the other networks have even begun to challenge over the two years since. T-Mobile's nearest challenge, Full Monty, seems to be full of holes, with a great deal of debate about their speed throttling.

I am suspicious of claims by Ericsson who, lets face it, have a vested interest in selling as much equipment as they can muster sales for. Network capacity is a complex model, more so in wireless than in wired that is complex enough. The HSPA+21 attempts to solve the problem of localised airtime capacity through not only speed but efficiency gains in the use of the coding and multiplexing techniques. HSPA+42 extends the use of MIMO aerials to broaden the local capacity.

But then there are the network back haul circuits from transmitter to terrestrial network to take into account. These are expensive, often rented from other subterranen cable suppliers (BT, Cable & Wireless, Virgin Media and very many others).

If Three have done it right their network core will have massive overcapacity inherent in the build itself. This will rarely be a problem area for any network provider, wired or wireless. Large carrier-grade switches, with 10Gbit ports, will be in place to handle pretty much all that can be thrown at it. They're not expensive, in the grand scheme of things, but they possess enormous throughput potential.

And still there is the peering connections that Three may have with the tier one network companies like Linx, those who form the global Internet backbone itself. These will need to have sufficient capacity so as not to bottle-neck the 3G/HSPA customers.

That 1GB per subscriber
I remain highly suspicious and doubtful about that figure. Statistically any network that purports to witness over 75% of all of its traffic being data had better have more capacity than that. A typical 90 minute movie on NetFlix is going to consume the best part of 600MB. Two of those in a month and that 1GB has been blown.

Accepted, not every single Three, and their MVNO, customers are going to be making such use of streaming media. But the user base of those who do is growing steadily and rapidly. Demand will meet capacity, and it is evident that HSPA+21 is delivering currently extraordinary performance, widely reported, that is going to promote even further use.

Add to that the marketing of product such as the Web Cube, purposely positioned as "Broadband in a box", albeit with specific data caps at present, and it is evident that Three's intentions are to promote even more use of their network capacity. They cannot get this wholesale wrong or it will be fatal to their existence in the UK. With a large holding of MVNOs it would have potentially disastrous widespread impact.

3GSU, whats the timescale on that 1GB, day month hour? My other half has hit 3GB before, using an iphone 3g, the o2 network did not die

It's per month! 1GB per user per month (assuming 100% of users consume the maximum 1GB per month) on HSPA+ 21 systems according to Ericsson who design and make lots of the transmission equipment. Bear in mind that 21Mbs HSPA+ actually delivers around half of that in reality. HSPA+ 42 is the next improvemnt (it will need new hard ware to support it as current devices are not equipped) and it likewise will have about half of that as the maximum download speed, all dependent on distance from transmitter, local conditions etc etc. LTE at 80Mbs will be able to serve 100% of customers with 3GB of data per month according to the Ericsson white paper on HSPA+. A lot better but networks had better hope there is no widespread switch to mobile data from fixed lines or even LTE could get congested very quickly.

BT Total Broadband still only provides 10Gb a month on their standard package and TalkTalk offer 40Gb a month. Some ISPs offer unlimited downloads but limits are still very common.

The Webcube is interesting, a mains powered MifFi device really (15Gb a month for £15 so cheaper than fixed line rental and BB charges) but I'm not sure I'd want many of them in a street if I'd shelled out £800 on a smartphone contract. Perhaps 3 are playing politics by deliberately saturating the bandwidth they have in order to make a strong case for their auction bid for additional capacity in the Autumn. It is surprising that 3 are pitching for fixed line broadband customers with 2100 UMTS after their new CEO announced that their network capacity would be strained by the end of 2012 if they did not gain new bandwidth. It looks like a gamble and sadly the losers won't just be 3 but the customers that are locked into contracts.

I simply do not buy the wholesale capacity limits that Ericsson is touting. They are suicidal and completely impractical in the real world. No, I don't believe it one bit. We'd have seen meltdown years ago. And so moving on to LTE if Ericsson's suggestions are borne out then the networks have learned absolutely nothing, zip, over the past nine years of 3G's deployment. That is not only somewhat unbelievable but unreasonable also.

3G (or LTE) represents only the "access network" part of the equation. Fortunately, if there is overcrowding of a cell then additional cells can be implemented to increase the local capacity. There are limits, of course, but there is plenty of scope not to face the doom and gloom prediction.

Having gained access to the mobile operator's network the rest is all bog standard terrestrial technology at work, as I said in my earlier post. Massive capacities can be easily and relatively cheaply built and extended, indefinitely to all practical purposes. This is exactly what landline-based ISPs do (I know this!).

Turning to the Web Cube critique - I shouldn't worry about any of that too much. Usage of data is entirely statistical, not every single Web Cube and smartphone is going to fire off at exactly the same time. And so, as long as the operator has sufficient local cell capacity it will be used at the most efficient basis possible. In the cases of extreme "abuse" the networks have got tools such as Traffic Shaping to control which protocols and applications are able to use the available bandwidth.

In this respect Three are doing exactly the right thing. They have declared themselves the UK's premier mobile data network, and I would endorse that basis my own practical experience, and that of many others I know. So in doing that they can hardly function like O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile with miserly data caps and bandwidths. Of course there are areas of poor and no coverage with Three, as there are for every single network operator on this planet. That is a fact of life with radio communications.

Well, I've gone and ordered this: NEW 3G Broadband Micro SIM Card for iPad iPhone + 18GB Data /180 days + adapter (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250977979340#ht_2199wt_1044) from the ebay store. Seems like a good deal and Hands0n talked me into it ;-) I'll report back once I receive it and have an iPad to put it in i.e. Friday the 16th.

P.S. I swear the sim only data tariffs were cheaper before the iPad announcement, but I could and probably am wrong. I seem to recall three did £5 a month for 1GB.

That looks cool :) Do you top it up after 6 months or just chuck it and order a new one?

That looks cool :) Do you top it up after 6 months or just chuck it and order a new one?

There is no benefit to topping up - it's much cheaper just to buy a new one. How do you think 3 UK have been growing lately? Lots of 1, 3 and 6 month data SIMs that wont expire in terms of user numbers for at least 12 months from the date of activation!

The ebay seller is also selling top ups (I think they were around the £25 mark which is cheaper than ordering a new sim).

The ebay seller is also selling top ups (I think they were around the £25 mark which is cheaper than ordering a new sim).

Can't find any sign of a top-up on e-bay or on the Dida Mobile website for that matter. Looks like it's a buy and use pre-paid deal. Perhaps there is no benefit to Dida for selling airtime? New customers usually provide an MVNO with some additional commission so that perhaps explains the keen pricing of the SIMs on E-Bay.

How do you think 3 UK have been growing lately? Lots of 1, 3 and 6 month data SIMs that wont expire in terms of user numbers for at least 12 months from the date of activation!

I think you're being a bit too unkind to Three. They have been growing lately, if you can call it lately, by virtue of their massive push of smartphones and literally revolutionising the data proposition. The firm hit a watershed moment last year when they went into profit for the first time and that growth and profitability has continued.

If you do some research you will also find that Three has the largest collection of MVNO of any of the UK networks, Dida being one of them. Or that was the case in 2011.

So fair's fair to Three.

I think you're being a bit too unkind to Three. They have been growing lately, if you can call it lately, by virtue of their massive push of smartphones and literally revolutionising the data proposition. The firm hit a watershed moment last year when they went into profit for the first time and that growth and profitability has continued.

If you do some research you will also find that Three has the largest collection of MVNO of any of the UK networks, Dida being one of them. Or that was the case in 2011.

So fair's fair to Three.

3's MVNO's are hardly mainstream! They have yet to attract a major player like Asda, Tesco, Virgin or CPW. What they have is a few resellers banging out SIMs at big discounts thanks to high commisions generating temporary user stats. I still have that old Skypephone they dished out in 2009 and have not spent 1p on it yet the credit is still available and account still valid in 2012. I simply call it now and again to keep it active but I'm sure there have been periods of more than 6 months when i have left it and it's still good to go!

To be fair 3 are offering some good deals but lately they have revised their price plans and look to be pushing as many customers as they can onto the 1 plan. It's a £36 a month deal with tons of mins, texts and data but shopping around I found its now far cheaper to buy a SIM free handset (like the Samsung Galaxy S2) and put a 12 month contract 3 SIM only in it than it is to buy it on contract. Gone are the days when the network subsidised the handset it seems unless you can take advantage of the massive voice allowance included.

As for 3 moving into profit.....lets just say lots can be achieved with accounting. They have invested £12+ Billion in the UK to date and have posted a paper profit of a few million? They will never get back the investment and will struggle with just one frequency range to compete as others roll out LTE which they will have to wait for if they bid enough in the auction (they didn't in Italy).

I'm not sure what the 3 strategy is now other than throwing everything they have available at the market regardless of the consequences. They are already the most complained about network to Ofcom and come bottom of the list for cusotmer satisfaction in Ofcom's regular surveys so whatever they do they cant drop down!

Interesting to see that the 3 UK execs that left last year have now resurfaced. Kevin Russell has gone back to Austrailia to head up Optus and Marc Allera has moved to Everything Everywhere in a similar role as he had at 3 UK. So they were not dissintereted in the mobile business and taking a break as was stated when they exited. Contractually they would have had to sit out 6 months before joining another company I guess. I am not just saying this for mischief making purposes but I suspect they both know a lot about the market and left 3 after careful consideration of the future prospects of the business.

Three's MVNOs do not have to be mainstream. Each brings earnings in to Three's coffers. There is a perfectly reasonable value proposition of "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" as many other businesses have found out. The UK has this snobbish attitude at corporate level that everything has to be premium to be of any value. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Three's accounting is fully audited and open to scrutiny. The fact is that they went into profit for the first time in their short life, something that HWL are perfectly able and willing to support. You have predicted their demise for the past seven or so years and it has not come about. Time to set aside the sackcloth and ashes methinks :) HWL are long game players, unlike UK investment institutions with their short-sighted terms. They will think nothing of the time that Three has spent getting in to a profitable state. But now that they have turned in a profit the drive will be to make that grow steadily, and that is Dyson's challenge.

The previous execs of Three have moved on as they usually do. These folk do not stay in one place for very long, a few years at most and then they move on. I'll cite Sir John Bond for example, he sat at the head of the extremely successful HSBC and yet after a few years chose to jump ship to Vodafone who make nowhere near the same revenue as the bank. To this echelon of people companies are like toys, they move from one to the next before getting bored out of their skulls. It really is another world.

Forget about Three's lack of bandwidth. It is almost irrelevant given the nearness of the LTE auctions which you can be 100% certain Three will bid for. At this time Three are leading the pack with HSPA+ 42 deployment while the others haven't even completed their HSPA+ 21 roll out. Three have a far more modern network and are much more agile as a company than the other four. T-Mobile is in all manner of confusion as their parent, Deutsche Telecom, try to offload the firm in the non-German countries. You can expect to see T-Mobile acquired by one of their largest MVNOs in the near future.

As a relatively heavy mobile data user I find that there is no other UK mobile network that is able to economically satisfy my requirements other than Three. T-Mobile ballsed it up completely by launching their Full Monty and then clamping it down with a ridiculously low speed cap. The other three networks have nothing that comes even close to The One Plan.

And turning to handsets - Three have the lowest priced smartphone plans of the lot. Particularly the iPhone that is the cheapest proposition of any of the UK networks. For the same device you could spend considerably more with the other networks.

Of course, Three's albatross around their neck is the Customer Service operation in India. It remains atrocious in the extreme and it is good that there are OFCOM reports that support that view, this is something that Dyson and the board at Three cannot ignore. But again, Three's engagement using social media is best of class in the UK right now. Their staff engage and converse with the customers. The other networks, and I watch this very closely, merely use SM as a means of broadcasting. I see little to no evidence of social engagement, just an adjunct to any forum that they may support. Vodafone, sadly, lost one of their top SM team who now is working unfettered for an independent mobile supplier and making a very good job of it too. And that has further watered down Vodafone's apparent engagement where the Twitter stream is now rather dull and dry.

I actually challenge the other four prime operators to reach for the propositions bar that is being set by Three.

Watch Three closely over the next 12 - 24 months. The game is only just hotting up and is nowhere near being over.

Can't find any sign of a top-up on e-bay or on the Dida Mobile website for that matter.

Here is the link (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18GB-data-pack-add-on-DiDa-Mobile-3G-SIM-card-existing-users-Only-/250979450061?pt=UK_Mobile_Home_Phones_Sim_Cards_CV&hash=item3a6f8a7ccd#ht_642wt_1044).

Here is the link (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18GB-data-pack-add-on-DiDa-Mobile-3G-SIM-card-existing-users-Only-/250979450061?pt=UK_Mobile_Home_Phones_Sim_Cards_CV&hash=item3a6f8a7ccd#ht_642wt_1044).

Good find. Better than a new one as you save a couple of quid. The Dida Mobile website is horrific, very amateurish with very little in the way of information and much higher prices than those advertised on e-bay and Amazon.

OK, first things first.
The Sim arrived quickly (if I remember correctly it either arrived next day or the day after!) and was cut down to micro sim size and included an adapter to use as a "normal" sim, so kudos to the ebay seller!
This left me in a predicament as I had no iPad to test the sim in (of course I could have put it in my phone, but I didn't).
Roll iPad day which for me was St Paddy's day and boy, did that leave me with a decision to make ;) So after collecting the iPad (you all thought I'd gone out on the lash didn't you?) I inserted the sim (and after charging and installing apps etc) off I went.

A few speed tests using the speed test x (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedtest-x-hd/id366593092?mt=8) app have not shown great results. In fact, I'm pretty disappointed. However, this confirms that the speeds I received while on three were normal. I'm averaging around 1MBps down.

While the iPad has had an upgrade, the mobile networks are still clearly lagging behind.

So, real world use. I will use the iPad at work and if you recall, I had left 3 because their coverage at my office sucks. Well, I'm able to browse, check email, update twitter and stream audio at my desk - this despite having a poor speed test. So, for less than a fiver a month I can be content with that.

Would I recommend DiDa?
I think I probably would. While their website leaves a lot to be desired I was able to register an account and am able to track my usage online, they are cheap and I appear to get reasonable coverage. The only doubt I have is whether 3 are throttling them in any way (I know their site says this isn't the case).

If you are interested in trying them, I'd recommend opting for a 1 month option just to trial them.

I saw a speedtest giving nearly 20mbps down on Macrumors on the new iPad on Three. Those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time do seem to be benefitting from the upgraded HSPA+ capabilities of the new device. Three's were consistently the faster results posted; tellingly the majority of results posted were also on Three.

I saw a speedtest giving nearly 20mbps down on Macrumors on the new iPad on Three. Those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time do seem to be benefitting from the upgraded HSPA+ capabilities of the new device. Three's were consistently the faster results posted; tellingly the majority of results posted were also on Three.

Sounds a bit optimistic! 3 themselves reckon that their 21Mbs HSPA+ download service will produce results around half of that level. The 42Mbs upgrade is not due to be rolled out until the Summer and I'm not sure the iPad 3 has the ability to use this as it is a different technology from previous HSPA+. To get 20Mbs you would need to be sitting on top of the mast I suspect and it would have to be one that has had all the upgrades and that nobody else was using at the same time!

Sounds a bit optimistic! 3 themselves reckon that their 21Mbs HSPA+ download service will produce results around half of that level. The 42Mbs upgrade is not due to be rolled out until the Summer and I'm not sure the iPad 3 has the ability to use this as it is a different technology from previous HSPA+. To get 20Mbs you would need to be sitting on top of the mast I suspect and it would have to be one that has had all the upgrades and that nobody else was using at the same time!
Sure, but I don't doubt it happened.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=14544775&postcount=22
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1342625

Plenty of other great results in there, too.

Those speeds are not at all unrealistic, they are just generally unlikely. But in the right conditions, such as a mast that has low usage, then statistically such high speeds are completely reasonable, just like any shared resource you care to mention.

The point that is very relevant is that we have not seen such speeds posted in respect to any of the other HSPA+ networks. Even T-Mobile, with their Full Monty, have chosen to cap the available HSPA+ speeds to 3.8Mbps. Vodafone come nowhere close (I run a pair of HSPA+ capable devices one each on Three and Vodafone, the masts are co-located and Vodafone struggles to burst 4Mbps).

Sounds a bit optimistic! 3 themselves reckon that their 21Mbs HSPA+ download service will produce results around half of that level. The 42Mbs upgrade is not due to be rolled out until the Summer and I'm not sure the iPad 3 has the ability to use this as it is a different technology from previous HSPA+.

The iPad 3 supports DC-HSDPA which is capable of 42Mbps theoretical throughput. This was stated during the Apple release event. It's not an entirely new technology, just Dual Channel HSPA+.

Three's own blog even says it's DC-HSDPA that they're rolling out in the summer and confirms that it is compatible with the iPad 3:

http://blog.three.co.uk/2012/03/16/the-new-ipad-now-available-on-three/#more-3267

An update and perhaps a word of warning!
While I received the sim in good time and in worked well, it has stopped working altogether. The issue I have is that the ipad states that I have no service (I've tried it in an iPhone with the same result). My giffgaff sim works in the iPad so I know it's not hardware related.
I contacted Dida and they claimed that their resellers often get this type of feedback and should issue a refund / replacement. I've contacted the ebay seller to see what they have to say, but needless to say that I find this unacceptable.

Oh dear, sounds like the number has been deactivated. Why on Earth would that happen? If you message me your number I'll check it on the HLR to see if it throws up anything interesting if you like.

I contacted Dida and they claimed that their resellers often get this type of feedback and should issue a refund / replacement. .

OMG! They ought to be putting that particular caveat up on their website! That is a disastrous customer experience by any stretch.

The ebay seller offered me a refund or a T-Mobile sim but I've decided to opt for the refund. It seems that this offer might have been withdrawn as others are reporting similar experiences on MSE (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=52400431#post52400431). Is this a case of too good to be true? I feel that is the case.

I suspect there will be a commercial issue at hand here. Likely that Dida have done something that conflicts with the Three Ts&Cs in some manner. That or Three's now-legendary back-office shenanigans are at work again. Either way, it is a terrible customer experience.