Notes for Nordies

culabula

I thought it might be useful to jot down some notes for people using either their UK or Irish SIMs north or south and I'll add to them as i think of them or get aggravated by the various anomalies.

First up is this: If you're using a 3UK SIM in the Rest Of Ireland, make sure you dial back to the north as +4428xxxxxx to benefit from 3 Like Home. If you dial +35348xxxxx you WILL be charged, it will not come out of your minutes.

The broadband offering from 3 is the most attractive for those who wish to use it in the whole island: no UK offering comes close as they don't roam for free in Ireland with the exception of 3 UK (who offer very little in any case -512mb for 45GBP, anyone?) But 3 IRL's offer of 3GB for 39€ is available no matter where in Ireland you happen to be as long as there is coverage from 3 Irl, 3UK or Vodafone IRL.

If you want to use your 3UK account in the Rest Of Ireland and benefit from 3 Like Home, note that this will only work while on 3 Ireland. Although 3IRL SIMs can enjoy national roaming on Vodafone Irl without incurring charges, the same does not apply to UK roamers. You will be charged -and through the nose.

culabula

Note that BBC1, BBC News 24 and BBC 3 have just been added to 3UK as well as ITV 1 and a few others. Just 80c a day for ALL these channels.

3 Ireland recently added Mobile TV to its line-up,without a great deal of content, so here's hoping they'll also join in the several centimetres of fun.

culabula

3 Ireland would appear to have succeeded in achieving certain roaming agreements as lately the 3 dataSIM that I have has been roaming onto T-Mobile, O2-UK and now Vodafone UK -even though my 3UK sitting right beside it is happily achieving a 5-bar signal on 3UK. Go figure.

What's the problem? The difference now is that I am no longer being booted off these networks as heretofore -and this means that I am now incurring charges if am not careful. The axis between Lisburn and Newry is particularly dangerous for unwanted roaming these days so watch out!

Caveat roamer.

jimmycrackcorm

3Pay broadband does not work out of the 3G coverage at all.

culabula

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

3Pay broadband does not work out of the 3G coverage at all.

¿Que?

culabula

Note that the ITV and BBC channels are not available on 3UK SIMs while roaming, even on other 3 networks.

The RTE news bulletins available on 3 Ireland can continue to be viewed at all points north of Newry.

(Jimmy, tell me this -how come you're cracking CORM and not CORN?)

1huge1

handy notes calabula but are there anyone else on this board who uses a 3UK sim card?

I find it interesting if your a 3UK customer that when roaming in Ireland you get charged a lot for going on the vodafone network even though its what 3 Ireland use but I guess it makes sense

oh and yes why corm jummy why

culabula

1huge1 wrote:

handy notes calabula but are there anyone else on this board who uses a 3UK sim card?

I find it interesting if your a 3UK customer that when roaming in Ireland you get charged a lot for going on the vodafone network even though its what 3 Ireland use but I guess it makes sense

oh and yes why corm jummy why

Dunno, but as mobile broadband grows, they may become useful. And -they are essentially for 'nordies' as the subject indicates. Oh and at least one guy does -he posted last week.

It's infuriating that a 3IRL SIM refuses to work properly on 3 Ireland while an x-series enabled 3 UK SIM is working properly roaming on the same network. I'll continue to point out these anomalies.

The TV thing I get as it mirrors BBC policy on the web -i.e. that the user must be seen to come from a UK IP address (and therefore hopefully, a UK licence holder). The whole mobile TV thing is a grey area....apparently at the moment if you were to buy a Virgin phone in the megastore in Belfast you must not watch TV on it until you leave the shop -otherwise, they should technically possess a licence.

Such larks.

culabula

Note that the RTE offerings on 3 Ireland work north of the border -and presumably abroad too. BBC etc remain unavailable to 3 roamers in the ROI.

culabula

3 UK subscribers in the north might be pleased to learn that HSDPA should be turned on in the 'next two months'. Just in time for the mass exodus around the 12th of July, ha ha ha.