New 3 Feel at Home countries

[nortada]

Once again many thanks. I will have a fiddle with it when I get back to Portugal in about 10 days.

Further to my last, as I will not be able to cancel F@H once activated, I will not experiment when back in Portugal as it would run out in Nov 16 and not become available again until Sep 17.

As said, useful for the holiday maker but of limited use to the frequent overseas traveller and very limited use to Liveaboards.

Oh yes not available in Northern Cyprus or Turkey. No real surprises there.

 

[nigelmercier]

...My reading of the current situation; once you connect from a F@H country you are assumed to remain in that country until you make a connection when back in the UK...

Perhaps the solution is to buy two SIMs and post one back to someone in the UK after two months.

 

[nortada]

Perhaps the solution is to buy two SIMs and post one back to someone in the UK after two months.

An interesting idea but a bit complicated and there are easier and cheaper ways of getting internet access when abroad.

 

[[3889]]

I was wondering if a sim could be cloned and the clone activated occasionally in the UK. Can't find a means to achieve this , though...unless anyone knows different?

 

[Carmel2]

I was wondering if a sim could be cloned and the clone activated occasionally in the UK. Can't find a means to achieve this , though...unless anyone knows different?

Don't know if this would work, but if you put it into a tablet and ran it through a decent VPN, it would appear to be in the UK all the time.......no?

 

[nortada]

Don't know if this would work, but if you put it into a tablet and ran it through a decent VPN, it would appear to be in the UK all the time.......no?

A thought. Where this possible there would be no call for VPN!

From experience Connect 3 doesn't like VPN. With VPN switched on (even with a UK based server) it isn't possible to access your Connect 3 account.

 

[nigelmercier]

An interesting idea but a bit complicated and there are easier and cheaper ways of getting internet access when abroad.

Do tell.

 

[nortada]

Do tell.

Depending how much access you want, local bars or a dongle with a local pay-as-you-go sim (last time I looked about a euro an hour or 1 GBT, which ever was the lesser). When in Portugal, I use local bars and VPN (to stream iPlayer).

Works OK for me but have yet to find a way to stream ITV etc to view at a later date.

Until last week Portugal was not a F@H country but as said before it won't meet the needs of a liveaboad or frequent traveller.

 

[JumbleDuck]

And it's likely to change without notice - just as they disallowed use of payg on my tablet without notice after I'd used it for two years.

They did that to me too - suddenly decided it was the "wrong type of SIM".

 

[duncan99210]

Don't know if this would work, but if you put it into a tablet and ran it through a decent VPN, it would appear to be in the UK all the time.......no?

No wouldn't work, as it's the sim that needs to connect directly to the mobile network not via the interweb. Pity as that'd be a good work round. Better is to dump 3 and get with a provider who doesn't care about how long you're overseas. Then you don't have to worry about just how 3 interprets their own terms and conditions....

 

[Gallant Spirit]

anyone tried this yet from Air France
http://www.bitebird.com/bundles/#pricing

 

[nortada]

Wifi Abroad Over Winter

anyone tried this yet from Air France
http://www.bitebird.com/bundles/#pricing

Interesting and could be good for the constant traveller but once again an added complication and not sure of the value to the relatively static liveaboards (especially during the winter months).

As one who likes simple, I have yet to be convinced that if 'free local wifi' doesn't meet your needs then a dongle/mifi with a local sim card is the next best solution.

For the future, as local outlets (bars etc.) realise the pulling power of 'free wifi' I think it will become more readily available. The only problem then is, as in Lagos, demand continually outstrips availability but that could be managed with a set limit by the day with an automatic cut off for a period of time (24 hours or more) when that limit is exceeded. A technique that is already being applied by some providers.

Sorry for the thread drift.

 

[Mikedefieslife]

Re: Wifi Abroad Over Winter

I've used the feel at home service a few times now, and each and every time the i eventually lost connection and was redirected to a message claiming I had been tethering, which of course I hadn't.

In Ireland it worked well on 4g for about a week. Then I got the message. I called 3 who told me to turn off 4g and only use 3g.

In France the same thing happened. This 3 told me to manually select another network. It was on Orange France at the time. The network they wanted me to use didn't have service in that part of the country.

Overall it's been pretty crap so far.

 

[Gwylan]

Re: Wifi Abroad Over Winter

Have found it useful over the last couple of years. Always a pain paying top whack from Channel Islands though.

Is intended for travellers, not long term residents.

Not too happy about the 'tethering restriction'
That may be the deal breaker when this contract comes to an end.

But otherwise the additional countries will make things less complicated.

Keeping my phone and moving to Vodafone looks interesting. Or its time to dig out the 2 sim phone and go back to multiple sims.

 

[[3889]]

Re: Wifi Abroad Over Winter

It does seem a bit hit and miss. Used it in France since launch, probably 10 months in total, and never had issues, even with 4G which is supposely unavailable. I can tether another phone in France but not any other device. In Ireland I couldn't tether a phone. Technology, hey.

 

[Hoolie]

I guess I must be on borrowed time. I've been out of the UK for over eight months this year with a brief visit between Australia and France.

AFAIK if you turn the phone off for more than 24hrs the 3 computer resets. Anyway, I'm posting this on my 3 contract SIM. Maybe low usage is also a factor?

 

[ripvan1]

AFAIK if you turn the phone off for more than 24hrs the 3 computer resets. Anyway, I'm posting this on my 3 contract SIM. Maybe low usage is also a factor?

That's interesting - has anyone else found this. I'm on a 3 contract but we're spending more and more time in Spain and will be there for winter so this tip would be very useful.

 

[lindsay]

Good luck ripvan1 but dont get your hopes up. In France at least these "manoeuvres" dont work with Three any more. I bought a local Lebara sim which does work well now, unlike last year when it was not user friendly. If u connect with the english customer service you get a familiar accented voice from the Asian sub continent to make you feel at home.

 

[nortada]

Am I right in thinking, if you activate F@H, you can only deactivate it by returning to the UK or a non-F@H country? Would physically removing the SIM deactivate the day count?

Reason I ask is, in our case it could be useful to use F@H travelling through Europe (France & Spain) to Portugal but then 'switch off' F@H whilst in Portugal and use our Portuguese provider (Vodafone). Thus conserving our F@H 2 month allowance, for when we are in Spain or any other F@H country, other than Portugal.

 

[Carmel2]

Am I right in thinking, if you activate F@H, you can only deactivate it by returning to the UK or a non-F@H country? Would physically removing the SIM deactivate the day count?

Reason I ask is, in our case it could be useful to use F@H travelling through Europe (France & Spain) to Portugal but then 'switch off' F@H whilst in Portugal and use our Portuguese provider (Vodafone). Thus conserving our F@H 2 month allowance, for when we are in Spain or any other F@H country, other than Portugal.

See post 36.