That image there highlights just how good the all new 3 MiFi (Model: E586) is when it comes to offering a usable internet connection. Indeed, this connection isn’t just usable, according to Speedtest.net, it’s actually better than 65% of the rest of the United Kingdom. Love it.
I’m using this at home in Ascot and anecdotally, the speed and responsiveness feels a lot better than your standard fixed-line broadband connection. It leaves the shared (i.e. slow) connections of BT Openzone and The Cloud in the dust — so once I’ve got my fixed line BT Infinity installed tomorrow, I’ll most definitely still be using the MiFi unit.
I’m particularly pleased with the updated model (I previously had the E585 — very good). The 586 has a nice little button on the side you can press to immediately get a reminder of the MiFi’s access code. Very handy. And it’s super, super fast.
I’ve used 700mb this morning already.
You can pick up one of these from 3 now from £71.99 — which includes 3GB of data to use right-away.
Update: As per the comments, just to be clear, the £71.99 model is the E585 — that’s about a year old now. You can pick up the new E586 that I’m talking about for £84.99 including 3GB of data.
Nice article although the one for £71.99 isn’t the same Mifi as the one in your review. That’s the E585, not the new HSPA+ enabled E586. That one is available for a wee bit more!
Woops Mike, you’re absolutely right. Let me update that!
I’ve topped speeds of 7.47mbps DL, 1.57mbps UL, with my E586 here Just outside Cardiff. It’s great. I’ve done a little review at jamesvincentuk.blogspot.com and Ben also posted at wirelessworker with links to mine and Dan’s.
Ah nice one James!
Ewan, just to be clear – can you buy one of these and get unlimited data? or does data via a 3 mifi *always* have a limit? eg 3gb 5gb
None of Three’s mobile broadband products come with the One Plan ‘all you can eat’ data offering. On teh MiFi you can get 3GB (lasting 3 months) or 12GB (lasting 12 months) pre-pay or 1GB, 5GB or 15GB per month contracts on 18 and 24 month terms.
Three’s data plans for the Mi-Fi are so limited! You can buy an all you can eat data sim and stick it in your Android phone for mobile hotspot for £15 a month. It is much slower but does offer still decent speeds and a fair use policy of 80GB for the month as well as 5000 texts and minutes to match. But for the Mi-Fi option, it’s only 3GB for £15… I mean seriously, where is the balance of that? Yes I understand they don’t want people running whole business on their network, jamming it up, causing the congestion that o2 suffers from. But there must be a better compramise between the two, 3GB is not enough and frankly 5GB for £25 just isn’t good value in my opinion.
Three’s data plans for the Mi-Fi are so limited! You can buy an all you can eat data sim and stick it in your Android phone for mobile hotspot for £15 a month. It is much slower but does offer still decent speeds and a fair use policy of 80GB for the month as well as 5000 texts and minutes to match. But for the Mi-Fi option, it’s only 3GB for £15… I mean seriously, where is the balance of that? Yes I understand they don’t want people running whole business on their network, jamming it up, causing the congestion that o2 suffers from. But there must be a better compramise between the two, 3GB is not enough and frankly 5GB for £25 just isn’t good value in my opinion.
I streamed internet radio using Three’s amazingly reliable data signal whilst in the car the other week. All the way from South London up the M40, M42, M6 Toll and M6 to Preston in Lancashire (lucky me) and over the whole 270 miles it only disconnected three times. Even when it did disconnect, it did then reconnect within 10 seconds without having to touch anythign on my smart phone.
That is genius
Three’s data pricing is generally far better than the competition but I understand where you’re coming from on the confusion over why it costs so much more than tethering. They’ll need to address this as the hassle-factor reduces with WiFi hotspots on phones.
Sounds good! I’m heading 125 miles on friday to Bracknell. M4 Junc: 33 to 10. So will see how I go! I get a good 5GB a month so no worry on data!
Good news!
Did you buy it unlocked, Nasser?